Mill Point Settlement Site
| Mill Point Settlement Site | |
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Information board at Mill Point Cemetery, 2008
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| Location | Elanda Point at Lake Cootharaba in Como, Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 26°14′52″S 153°00′00″E / 26.2478°S 153.0001°ECoordinates: 26°14′52″S 153°00′00″E / 26.2478°S 153.0001°E |
| Design period | 1840s - 1860s (mid-19th century) |
| Built | c. 1869 - 1940s |
| Official name: Mill Point Settlement Site | |
| Type | state heritage (archaeological) |
| Designated | 6 April 2005 |
| Reference no. | 601280 |
| Significant period | 1869-1892, 1920s, 1940s (fabric) 1869-1892 (historical) |
| Significant components | embankment - tramway, mill - wind, chimney/chimney stack, well, trees/plantings, objects (movable) - forestry/timber industry, signage - interpretative, cemetery, steps/stairway, machinery/plant/equipment - forestry/timber industry, yards - livestock, memorial - rock/stone/boulder |
 Location of Mill Point Settlement Site in Queensland
Location of Mill Point Settlement Site in Queensland
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Mill Point Settlement Site is a heritage-listed former settlement at Elanda Point at Lake Cootharaba in Como, Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. It was built from c. 1869 to 1940s. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 April 2005.
The Mill Point Settlement Site on Lake Cootharaba contains remnants of a private "company" township based around a sawmill and sustained by timber extraction from local forests which was in operation from the late 1860s until the early 1890s.
Exploration of the timber resources in the Cooloola area commenced in the early 1860s. William Pettigrew visited the area in 1863, exploring the Noosa River and its lakes. Although Pettigrew subsequently concentrated his timber operations in northern Cooloola, he recorded quantities of hardwoods including cedar, Bunya pine, Kauri pine, Hoop pine, Cypress pine, beech, ash, tulip and yellow-wood in various locations. Cedar-getters appear to have been working in the Noosa River area by the mid-1860s. The development of the timber industry in southern Cooloola has been attributed, at least in part, to the capital injected into the area as a result of the exploitation of the gold resource at Gympie.
An application to select Portion 1 in the parish of Noosa, the land on which the Mill Point Settlement was established, was lodged by Charles Samuel Russell in March 1869. Portion 1 was later known as Cootharaba Station and fronted Lake Cootharaba. Russell, having previously visited the Noosa area and noted the "attractiveness" of land at Lake Cootharaba, formed a partnership with four men involved in mining ventures in Gympie: James McGhie, Abraham Fleetwood Luya, Frederick George Goodchap and John Woodburn. Although Russell's name is recorded as the applicant, subsequent references are made to "McGhie, Luya and Co." as the company, which established the Cootharaba Sawmills at Mill Point.
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