By the Canungra Historical Association.
As many before him, David Day came to Canungra to work in the Lahey’s Sawmill.
As well as working in the mill during the day, he built cottages in Appel Street by candlelight after the ‘knock off’ whistle blew.
In 1914 he brought his family to a property two kilometres south of Canungra. He named it “Idealia”. They built a tennis court on a small patch of level ground where many locals enjoyed a game or two.
At the sale of farms south along the Canungra Creek on May 2, 1916, the lithograph shows that D Day was already the owner of land from the top of the Darlington Range west to the Canungra Creek.
When the township blocks were auctioned on May 1, 1916, as well as the cottages in Appel Street, he had already built the two story house in Appel Street for the Ambulance Officer, Matt Braidon, and his new motorised ambulance car.
In 1912 he was one of the builders working on a new School of Arts. Then in 1935 Harry House employed him to build a house, also the bank next door, plus the post office.
In 1938 the newly formed Canungra Agricultural, Horticultural and Industrial Society had received donations of timber for a pavilion for the first official show in September.
One week before the show date the pavilion was still only a heap of sawn timber. However, by show day, the main pavilion was built and furnished, thanks to the energy and calculations of Dave Day, Sid Rhoades and their sons.
When in his seventies he built a brick building as a general store for Mart and Mary Day (no relations) as the previous store, butcher and baker had burned down in 1946.
That building later became the first Canungra Information Centre. This has since been superseded by the present day information centre and library on Kidston Street.
