By Canungra Historical Assocation
Back in the late 1920s and 1930s on the road heading south from Canungra and up into the mountains of Lamington National Park there was a logging operation.
Today there is nothing to be found for all the activity that would have taken place at this location. The photo shows a winch driven by an old car motor. This winch had a wire over a mile long to drag the logs to the loading ramp, called The Skids. Bullock teams also were used to bring logs to the skids. These logs were then loaded onto a truck, the wheel of which can just be seen next to the man in the white shirt. They were taken down the mountain road to be delivered to the Mill in Canungra, or loaded on the train for Brisbane sawmills.
A little further on, where the road once finished at the old National Park boundary, there was The Dump. This was where the guests going to O’Reilly’s were set down, and their luggage and supplies were ‘dumped’ from the service cars (an early mini bus). Here they changed to horses from the guest house to complete the journey to their holiday destination. This was six kilometres on horseback, or walking along a track through the rainforest in daylight, or sometimes at night with lanterns.
Today when driving to Lamington this place can be found by the eagle eyed. There is no sign, just a space in the rain forest where two cars can pull over to view the small cairn.
This road to the mountains is now called Lamington National Park Road. Its construction has a story of its own so that is for another time.
