A piece of history will greet travellers at the newly spruced up rest stop at Teamsters Park on the Captain Cook Highway near Port Douglas.

Douglas Shire Council has completed the $250,000 upgrade to the Park which includes a new car park, picnic tables, and footpaths.

As part of the project, an old timber bridge pile from the original Anzac Bridge in Mowbray which was built by returning World War One soldiers in 1919, has been preserved.

The original Bridge was replaced by the wooden Diggers Bridge in the 1940s, however, during works on the new concrete Diggers Bridge replacement in Mowbray last year, the pile was discovered.

The Douglas Shire Historical Society worked with Council to preserve the original timber for display.

Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr said the upgrades would be a welcome sight for self-drive visitors.

“It is fantastic to see the new car park, picnic tables, footpaths and plants give the area a much-needed lift,” he said.

“The old timber bridge pile is the cherry on top, adding another point of interest to the popular rest stop and showcasing Douglas Shire’s rich history.

“With the pandemic restricting our tourism market, it is important we continue to freshen up our public spaces to entice people to drive up the Great Barrier Reef Drive and improve their experience while they are here.”

Douglas Shire Historical Society President Freda Wilson praised the research completed by Noel Weare who worked with Council staff to preserve the pile.

“Our Society aims to share our history with the community, and this is a great opportunity,” she said.

“I think it's important for the people who come after us to know what the history was and there is a lot of history in this area.

“A lot of people pull in here [Teamsters Park] and the idea is they can walk around and look at this history,” she said.

Historian and member of the Douglas Shire Historical Society, Noel Weare, said it was important to preserve the history of the original bridge because it was built by the returned Diggers.

“The pile is now over 100 years old,” he said.

“There are only two left in existence recovered from this bridge, one here in Teamsters park and the other is now at the RSL in Mossman.”

The upgrades in Teamsters park follow the addition on a new toilet block, which was funded under the Queensland Government’s Works for Queensland program.

A rich history: the story of the original bridge

Christie Palmerston’s track to the Hodgkinson Goldfield began from the Teamsters Park area. Known first as the Four Mile settlement and then Craiglie, it was used for marshalling and loading of bullocks, horses and pack animals. It had been reported to sometimes have as many as 1000 animals simultaneously there.

Before arduously climbing the Great Dividing Range over the Bump Track, teamsters and packers had to cross the Mowbray River at a place known as Seven Mile when there was a holding area on the far side. The river had to be negotiated over a rocky bar, causing severe difficulties with each saltwater coastal tide.

Needing to be taken into account were wet season floods and the presence of saltwater crocodiles. Douglas Shire Council voted for a bridge in 1919 after the deaths of several residents crossing through floodwaters. A Commonwealth Grant of 374 pounds was given to construct a bridge using labour by returned WW1 soldiers – hence it became known as Anzac Bridge.

In 1940, a new bridge was built and finally retired in 2017, by a group of concrete culvert cells. The former 1940 bridge is now a pedestrian walkway.