First European Births

• Murphy - the first birth of a European child officially recorded in the Valley was a daughter to an Irish couple, Patrick and Mary Murphy on 19th April 1866 at Vale of Herbert Station.
• Hampton - the second European child was born January 1870 - a daughter, Emma, to the station storekeeper Thomas Hampton and his wife Elizabeth (English migrants).
• Mercer - a son to John and Rebecca Mercer on 25th August 1870 named John.
• Toohey - a son to an Irish couple, James and Kate Toohey at the Vale of Herbert.   Toohey was employed as a labourer.
• Berrezenskey - a son to a Polish/German couple, Emmanuel and Justina Berrezenskey in September 1872 at Macknade Plantation.  This child died after a few years, but the couple had other children.
• Hoffensetz - a son (Julius) to a Danish couple, Harald and wife.  Born on Christmas Day.  This name is derived from Juul - Danish for Christmas

Newspaper. Herbert River Express

The Herbert River Express actually started on February 5, 1904. Mr. Cockrell and Mr.Hoffensetz were the earliest partners and after they parted, the business was continued by Mr. Cockrell. Miss Irene Cockrell (daughter of the owner) started working in the office in 1928 at the age of 16 and continued until she retired.  

The Cockrell family continued their association with the business until it was sold to North Queensland Newspapers (a branch of News Ltd. owned by Mr. Rupert Murdoch) in the 1960's. 

Originally there were two newspapers in the Herbert River District - "The Ingham Planter" in Ingham and the "Northern Age" in Halifax. They joined together to become "The Northern Planter." Mr. Cockrell and Mr. Hoffensetz started the Herbert River Express in 1904 and bought our the "Northern Planter." The name was presumably chosen because the new paper was to cover the Herbert River District.

The "Ingham Planter" had its first issue in 1894, with the "Northern Age" following shortly after with its first edition. The Ingham Printing Press was owned by Alston Rowland Simpson and was situated in the main street of Ingham, near the old Shire Hall in the vicinity of Lee's Hotel. The two newspapers amalgamated in 1900 when Mr. Alston bought the Northern Age from O. Waller. It was called the Northern Planter which was then sold to Nolan and Russell, and later to Hoffensetz and Cockrell with the first edition appearing in February 1904, with Mr. Hoffensetz running the printing section and Mr. Cockrell taking the role of editor. This newspaper became the Herbert River Express. Soon after, Mr. Cockrell bought out Mr. Hoffensetz to run the combined company.

Italian Settlers

During 1890 the Townsville Chamber of Commerce was concerned with the depressed sugar industry.  A Townsville businessman (Fraire) was engaged  to go to Italy and recruit labour from the Pedimont and Lombardy areas.  He selected 335 labourers of which 266 were engaged in the Herbert Valley, with the rest being sent to the Wide Bay area.  Many of these labourers brought their wives and families and several families now in the district are descendants of these early migrants.

Herbert River

Herbert River was  named by Dalrymple in 1864 after Mr R. G. W. Herbert who was the first Premier of Queensland from 1859 to 1866.  The river begins around Herberton, which is north east of Mt Garnet flowing out to sea in the Seaforth delta area (between Halifax and Lucinda Point).

First House

The first permanent house was that of Henry Stone, which was situated on the Vale of Herbert Station (now Herbert Vale) at Abergowrie in 1865.  Groundwater's farm occupies this site now.  Duncan McCausland supervised the construction in a Scottish method.  The house was called Stone Hut but was constructed from heavy timber with an over-hanging thatched roof.