Looking north along the Esplanade towards the "knob", Yorks Knob, 2018
Yorkeys Knob is a beachside suburb north of the Cairns CBD.[7]
Yorkeys Knob is a predominantly low-lying land (less than 10 metres above sea level) with the exception of the hill (known as Yorkeys Knob) rising to 60 metres on the coast at Yorkeys Point. The northern part of the suburb near the coast is residential, but the majority of the land use is rural, mainly used for growing sugarcane. There is a long, sandy beach along the Coral Sea.[7]
Fields of sugarcane, Walker Road, 2018Office of the Ponderosa FinFish farm, Walker Road, 2018
The Finfish Group operate a 17 hectare pond farm (called Ponderosa) which is capable of producing 350 tonnes of fish per annum. They principally raise giant grouper fish as they are fast growing with a high commercial value.[8]
The suburb is bounded by the Coral Sea to the north, Thomatis Creek to the east, Captain Cook Highway to the south, and Half Moon Creek to the north-west.[9]
Yorkeys Knob got its name from George Lawson,[11] a Yorkshire-born, Cairns-based beche-de-mer fisherman,[2][12] from his nickname Yorkey, and "knob" meaning a rounded hill.
On 10 June 1886, Yorkey Lawson reported the loss of a man and his wife from Green Island. They had left to visit the wreck of the Upolu, intending to return the same day. Lawson made a search for them, but was unable to find any trace of them, not even an accident. The pilot cutter was sent to search for the couple.[13]
Lawson built a homestead adjoining the Mount Buchan estate near what is now Yorkeys Knob.[when?] During the off-fishing season, he and his sons farmed pumpkins, sweet potatoes and paddy melons, but not successfully. Whatever the bandicoots and pigs didn't eat, the crocodiles did. Lawson used the mangroves near his homestead for the firewood and water needed for his beche-de-mer smoking station on Green Island.[14]
Yorkey's Knob State School opened on 18 February 1957.[15] It originally occupied a site on corner of Wattle Street and Cunningham Street (16°48′35″S145°43′10″E / 16.8096°S 145.7194°E / -16.8096; 145.7194 (Yorkeys Knob State School (former))). The school relocated to its current site in 1980 and the former site was given to the Musgrave Shire Council (now Cairns Regional Council) to become a community centre (known officially since 1996 as Old School Park). The SES occupied the former schoolhouse while the former teacher's residence was used to house a caretaker. A new community centre was built on the site of the school's old tennis courts. The park and its facilities were managed the Yorkeys Knob Activities Group until August 2021, when the Cairns Regional Council took control.[16]
Locals are attached to the name, despite the reaction it sometimes gets ("knob" being a slang term for penis). In 2007, residents successfully prevented a developer from advertising a development as being at "Yorkeys Beach".[17][18]
Demographics
At the 2011 census, Yorkeys Knob had a population of 2,766 people.[19]
In the 2016 census, Yorkeys Knob had a population of 2,759 people.[20]
In the 2021 census, Yorkeys Knob had a population of 2,794 people.[1]
Heritage listings
Yorkeys Knob has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
There are no secondary schools in Yorkeys Knob. The nearest government secondary school is the Tropical North Learning Academy (formerly Smithfield State High School) in neighbouring Smithfield to the west.[25]
The swimming area is at the northern end of Sims Esplanade. It is patrolled for six months of the year by Surf Lifesaving Queensland, and has a stinger net to protect swimmers from box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri). The safest swimming is between the flags placed by the lifesavers; there have been drownings around the rocks a short distance away. There are barbecue and picnic facilities, plus public toilets and showers.[32]
The golf club is a very good bird-watching location, with masked lapwings, bush stone-curlews, a range of kingfishers, rainbow lorikeets and sea eagles fairly easy to find. Between the 12th and 13th holes lies Ray Howarth Park, which is home to a huge colony of flying foxes, which you can see heading out searching for food in the early evenings. During the day they hang upside down from the mangrove's trees, and make an almighty din. When the melaleucas are in flower you will find them gorging on nectar in the trees at the northern end of Sim's Esplanade.[citation needed]
A small bush track near the State school offers a chance to see a variety of birdlife, monitor lizards, and many skinks. Along the beach you will find pied oyster catchers, bush stone-curlews, ghost fiddler crabs and sand-bubbler crabs. At the rocks at the end of the beach keep an eye out of the beach tree skink scampering around the rocks looking for lunch, while you also watching for a pod of bottlenose dolphins that sometimes visit the small bay on the northern side of the groyne.[citation needed]
Transport
Yorkeys Knob is serviced by Sunbus seven days a week. The normal service, the 112, runs hourly Monday to Sunday. This service runs to the Smithfield shopping centre, the nearest large shopping complex, where there is a connection on the 120 to Cairns City. A direct service, the 113, is available during the peak periods, travelling to Cairns in the mornings and back to Yorkeys in the late afternoon.[citation needed]
