Page 98 - Tropic Magazine Issue 18

TROPIC • REGIONAL HISTORY

Bloody battle

WILD SHOW
How citizens of Cairns forcibly removed
hundreds of squatters from the Showgrounds.
Words Renee Cluff

It was the day the showgrounds became a battleground. “A few plugs of dynamite in a tin was thrown from the
The infamous “Battle of Parramatta Park”, as it was coined body of the unemployed into the centre of the approaching
at the time, occurred during the Great Depression in 1932. citizens,” the article reads.” Fortunately, one of the citizens
Hundreds of unemployed men had been camping at the caught hold of the fuse and extinguished it, thus preventing
Cairns Showgrounds, in dog kennels and poultry pens, and an explosion which may have taken the lives of many of the
were refusing repeated requests to leave the area to allow the gathering.“
show to go ahead. According to the newspaper, it was on for young and old after
The day before showtime, the city’s leaders decided the that. “A horrid scene prevailed, when several hundred people
squatters would have to be evicted by force. About 3000 were bashing one another, many staggering away, holding
citizens assembled to help them do just that. Amidst their heads,” it reads.
the tension, police from as far away as Innisfail arrived “Others fell lifeless on the ground, with streams of
to assist but no-one could have predicted the violence blood flowing from their heads and faces.”
that followed. The citizens got the best of the squatters, who retreated
According to an article in the following day’s Townsville Daily along Severin Street and dispersed into the scrub. Dozens
Bulletin, the scene turned ugly. “The citizens, who had been of injured were left behind and were ferried to hospital by
equipped with shillelaghs (clubs), moved slowly towards the city’s five ambulances, as well as private cars. Several
the campers, who were in a body near their camps, and campers were later charged with a variety of offences and the
fully armed with weapons of all descriptions,” it reads. “The battle went down as the bloodiest and worst in
campers cheered the citizens as they approached, and one Cairns history.
called out, ‘Come on you! We will have you on!’” The show, however, did go on soon after the battle.
A home-made bomb further exacerbated the citizens’ wrath. And by all accounts, it was an outstanding success.

98 • Tropic • Issue 18