Evelyn Scrub War Memorial

On a back road through grazing country in far north Queensland, a neatly preserved memorial reminds passers-by of both of heroes and a township from the past. The Evelyn Scrub War Memorial is all that remains of a once bustling farming and timber getting community. The obelisk topped by a sphere lists the names and fates of 41 men, or 90 per cent of the community's young male population. Nationally, one in five, or 60,000 Australians, died. Evelyn Scrub's plaque notes that one of its dead was of Aboriginal descent. The loss of manpower to war of such a sizeable proportion of the district's population was the beginning of Evelyn Scrub's descent. Of those who survived, few returned to farm. Drought, a cyclone, another drought and then the Great Depression wiped out the township. Timber cattle yards provide a backdrop to the memorial on private property on Jonsson Road, off the Tumoulin to Ravenshoe Road in the southern Atherton Tablelands. A second plaque, dedicated to the pioneers of Evelyn Scrub was added to the memorial in 1983. A dawn service on ANZAC Day is still held annually at the memorial in commemoration of those who served.