There are two solid concrete buildings in the timber yard on Magazine Street, Stratford, which were erected well before the road was ever there.
You’ve probably driven past dozens of times, possibly wondering about their history.
In fact, the buildings were essential to the growth of Far North Queensland as a storage spot for explosives used by the burgeoning mining industry, and for construction of roads and railways to serve the mining fields.
The Stratford magazine* was completed in 1901 in what was then a sparsely populated area. It provided storage capacity for over 6,000 cases of explosives, while a separate detonator store was located next door.
The facility serviced the likes of the Atherton tin fields and the Chillagoe copper fields for decades, even surviving a deadly and destructive cyclone – and subsequent flooding – in Cairns in 1913.
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What did bring about the facility’s demise was population growth. In 1937, residents approached the Cairns Shire Council with their request to have the explosives magazine removed.
“It was stated that the settlement was increasing in the vicinity and the magazine presented a potential danger in view of the operation of a quarry nearby,” a Cairns Post report reads.
“The council decided to write to the Harbours and Rivers Department with regard to a change being effected.”
Their wish was granted and in 1942 the explosives were moved to a newly-built facility in Queerah where six magazines had been built.
The locality known as Queerah, around Swallow Road at Bentley Park, also had an Aboriginal mission and a meatworks.
In 1943 an explosion occurred when damaged ammunition was being discharged. Several military personnel were injured and one of the magazines was destroyed.
Back at the Stratford site, more explosives arrived in 1942 to shore up the war effort. The Stratford magazine was occupied by the Australian Military Forces until 1945.
Post-war, the Department of Public Works used the property as a yard and depot. In 1953, it was leased to sawmilling company JM Johnston who rented five acres for £80 a year before purchasing the site.
Bunnings Brothers also owned the business for a few years while current operators the Rankine family took over in 1962.
The magazine and detonator building are both listed under the Queensland Heritage Register.
Did you know?
* Magazine refers to a store for arms, ammunition, and explosives.
The first magazine in Cairns was a floating barge moored in Trinity Inlet, in the area which became known as Magazine Creek.
Its limited storage could not cope when demand for explosives soared in the late 1890s.
This story originally appeared in Tropic magazine Issue 33, in partnership with the Cairns Historical Society.
