Redlynch
Located eight kilometres west-northwest of downtown Cairns in the Freshwater Creek valley between the Lamb and Whitfield Ranges in Yidinji country, the residential suburb of Redlynch was initially the Eight Mile Camp at the end of the first stage of the Cairns-to-Herberton railway line. The name changed to Redlynch when the line's first stage opened in 1887. While the new name's precise origin remains uncertain, government sources refer to English locations in Wiltshire and Somerset.
After the settlement's brief status as the railhead on the Herberton line — Thomas Dillon's Terminus Hotel near the Redlynch railway station celebrated that status — the locality became a cane farming area, with a small township centred around the station. A fire destroyed the Terminus Hotel in the 1920s.
Redlynch became a staging camp for military forces based on the Atherton Tablelands during World War II. In the immediate post-war years, the township had a school (opened in 1932), a general store, a butcher, a baker, a greengrocer, the Redlynch Cafe, and the Redlynch Hotel, which was constructed opposite the Terminus Hotel and the railway station in 1926 and is now known as the Red Beret Hotel.
Noted author Xavier Herbert (1901-84) and his wife, Sadie, settled in Redlynch in 1951. Their cottage on Kamerunga Road is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register. (https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/detail/?id=601739)
Missing links:
Freshwater Creek
Lamb Range
Whitfield Range
Eight Mile Camp
Cairns-to-Herberton railway line
Thomas Dillon
Terminus Hotel
Redlynch Cafe
Redlynch Hotel
Red Beret Hotel.
Xavier Herbert
Kamerunga Road
