Tully, Queensland
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Tully is a small town in Queensland, Australia, adjacent to the Bruce Highway and by road approximately 140km south of Cairns and 210km north of Townsville.
The Tully River (previously known as the Mackay River) was named after Surveyor-General William Alcock Tully in the 1870s. The town of Tully was then named after the river (previously it had been known as Banyan).
With an average annual rainfall exceeding 4000mm, and the highest ever annual rainfall in a populated area of Australia (7900mm in 1950), Tully is arguably the wettest town in Australia - a rivalry exists between Tully and the nearby town of Babinda for said title. In 2003 a giant gumboot (the "Golden Gumboot") was erected as a monument to the town's climate; it also serves as a museum documenting past floods, as well as displaying the current rainfull for the year.
Tully, with a population of approximately 3500, is the largest town in the Cardwell Shire. The economic base of the region is agriculture; sugar cane and bananas being the dominant crops grown. The sugar cane grown at the many farms in the district is processed locally at the Tully Sugar Mill to give raw sugar which is shipped elsewhere for refinement.
Three schools operate in Tully for the education of students within the district: Tully State School, Tully State High School and St. Clare's Parish School.
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Schools
Tully State High School
Tully State High School has serviced high school students in the Tully District (comprising Cardwell, Kennedy, Mission Beach, Tully, El Arish and various other small centres) since its establishment in 1964. Tully State High School has a present enrolment of approximately 630 students. As of 2004, Mr Albert "Buk" Bukbardis is the principal of the school.
Tully State High School has been accredited as a Centre of Excellence in Mathematics, Science and Technology and is also one of only a few Reef Guardian schools. The campus is situated on extensive grounds, and includes an aquaculture centre, a worm farm, an arbouretum, a banana crop, a herd of cattle and several sports fields.
The previously mentioned worm farm is managed by the school based company "Banyan Worms", which was founded in 2004 and is comprised of year 10 Business Education students. The company is a part of the Young Achievement Australia programme and enjoyed success at trade expositions at local, state and national levels in 2004.
Three main sporting events are contested by the school's four sports houses (Walter Hill, Tyson, Kirrima and Mackay) each year: a swimming carnival; an athletics carnival; and a cross country run.
The events of the school are chronicled each year in the school's student-produced magazine - the "Waltykima" (the name an amalgamation of the initial letters of the names of the school's sports houses).
Tully State High School's motto is "Quanti est sapere", which means "A touch of a greatness". (this is unconfirmed)
Tully State School
Tully State School caters to the educational needs of the town's primary school children. When erected in 1924, it was known as Banyan Provisional and has since gone through a number of name changes: Tully Provisional (1925); Tully State School (1926); Tully State Rural School (1934); Tully State Rural and High School (1951); and reverted to Tully State School in 1964. The school's current motto is "Work well and succeed".
St. Clare's Parish School
St. Clare's Parish School is a Catholic primary school which was erected in 1928.
External links
- Tully State High School website (http://tullyshs.qld.edu.au/)
- Tully State School website (http://tullyss.qld.edu.au/)