Tully

Tully is a town and locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia.

Tully is a town and locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It is adjacent to the Bruce Highway, approximately 140 kilometres (87 mi) south of Cairns by road and 210 kilometres (130 mi) north of Townsville. At the 2016 census, the population was 2,390. Tully is perhaps best known for being one of the wettest towns in Australia and home to the 7.9 metre tall Golden Gumboot.

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 named after the river when it was surveyed during the erection of the sugar mill in 1924 (although the river does not flow through the town or the locality). During the previous decade, a settlement known as Banyan had grown up on the other side of Banyan Creek.

Tully is one of the larger towns of the Cassowary Coast Region. The economic base of the region is agriculture: sugar cane and bananas are the dominant crops. The sugar cane grown at the many farms in the district is processed locally at the Tully Sugar Mill, and the raw sugar produced is shipped elsewhere for further refining.

Dyirbal (also known as Djirbal) is a language of Far North Queensland, particularly the area around Tully and Tully River Catchment extending to the Atherton Tablelands. The Dyirbal language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of Cassowary Coast Regional Council and Tablelands Regional Council.The Tully River area was slowly settled once Cardwell, to the south, was established. The river was renamed in 1872 in honour of William Alcock Tully, then under-secretary for public lands and chief commissioner of crown lands in Queensland and later Surveyor General of Queensland. The first settlers were the nephews of James Tyson, whoraised beef cattle. It was not until the government constructed a sugar mill in 1925 that the town began to develop.Augustinian priests based in Innisfail began to conduct Roman Catholic services in Tully in 1926. Vicar Apostolic of Cooktown John Heavey laid the foundation stone for a church dedicated to St Clare of Montefalco on 7 May 1926. St Clare's Catholic School was established in 1928 by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan. A separate Tully Parish of the Roman Catholic Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown (now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns) was established in 1935.Tully was originally within the Cardwell Division, which became the Shire of Cardwell in 1903. The first headquarters for the division/shire were in older town of Cardwell. In 1929, the decision was taken to relocate the shire council's headquarters to the newer but more populous town of Tully. The first council meeting held in Tully was on 27 June 1929. A new shire chambers was built in 1930 on the south-east corner of Bryant and Morris Streets.

Tully remained the administrative centre for the Shire of Cardwell, until the shire was amalgamated into the Cassowary Coast Region in 2008. The regional council has its headquarters in Innisfail.

In March 2015, a farm at Tully tested positive for the soil-borne Panama disease.Follow-up testing confirmed the results.One of the strains of the disease affects all types of bananas and has previously only been detected in the Northern Territory.Harvesting continued on the property with strict protocols allowing the farm to continue to operate and distribute product without posing a threat.At the 2011 census, Tully had a population of 2,436, and at the 2016 census, the population was 2,390.In 2019, Tully became the inaugural winner of a Loud Shirt Day competition to find Queensland's Loudest Town. Inspired by a local story, and facing strong competition from other regional Queensland towns, members of the community rallied together to raise $13,410 to support services provided to young people with hearing loss.

Owing to its strong exposure to the southeasterly trade winds, Tully has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen climate classification Af). With an average annual rainfall exceeding 4,000 millimetres (160 in), and the highest-ever annual rainfall in a populated area of Australia (7,900 millimetres (310 in) in 1950), Tully is arguably the wettest town in Australia. However, a rivalry exists between Tully and the nearby town of Babinda for that title. Although Tully's average rainfall is less than that of Babinda, a giant gumboot (the "Golden Gumboot") was erected in Tully in 2003, as a monument to the town's high rainfall. It also serves as a museum, documenting past floods, as well as displaying the rainfall for the current year.

Buildings in Tully were badly damaged by Cyclone Yasi on 3 February 2011. According to residents, Tully was "...a scene of mass devastation". An unknown number of homes were completely destroyed as intense winds, estimated at 300 km/h (190 mph), battered the area. Many other homes not destroyed sustained severe façade and or roof damage. As daybreak came, reports from the town stated that about 90 percent of the structures along the main avenue sustained extensive damage.

The Golden Gumboot is in the park on corner of Butler Street and Hort Street. Built in 2003, the Gumboot is 6.1 metres long and 7. 9 metres high; the height corresponds to highest annual rainfall in a populated area of Australia, which occurred in Tully in 1950. There is aninternal spiral staircase to the top of the boot which provides views of the town. A fiberglass green tree frog is climbing the side of the boot. There is a museum beside the boot with the history of the town's floods.