^{Dunk Island Beach, c.1950s, ITM435811}

Have you ever dreamed of leaving it all behind and living on the beach? What would it take for you to make the change? For Edmund Banfield, after suffering a nervous collapse at 46, he decided to find somewhere quiet for his health. In 1897, he and his wife Bertha settled on Dunk Island (known as ‘Coonanglebah‘ to the Bandjin and Dijru people) in Northern Queensland. The Banfields led an idyllic tropical life: growing food, writing and entertaining friends from the mainland.

Edmund James Banfield was born in Liverpool, England, in 1852 and came to Australia aboard the Indian Queen at the age of two. Educated in Ararat, Victoria, he pursued a career as a reporter and printing assistant at his father’s newspaper. He later worked at The Age in Melbourne and then at The Daily Telegraph in Sydney before moving to North Queensland in 1882 where he worked at the Townsville Daily Bulletin, eventually becoming co-editor.

Edmund was financed to travel to England in 1884 to write an account of the trip on behalf of Burns Philp, a business co-owned by Robert Philp, who would later became Queensland Premier and a longtime friend.

This trip to England was life changing for Edmund. Aside from writing he also planned to seek medical advice in England for his bad eye, an injury sustained when Edmund was a young boy that caused him immense pain ever since. Arriving in London, Edmund’s eye was removed and he was left to recuperate. During this time Edmund travelled to Liverpool to fulfil a promise to his mother. When Edmund’s family left England three decades prior, his mother stayed in touch with a friend, Eleanor Golding. Edmund made a promise to visit the Goldings while in England.

That’s when Edmund met Bertha, Eleanor’s daughter. Edmund changed his plans to spend more time with Bertha in Liverpool, and on his voyage back to Australia he wrote a letter proposing marriage. In 1886, two years after receiving the letter, Bertha migrated to Townsville and the pair were married at St James’ Anglican Cathedral.

Edmund’s journalistic career had many successes, including reporting for Robert Philp on his first election campaign, but Banfield was regularly outraged by political and personal injustices. As a committed Northern Queensland separatist, Edmund was involved with the movement to separate Queensland into three colonies. At the time a lot of colonists living outside South-East Queensland felt it should be separated to better facilitate the needs across the state, but the movement was repeatedly blocked in London.

Edmund was stressed, upset and his health was deteriorating. Following a camping trip with friends on Dunk Island (Coonanglebah) in North Queensland in September 1896, Edmund was diagnosed with tubercular and nervous collapse. Edmund resigned from the newspaper and the Banfields applied for a 30-year lease for part of the beautiful island. They settled there the following year in September.

But the first morning of the new life! A perfect combination of invigorating elements. The cloudless sky, the clear air, the shining sea, the green folded slopes of Tam o’ Shanter Point opposite, the cleanliness of the sand, the sweet odours from the eucalypts and the dew-laden grass, the luminous purple of the islands to the south-east; the range of mountains to the west and north-west, and our own fair tract-awaiting and inviting, and all the mystery of petted illusions about to be solved!

excerpt from The Confessions of a Beachcomber, 1908, E J Banfield

Coonanglebah has been known to the Bandjin (saltwater people) and Djiru (mainland people) for tens of thousands of years. As sea levels rose about 8,000 years ago, Coonanglebah and the islands surrounding it became an important resource for hunting and gathering materials. In his writings, Edmund refers to the generous help he received from the local people on the islands.

In 1770 Captain Cook named the island ‘Dunk’, after Lord Montague Dunk—the Earl of Sandwich and the first lord of the British Admiralty.

Edmund and Bertha arrived in 1897 with camping gear, workmen and materials, and set to work to build a cedar hut in which the Banfields lived until they finished work on a bungalow by the end of 1903. The bungalow was financed by Edmund returning to the Townsville Daily Bulletin for nine months to relieve a former colleague. It was the longest time Edmund would ever spend away from Dunk Island.

While on the island, Edmund’s health improved. His love of writing returned with renewed vigour. He penned several books exploring life and nature on the island –  Within the Barrier (1907), The Confessions of a Beachcomber (1908) which was dedicated to Robert Philp, My Tropic Isle (1911) and Tropic Days (1918). Throughout his writing Banfield expressed a deep fondness for the natural environment and the processes embedded within nature to rebuild and survive. At a time when ecological conservation wasn’t often discussed, Banfield made it his life’s work to share and protect the nature and wildlife he surrounded himself with. Both Edmund and Bertha regarded Dunk Island as a wildlife sanctuary, hoping it would one day become a national park.

The couple lived almost self-sufficiently by growing fruit and vegetables, maintaining cows, goats and horses as well as hosting visitors such as writers and Queensland political figures. The island was visited weekly by a passing steamer for supplies and mail.

Some years, however, proved more difficult to weather than others. By 1918 Edmund was 66 and was starting to lose hope of staying on Dunk Island. Money was tight, with the couple’s only income coming through books sales, which were low due to the stringencies of the First World War. Then in January a cyclone hit Northern Queensland, and then another less than two months later in March. Their house was destroyed. However, the couple supported one another, and with the support of their friends on the mainland, the Banfields were able to rebuild their home and lease part of their land for a fixed allowance, relieving their financial concerns.

Unfortunately, the couple’s revival was short-lived. In 1923 at the age of 70, Edmund developed peritonitis and suffered for weeks from what he believed was indigestion. He died on 2 June, leaving a devastated Bertha alone with his body for three days until her signals managed to attract the attention of a passing steamer, the Innisfail. The ship’s carpenter prepared a coffin, and the captain read a burial service as Edmund Banfield was laid to rest under a cairn on the island he had loved so much.

Edmund’s last book, Last Leaves from Dunk Island, was published posthumouslyby Bertha Banfield and journalist Alec Chisholm in 1925.

Bertha moved to Wynnum where she remained until her death in 1933. Her body was returned to Dunk Island to be buried alongside her husband.

The Banfields were able to accomplish a lot during their time on Dunk Island. Edmund’s writing captured the imagination of people everywhere, bringing more visibility to the diverse wildlife and appreciation for the natural wonders of North Queensland.

^{Dunk, The Romantic Isle posters painted by Peter S Templeton, c.1939}

Here I came to my birthright a heritage of nothing save the most glorious of all possessions: freedom—freedom beyond the dreams of most men in its comprehensiveness and exactitude.

excerpt from The Confessions of a Beachcomber, 1908, E J Banfield