Wickham Point


story, tree vegetation lost, war memorial

War Memorial

Wickham Point Wishing Tree shown on Town of Caloundra Brisbane Lands Agent's District Dept of Mapping & Surveying 1978 Kings Beach/Shelly Beach

World War Two

RAN Station 1, a Port War Signal Station (PWSS), was constructed at Caloundra Head sometime after March 1941. The PWSS consisted of a two storey reinforced concrete signal tower and a timber signal station accommodation building, and replaced an earlier PWSS near Fort Cowan Cowan on Moreton Island. Both PWSS buildings at Caloundra were demolished after the war, although the accommodation building served as the Whitecliff private hospital for some time, from 1948.

info from http://www.publicworks.qld.gov.au/sites/qldwwiiplaces/pages/Places.aspx?PlaceCode=QWWIIHP-445 - (no longer works)

The site of the signal tower was on the front lawn of the Sea Eagle Apartments at 38 Victoria Terrace, Wickham Point, while the accommodation building was located further west, at what is now 41 Victoria Terrace.

Overlay of map and Google Earth image by Roger Todd 2011

Amanda Wilson says it was a Norfolk planted by Lady Wilson but it later died

there is a photo taken in 1940 of the tree and sign in Pictures Sunshine Coast

The sign states that the Caloundra Wishing Tree was planted by Lady Wilson, wife of Governor Sir Leslie Wilson on January 18, 1936 then says 'After circling tree thrice in silence, concentrate and your good wish will be fulfilled.' The Norfolk Island pine was surrounded by a picket fence on Victoria Terrace at the end of King Street. Unfortunately neither the sign nor the tree have survived. Association with Lady Wilson

2015 Concrete Slab at the point possible WW2 origin