Each generation of the Woodward family has helped to transfom Cairns into a city of international standing.
Charles Woodward (senior) was born in Maryborough on November 10, 1884 to Mary Annie Reading of Shropshire, England, and John Woodward of Maryborough.
A studious young man, Charles came to Cairns in March 1905 to join the legal firm of MacDonnell, Henchman and Hannam as a stenotypist/bookkeeper.
He took up residence at a board house on the Esplanade, run by Mrs Blessas.
It was in 1908, when Charles was keeping company with Maud Griffiths, that he decided to look around for a suitable piece of land on which to build their marital home. Eventually, he bought land on the corner of James and Sheridan streets (extending through to McLeod St) for the sum of 100 pounds.
When his friends queried why he wanted to be so far away from town, he informed them that he wanted to run a cow to milk and also a horse he could harness to a sulky.
Charles and Maud were married on December 15, 1909, and Alwyn was born the following November.
With the new home in Sheridan St erected, the family invited Grandma Woodward (Mary) to visit Cairns to see her new grandchild. A booking was made for her to travel from Brisbane to Cairns on the SS Yongala.
With Captain W. Knight in charge, the Yongala pulled out of Brisbane on March 21, 1911, and disembarked passengers at Flat-top Island off Mackay, on March 23. It then set off to Townsville, en route to Cairns.
The weather was rough, with a cyclone threatening Townsville and the Yongala foundered during the night.
All on board perished. A few items were recovered from the sea, but the exact position of the Yongala remained a mystery until after the war, some 35 years later.
The Yongala had a passenger list of 29 first class passengers, 19 second class passengers and a crew of 72, making a total of 120 persons on board. From the official Adelaide Company passenger manifesto was the listing: 1st Saloon. Berth 44 – Miss (Mrs) M.A. Woodward. Paid ten pounds ten shillings travelling from Brisbane to Cairns.
Charles and Maud went on to have five children, Alwyn (born 1910), Enid (1912), Gordon (1914), Jack (1916) and Elma (1918). Enid died from malarial fever in 1915.
In 1914, Charles set up his own business in real estate and in 1919 took William Calder as a partner.
Among the many community and sporting activities he was involved with, Charles served on the Cairns City Council from 1921-30.
harles and Maud’s son, Jack Woodward, was born in the family home in Sheridan St, Cairns, in 1916.
Jack attended the former Cairns North State School (then called Edge Hill State School) and later went to Brisbane Grammar.
He was hoping to become a doctor but because of the hardships of the Great Depression years, he had to leave school in 1932 and took a job in an accountant’s office at 10 shillings a week.
He worked at a number of jobs over the next five years, including weighbridge clerk at Babinda sugar mill, at Mulgrave and Atherton councils, as a farm labourer and a painter until 1938 when he joined the Commercial Union Assurance Company in Cairns, then was transferred to their Townsville office.
In 1940, he married Vera Mazlin, whom he met in Cairns in 1935. They had three children, John, Charles and Anne.
Jack enlisted in the RAAF as air crew in January 1941 and served in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaya and Sri Lanka. A survivor of two World War II plane crashes, he worked on the family farm at Edge Hill after the war, which later was subdivided into what is now the residential suburb of Edge Hill. Jack then became the Cairns Show Association secretary before joining the family’s real estate firm of Woodward & Calder in 1958.
In a lifetime of involvement in the Cairns community, he was a two-term Cairns city councillor, president of the Edge Hill State School P&C, served with the Edge Hill Scouts, was president and life member of the Edge Hill Progress Association, and a former president and district governor of Rotary.
He also followed his father as a director of the Cairns Penny Bank. Charles Woodward snr had served 18 years until 1945, Jack was a director from 1957-90, and Jack’s son Charles took over from 1990, for a total of 70 years between the three generations.
ow managing director of the CaPTA Group, the present day Charles Woodward is a leader in the local tourism industry and has been instrumental in the development of Cairns into an international destination.
He oversees a portfolio of successful Cairns tourism businesses within The CaPTA Group, including Rainforestation Nature Park, Tropic Wings Coach Tours, RnR White Water Rafting, The Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, Cairns Wildlife Dome, Jungle Tours, the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary, CaPTA Booking Centre and CaPTA Training Centre. All up, more than 300 people work across the group of companies.
Charles and wife Philippa (Pip) have three sons: Michael, Ben and Peter, all of whom now work within the family company. Eldest son Michael is the general manager of The Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary in Port Douglas, while Ben divides his time between London and the Far North in a sales and marketing role.
Youngest son Peter and his wife Jaci now own the associated RnR White Water Rafting and Jungle Tours. They have two daughters, Isobel and Matilda.
Outside his business interests, Charles Woodward is known for his love of rugby union as a former Queensland rep player and long-time supporter of the sport at a local level, including president of the CDRU. He was also a founding director of the Cairns Taipans. Both Charles and Pip are also founding directors of COUCH – the Committee for the Oncology Unit at Cairns Hospital, which cares for local people affected by cancer.
