The many travellers who stop at the Rex Lookout , a jumping off point for hang gliders , on the Captain Cook Highway ,between Cairns and Port Douglas , which affords magnificent views of Trinity Bay , do not know that it was the scene of a mysterious oxyacetylene torch attack on a Queensland state politician .
Little Darwin discovered this strange situation when our chauffeur made a pit stop at the lookout and we noticed the name of a politician-subsequently found to be Martin Tenni , the Member for Barron River - had been obliterated on the memorial plaque by a person or persons obviously extremely hot under the collar .
Furthermore , a visiting British Liberal Democrat activist , Paul Walter , taking in the sights of North Queensland in 2012, informed readers of his blog, Liberal Burblings , that he had been intrigued to learn an oxyacetylene torch had been used to remove Tenni's name from the brass plaque at the lookout. He posted the details following discussion over "denaming " memorials on which appeared the name of evil knighted BBC star , Jimmy Savile , who sexually molested so many people.
Walter, part of the editorial team since 2011 of the Liberal Democrat Voice website said Tenni's "sin" seemed to have been due to the fact that he been investigated in the 1987-89 Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption in the Queensland government and police force , resulting in the "deposition " of a premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen , two by-elections , the jailing of three ministers and a police commissioner who was jailed and lost his knighthood. An erroneous statement was made about this leading to the end of 32 years of National Party rule .
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The 2012 view of the plaque as snapped by Walter .
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" So now we know what motivated someone to
go all the way to Rex Lookout to melt a name off a plaque,"Walter told his readers. "It seems doubtful
that the name melting was officially sponsored. It looks like the plaque has
been subject to other vandalisation, now rubbed off."
The Liberal Burblings blog included a photograph of the " beautiful , nay , breathtaking views , " from the lookout. Walter went on to say Mr Tenni "still stimulates anger to this day".
The Britisher was spot on when declaring Tenni still angered people after so many years out of parliament . Google revealed that very year , a satirical website called Hillbilly Watch , strongly criticised Tenni, then in his late 70s , for comments he had made relating to crocodiles and rangers , on Cairns radio station 4CA, which regularly gave him time to air his views that obviously antagonised / infuriated some listeners .
Posted outrageous comments included trenchant , abusive criticism of Tenni , the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government , police bashing protestors, with whores, pimps, brown paper bags , bookmakers , etc included in a massive broadside . Tenni was told to SHUT UP by one poster, another would dance on his grave.The presenter of the radio show , a Cairns Post reporter and others also received a serve in the incandescent attacks.
Going on this fiery response , it is a wonder the Rex Lookout was not hit with a bunker buster bomb dropped from a USAF B52.
Tenni, who held various ministerial portfolios ranging from environment to water and marine services , mines and energy and northern development , resigned in 1989.During his time in parliament a woman was taken in 1985 while swimming in a river late at night . One account says about 70 crocodiles were shot over two weeks before her remains were found. It went on to say...The hunting was illegal but sanctioned by the then National Party government: environment minister Martin Tenni famously told how he hoped his Barron River electorate would one day be crocodile-free.
When pressure mounted to save the rainforests of the wet tropics from development , with a move to establish the Greater Daintree National Park , Tenni, the environment minister , inflamed the situation by saying in parliament : "With so many Aboriginal Reserves and National Parks , if we are not careful there will not be enough land left on which to build a dance hall . I am sick and tired of listening to Ms Hills from Cape Tribulation who says that a road cannot be built through the Cape Tribulation National Park to Cooktown because a few trees will have to be destroyed ..."
The online guide to the nation's monuments contains this listing for the Rex Lookout plaque:
REX LOOKOUT
Named in recognition of
RAYMOND DAVID REX ESQ.
J.P.,O.B.E.,F.R.C.S.A
Chairman Douglas Shire Council 1933-1955
and Councillor 1918-1955
Early advocate of the Captain Cook Highway
Which was officially opened on the 17-12-1933.
This plaque was unveiled by (illegible) M.L.A
Member for Barron River
On 21st August 1982
In a 2011 taped Queensland Speaks interview , Tenni touched lightly on his career; in relation to the Fitzgerald Inquiry he said that when you appeared before it you were regarded as guilty and had to prove your innocence . This and the fact that he did not want to be part of the" smell " of the affair had been responsible for him getting out of politics, growing mangoes , sugar cane and into real estate .
