On 28 January 1987 Year 12 students returned to school for the start of their final year. One week later, their world was turned upside down. The Seniors only attended Cairns High for three days of the first week before 135 of them ascended the Kuranda Range in three buses on a warm Sunday morning, 1 February, to arrive at Black Gully, Lake Tinaroo. “For the next three days and three nights, the youngsters had a ball.” The 1987 Euroka described such activities as standing in the drizzling rain listening to Brian Stopford; swimming in freezing cold water with quicksand at the bottom and lumps of slime at the top; square dancing; envying teachers who slept in warm, dry cars with a barbecue for cooking; joke telling around the fire; disco dancing under a shed; water fighting; playing hide and seek with Mr Stopford and the spotlight; scaring bush walkers; sharing soggy cornflakes; resurrecting dying tents; extending curfew and performing in a concert. On Wednesday morning, 4 February, Bernie MacKenzie visited the camp to discuss important decisions the Seniors would have to make in their final year. School leaders were supposed to be selected by the end of the week.

About midday, the Seniors were returning to Cairns in three buses owned by the Northland Bus Company. The first bus left about ten minutes before the second one. The girls at the back of the bus sang old Beatles songs while others caught up on lost sleep, played cassette tapes and munched on (or threw) lollies and biscuits. The girls had just finished Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” when the township of Little Mulgrave came into view. It was then that the bus, about ten kilometres from the Mountain View Hotel, began to pick up speed along a straight stretch of the Gillies Highway. As the bus continued to gain speed and not respond to braking, the driver struggled to negotiate the curves while descending the mountain range. Then, as he rounded one bend, the brakes failed completely.

The bus left the road and rolled down the mountain side at a point which was only a couple of minutes from the end of the descent.According to Brent Gunther, “I felt the bus sliding, the front of the bus was close to the rock face of the cliff on the road and the driver was trying hard to get it round the bend but the rear of the bus slid round sideways and we went over the edge … I remember the bus going over and seeing people, seats and luggage flying everywhere.” Elissa Coxen believes the bus rolled six times since the bus finished on its roof in a gully thirty metres down the side of the mountain. One of the investigating officers said that the brakes were still very hot one hour after the accident, an immediate indication of brake failure.

Eight precious lives were lost that day and dozens scarred by injuries - physical and psychological.

Cairns State High commemorates this tragedy annually at a special parade for Year 12 to help them gain understanding of the darkest of times in the school and how the cohort pulled together and supported each other in the aftermath.

This year we also hosted sudents from the cohort in a visit to the Senior Memorial.