How this Mackay farm has stayed with one family for 150 years

They marked the momentous occasion on August 8 last year with a celebratory lunch hosted in one of the sheds at the property located near Habana.

Around 250 people travelled from as far south as Melbourne and as far north as Cairns to celebrate the big milestone.

Family, friends, and local dignitaries were invited and treated to a barbecue lunch cooked by the Rotary club of Mackay, bush poetry, live music, cake cutting, and a display of old photographs.

"My mate's band played and the theme song that he did for me was Slim Dusty's We've Done Us Proud," said Robert Denman who currently owns and runs the property with his son David.

Robert said his family first settled in Mackay in 1873 - the year following his grandfather Edward's long voyage from England.

Edward first arrived to Keppel Bay in 1872 before travelling to Brisbane to look for work in the Darling Downs.

After hearing about the budding cane industry in Mackay, settled just 11 years prior, Edward travelled north and purchased the 241 hectare (597 acre) property for 214 pounds sterling in August of 1873.

At the time of the sale, the land was described as second class pasture land.

Robert said the name Etowri came from a local Aboriginal word meaning 'a good place to camp'.

After the property purchase, the family grew corn as there was no local sugar mill in the area at the time.

"It proved very unsuccessful with pests like aphids and then he had 60 acres destroyed by rats," Robert said.

Within ten years of buying the property, a mill was opened by a neighbouring property and so the family switched to sugarcane.

Robert said his grandfather was a talented cane grower thanks to having spent time growing cane in the West Indies while he was in the British Army.

"I think the biggest crops he grew was 6000 tonne, which would have been a lot of cane in those days," Robert said.

Eventually Etowri was passed onto two of Edward's sons, with the other sons receiving separate parcels of land that had been purchased elsewhere.

Robert's father Allan was one of the brothers who inherited the property and he went onto build another house in addition to the family home where his brother lived.

They also went on to purchase another property in the year 1920 called Constant Creek which was 688 hectares (1700 acres) and located about 28km from Mackay.

Early into the 1940s drought, the two brothers built a dairy on the farm, which was operational until 1958.

Robert said "money was a bit tight" at the time so the family also picked up a contract to supply firewood to the Farleigh sugar mill for their boiler. The wood came off both properties and some neighbouring properties.

It was a massive job, with big tonnages of firewood first cut with an axe and then a crosscut saw.

"Cutting firewood was probably my first full-time job," Robert said.

"We bought the first chainsaw ever to come to Mackay," he said.

At the 150 year celebration, 86-year-old Robert and his 92-year-old brother Donald got back on the old crosscut saw and cut a timber log for old time's sake.

"My brother got up me because I only went up about a third of the way through the block, but he wanted to cut right through it, I said, 'well I didn't want you dying in front of all those people and me getting the blame for it," Robert laughed.

Robert and his two brothers Donald and Jim eventually purchased both properties from their father and uncle in the early 60s.

They developed the Constant Creek property into tropical pasture for cattle running around 1000 head of cattle, starting with Herefords and later crossing them with Brahmans. The brothers purchased their first Brahman bull in 1967.

The Denman brothers sold Constant Creek 15 years ago.

Robert and his son continue to grow and harvest cane at Etowri each year and run around 150 head of Brahman cows crossed with Charolais bulls.

Robert believed his son might be the final generation of Denmans to farm at the property.

"I think the family farm might come to an end one of these days, they just can't go forever and ever."

Robert believed Etowri is the oldest held family farm in Mackay.