[1] The Mill Point Settlement Site on Lake Cootharaba contains remnants of a private "company" township based around a sawmill and sustained by timber extraction from local forests which was in operation from the late 1860s until the early 1890s.

The development of the timber industry in southern Cooloola has been attributed, at least in part, to the capital injected into the area as a result of the exploitation of the gold resource at Gympie.

[1] An application to select Portion 1 in the parish of Noosa, the land on which the Mill Point Settlement was established, was lodged by Charles Samuel Russell in March 1869.

Russell, having previously visited the Noosa area and noted the "attractiveness" of land at Lake Cootharaba, formed a partnership with four men involved in mining ventures in Gympie: James McGhie, Abraham Fleetwood Luya, Frederick George Goodchap and John Woodburn.

Although Russell's name is recorded as the applicant, subsequent references are made to "McGhie, Luya and Co." as the company, which established the Cootharaba Sawmills at Mill Point.

[1] To overcome the problems with swampy, sticky, low-lying and poorly drained ground conditions at Mill Point, during the mid-1870s the Company constructed a tramway system of 3-foot (0.91 m) gauge wooden rails, 4 by 2 inches (102 by 51 mm) in cross-section, across the property.

The main tramway line ran for about a quarter of a mile in an easterly direction to the sawmill and settlement on Lake Cootharaba.

To raise the tramway above the surrounding swampy country, felled melaleuca were laid with stout girders on top, sleepers were then laid at three feet intervals across the girders to secure the rails, gaps between were slabbed and filled with ballast consisting of sand and gravel from the Lake to provide traction for the bullock and horse teams.

[1] A reporter for the Brisbane Courier in the mid-1870s noted that sections of the rail were "smooth as glass" and one side appeared to be wearing out faster than the other.

[1] In August 1878, the Brisbane Courier reported that the "company is preparing to lay down four miles of railway with 16 pound rails which would carry five ton wagons so logs could be hauled by three or four horses or by a small traction engine".

Logs were drawn to the sawmill along the tramway on wagons pulled by draughthorse teams; the traction engine option appears never to have been used at Mill Point.

It has been suggested that the Company was persuaded to establish the expensive tramway, at just under £300 per mile, to overcome the difficulties of inducing teams to work at Mill Point.

One man was killed instantly with another four men subsequently dying of injuries received as a result of standing near the boiler.

In May 1873, in preparation for a visit by Governor Normanby, an account of a visit by a journalist records "Leaving the works and passing to the rear we found a regular little township of workmen's houses and others directly connected with the establishment, a good store, well- equipped, conducted by the owners, a butcher's shop, and there seemed nothing wanting to complete the comfort of all connected with the establishment".

Vera Grady (née Crang) who lived on a later dairy farm in the area during the early 1900s remembered 11 grave markers at the cemetery during the 1920s.

This Act established the system of perpetual leasehold and was the product of the philosophy of the new liberal government of Griffith that the state should get a return from the private use of public resources.

Completion of the Brisbane-Gympie railway link in July 1891 ended the need for a ship and coach service between Brisbane and Gympie via Tewantin.

[1] In 1891, Luya attempted to establish a "village settlement" on Portion 1, offering leases of 40 acres (16 ha) blocks to prospective farmers.

Eleven families moved onto the blocks in March that year and by November over half had left the area as the land proved unfit for cultivation, being either too wet or too sandy.

[1] Title records indicate that the property and its subsequent subdivisions changed ownership a number of times until it was transferred to the Queensland Government in 1983.

[1] A commemorative plaque was laid at the site in 1988 near the junction of a walking track from the Elanda Point camping ground to the south and tramway formation to the west.

[1] Australian poet Judith Wright visited the Mill Point cemetery and wrote a poem, first published in 1956, about life as she imagined it at the settlement during the late 1800s.

[1] On 22 June 2004, six interpretive signs, designed by QPWS Elanda Point and Noosa Shire Council, were installed at key locations around the site describing some of its rich history.

The area consists of a section of mounded tramway raised above the melaleuca swamp, which extends for approximately 150 metres (490 ft) to the shore of Lake Cootharaba.

Between the farmhouse and the shores of Lake Cootharaba are the remains of 20th century yards with hundreds of wooden fence and rail posts.

On the surface and embedded in the lakebed are archaeological remains including bricks, sawn timber, glass, ceramics and metal.

The location of pylons from the jetties and wharves associated with the operation of the mill remain in place as large, round stumps.

A plaque erected in 1993 is located at the junction of a walking track from the Elanda Point camping area to the south and tramway formation to the west.

The Mill Point Settlement Site is important in demonstrating part of the pattern of Queensland's history, being associated with the development of the timber industry in the late 19th century.

The survival of extensive remnant material associated with the tramway, the cemetery, dairy area, jetties and wharves at Mill Point, including surface and sub-surface archaeological deposits to a depth of at least 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) below ground level, has the potential to reveal further information about 19th and 20th century life and burial practices at a company timber town in rural Queensland, and about timber extraction and processing.