Basque migrants transformed town and left behind heritage handball court

Most tourists don't even realise they visit Trebonne as they pass through the town en route to a famous north Queensland waterfall.

They drive through without stopping at the heritage-listed handball court that holds stories of workers who saved an industry and a culture that is experiencing a resurgence.

But Basque woman Marie-V Wherry has always delighted in telling people she is from the town just outside Ingham.

"Trebonne was the centre of Basque civilisation in Australia, and I was always very proud to say that," she said.

"Then you'd have to explain who the Basques were."

The Basques are a European ethnic group from an area across France and Spain who have preserved their own language and culture.

Migrant 'saviours'

Three migrant recruitment drives, known as operations Emu, Eucalyptus and Kangaroo, brought at least 700 Basque workers to north Queensland in the 1950s to manually harvest sugar cane.

Historian and adjunct James Cook University lecturer Bianka Vidonja Balanzategui said the Basques, along with the Italians, were "saviours of the sugar industry" during the post-WWII labour shortages.

And they brought their culture with them.

In 1959, a fronton or Basque handball court was built beside Trebonne pub to play pelota mano, a traditional game where competitors hit a ball against a wall and try to score points against their opponent.

Today, it's one of only two left in the country.

"This game is of particularly strong cultural importance," Dr Vidonja Balanzategui said.

"These men were young, active and fit and they brought with them their culture — their distinctive foods, their games. It was very important to them."

Centre of the community

Ms Wherry's parents were migrants and owned the bakery next to the pub and their house, where she still lives, was where people came knocking looking for a goat-skin ball to play with.

She remembers going to the town's butcher every day to get meat fat, which had been set aside for her, to rub on the ball to make it harder and fly faster.

And then, for a couple of shillings if she was lucky, she would watch the men play and score with chalk on the side of the concrete court.

In the evenings, her father would ice his hand, swollen from playing pelota mano, while his wife lectured him that he was too old to keep playing.

"Trebonne was humming in those days," Ms Wherry said.

The town had two grocers, a service station, two bakers, a sawmill, a post office, a pub, a butcher and its own petrol pump. But everything revolved around the handball court.

The two local schools held fairs on the court. It was a roller-skating rink and a skate park, and hosted dances and barbecues for the entire community.

"That was the gathering point: people coming to play pelota," Ms Wherry said.

The Basque canecutters from 200 kilometres south in Ayr would travel to Trebonne to play on the court and share news from their homeland.

Mechanisation and the end of an era

Dr Vidonja Balanzategui said Trebonne was a "home away from home" for the migrant workers.

But the introduction of the mechanical harvester in the 1970s reduced the need for physical labourers and ended the Basque golden era in north Queensland. Most returned home.

The sound of the ball being hit against the wall has stopped. Local kids never learnt the rules for pelota mano.

The court cracked and became uneven and was eventually earmarked for demolition.

But it was saved by Hinchinbrook Shire Council, which acquired the site.

And in 2001 it was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register for its importance to the state's history and cultural heritage.

A mural of remembrance

In 2011, a mural was painted on the court depicting men playing pelota mano.

"By putting the mural on it … our hope was that rather than tourists passing by on the way to Wallaman Falls, that they would actually stop, look and think for a moment: 'Oh look, there's people playing — oh no it's a mural' and might understand a little bit of the history of migration to our community and how important it was to both the economy and the cultural life of our district," Dr Vidonja Balanzategui said.

She said Trebonne was now "a shadow of its former self".

In May, Trebonne's pub called final drinks. The 430 locals were devastated.

They are left with only a nursing home, a state school and a mechanic.

Yet Dr Vidonja Balanzategui said there was a renewed interest across Australia in Basque culture, food and language, especially in Sydney, which has the country's only other pelota mano court.

"Even though Trebonne might not offer all those facilities that it once had … Basque culture is not irrelevant today, even though the handball court, for instance, is no longer used," she said.

"The Basque community is vital … because it has young people that are interested."

A love for all things Basque

Occasionally in a cafe or shop, Ms Wherry will hear someone speaking Basque.

She cannot help but introduce herself and tell them about the Basque history in north Queensland and the handball court, her handball court, that was the centre of the Basque community.

"It's important that we do share that history and there is something that reminds us that Basque people were in Trebonne and Trebonne was important once," Ms Wherry said.

"We still are."