What is commonly known as the Scartwater Trust and Scholarships had its origins in 1917, when Arthur Henry Wickham Cunningham (Harry) conceived the idea of developing a cattle station in central Queensland to furnish means of rehabilitating servicemen returning from the First World. In March 1917, Mr Cunningham took up four selections of land on St Anne’s Station which became known as Scartwater (an old Scottish word scart or skarth named for cormorant- there were many of these birds on lagoons of the Suttor River which ran through the property.) Harry Cunningham became the manager trustee of the property. Only returned soldiers were employed on the property. There were many donations from such as North Queensland Turf Clubs including Ayr and Home Hill as well cattle property owners of cattle and equipment for the running of Scartwater.
Mr Cunningham, the founder of the scheme, desired that the funds be available for educational purposes and for the alleviation of distress for the returning soldier to secure and/or retain a means of livelihood. Accordingly, it was decided to establish two funds. Once the station was developed to the point of providing a reliable income, the Trust began aiding ex -servicemen and women by advancing interest free loans. As the need for assistance declined, a new scheme of scholarships to assist the children of ex-servicemen in their education was implemented. It is for this programme continuing to the present day of Scholarships that is most widely known.
Arthur Henry Wickham Cunningham was born on June 29, 1879, at Woodhouse Station near Ayr to Edward Cunningham and Caroline nee Hann. He married Nellie Maud Wharton of Birralee Station on May 12, 1910. They had four children, Mrs MacMillan, Edward-known as Ted, John and Keith. Harry passed away aged 62 in Townsville on January 8, 1942, as a result of an accident at Strathmore Station. His son Ted carried on as a Trustee of Scartwater.
Ted realised in the fifties that the soldiers had grown old and so the Trust took on building an establishment of the A H W Cunningham Memorial Home for ex-servicemen and wives in Bowen. Land was bought in 1961 and building began with finance from the Scartwater Trust. It came to pass that Scartwater Station was sold in 1979 and the money from that has been invested to finance the Scholarships that still are carried on today as well the Bowen Cunningham Home. Ted married and had children and was a well-known figure in North Queensland circles. He met his death by a car accident near Strathmore in 1991. He was 80. He was survived by a son Edward Thomas Cunningham who died in 2008. The Scartwater Trust still operates today, its Scholarships for tertiary education and the aged care in Bolton Clarke Cunningham Villars.
Many men and women in North Queensland have been aided in their education over the years. It includes many people from Ayr, Home Hill and the Lower Burdekin Region. What other Trust for the welfare of ex-servicemen and women who served Australian in wars has lasted from one man’s vision Arthur Henry Wickham Cunningham and his many trustees from 1917 to the present day of 2023. Today, there is the Scartwater Trust Scholarship awarded to students of Year 11 and 12, and the Cunningham Scholarship Tertiary Trust for university students. Contact for these scholarships can be made online to headquarters in Townsville. The Scartwater Trust, may it live on in this troubled world of conflict. Some good does come out of War.
Contributed by Glenis Cislowski
A H W Cunningham
Bowen Cunningham Homes 1971. Photos sourced from ‘The Story of Scartwater Trust’ by Anne Smith
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