THERE'S an Ilkley where Christmas is a very different affair to the one we know and love.

While carols and decorated trees are still very much part of the celebration, residents in this Ilkley will be basking in roasting sunshine and probably heading off to the beach for their Christmas barbie.

Nestling in the hinterland of Australia's Sunshine Coast the small rural settlement has intrigued visitors from England who have stumbled across its path. Today little is remembered here about the settlement on the other side of the world which once shared close links with its Yorkshire namesake. And little generally seems to be known about the origins of its name.

Over the course of the last 125 years the very earliest history of Ilkley, Queensland, has become obscured - but the story behind its origins has been rediscovered in an 1891 copy of the Ilkley Free Press and Addingham Courier. The now defunct paper was owned by Otley company William Walker and Sons, which also owned the Wharfedale Observer.

In its November 6 edition the Courier describes how the small Australian settlement was named by Joseph Kitson who had left Yorkshire five years earlier.

The letter gives a fascinating insight into some of the early settlers and of the strong links between Ilkley, Queensland, and Ilkley, Yorkshire.

Joseph told the townsfolk back home: "I think this is the land for a working man, if only he is steady and does his best."

"When I landed here I got a land grant, having paid our passage out, and and after a time I left Brisbane, trade being bad then in the town and came and settled down on the land I had got from the Government. Only two families were here, and the place being so far in the bush had no name. Since then the land has been taken up, and now there are forty families in the settlement.

"The place seemed getting on so quickly we thought it ought to have a name, so I said we would call it Ilkley. We have here two families from Addingham and another from Ilkley, and a few more Yorkshire people."

He added: "We are about sixty miles from Brisbane. In a few years each family will own 160 acres of land. this may seem a lot to English people, but let them think of all we have to do before we become owners of the land. Suppose you were in Bolton Woods with no neighbour nearer than five miles. Here you fix your tent and begin to fell the trees, and clear a place where you can build a house, made with the bark of the trees. You have to clear away the wood before you can grow anything. This takes a year or more, and if a settler has not got a little money - and not one in fifty has got enough to keep his family so long - he has to go to town and find work there for a while."

With the settlement being at least 30 miles from the nearest church or clergyman Joseph was given a license by the Bishop of Brisbane to hold Sunday services, to christen and to read the burial service.

But the logistics of worship in the fledgling community were far from easy.

He said: "We have been holding services in a tent, but it gets blown down and torn, and then we have services under a tree. But we are looking for better things and I would like to build a church."

The early pioneer was given two acres for the site, and he appealed to the congregation of his home church of St Margaret's in Ilkley to to help fund the new building which would share its name.

"I feel that if the people of old Ilkley really knew our needs they would respond with one accord to an appeal for another St Margaret's, Ilkley, at the other side of the world," he said.

He was not mistaken - the people of his home town were quick to answer his appeal - donating £9 11s 7d after the new settlement's case was put in a sermon in St Margaret's.

Those early strong links were remembered more than half a century later when the history of the town came to the attention of the Nambour Chronicle and the Ilkley Gazette.

In 1944 the Chronicle reported :"Ilkley, on our North Coast, has been the subject of interesting publicity in a newspaper of a district of that name in Yorkshire (England), titled the 'Ilkley Gazette,' "

The Chronicle said: "Present-day residents are unable to state exactly how the area (i.e. Ilkley) got its name, but evidence points to the fact that it was chosen on the nomination of the late Mr. Joseph Kitson, of Ilkley (Yorkshire, a plasterer), who came to the locality 54 years ago. Mr. Kitson had been engaged in his trade on the construction of the North Coast railway and helped in the concreting of the tunnel between Eudlo and Mooloolah; and also on the old tunnel between Mooloolah and Landsborough.

"In those days Ilkley was in its virgin state, and there was no road to Eudlo, which was known as Acrobat Creek. Following Mr. Kitson's arrival, there came Messrs. T. Kidd and J. W. Ford, both deceased, and it was the latter who cut the first track through the bush to Eudlo. In the wake of these settlers there came soon afterwards to the district Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Speak, now deceased, and their son Johnson (the latter lives at Eudlo); the late Mr. and Mrs. W. Tolson; and the late Messrs. W. Cunning, J. Wyllie, and J. Snell.

"Following the establishment of the settlement — where timber-getting was the chief employment and some of the men worked on the North Coast railway construction— it became necessary for the place to have a name. It appears that at the request of the Government of the day, Mr. Kitson, who by this time looked after the mail matter and in addition was the local preacher, decided on Ilkley, after the town he came from in Yorkshire.

"It might be mentioned, however, that there was no ill feeling on the part of other residents about his action because the Speaks, Ford, and Kidd, all came from Addingham (England), which is only three miles from Ilkley.

"Mr. Kitson remained in the district for a good many years before moving elsewhere. He was twice married, and

members of his family are still residents in other parts of Queensland."

It adds: "From timber getting— some of the forests of the area still yield millable timbers — the pioneers established farms which continue to produce splendid crops of pineapples, bananas, strawberries and many other crops; while dairying has expanded of late."

Joseph Kitson's firsthand account of the naming of the settlement was unearthed by the Ilkley Gazette in November this year and when a small snippet appeared on the paper's history page it sparked fresh interest.

Phil Bland, of Menston was among those who wrote in. He said: "The '125 years ago article' was particularly interesting to us having lived in Queensland, Australia for a while. During a drive into the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast we stumbled across a place called Ilkley but could find no more information about how it came to be named so far from home. Hey presto, in this week's paper, the answer is revealed - thank you. I can report that it hasn't grown much since Mr Kitson's report in his letter of 1891."