The man in the photo, is Sandy Cape.
The story, from the oldies around the place, is that there was a massacre in the Cape, and this little fellow, only 18 months old, was the only survivor, and he was brought to Mareeba.
He mostly lived with a family called Billings, and then he got handed around from house to house. If there was work to do, Sandy was sent over to help. He would do what was needed, and then he might go back to Billings, or he might go to someone else’s place.
They said, he also kept an eye on all the white kids, and if they were doing something that he thought was dangerous, or they got hurt, he would rescue them, or tell the parents.
Sandy, mixed with the First Nations people, in the area. He learnt to track. He was used to track around the Emerald Creek area, where there was a lot of cattle rustling. One day he was tracking, and saw a bloke with cattle that had been taken from several different properties. Nobody knows how he did it, but he managed to get all the cattle, and took them back to the rightful owners.
Sandy was very popular, and when he died, it was one of the largest funerals Mareeba ever had. Yet, if you look in the Funeral Directors record book, all it has is, 'Sandy Cape, abo, 1936'.
He was never given a grave number, because all First Nations people, were buried outside the fence at the back of the cemetery, because they were not baptised.