Innisfail (known as Geraldton until 1911), was founded as the port of Geraldton in 1880 by Thomas Henry Fitzgerald, who had arrived on the banks of the Johnstone River to grow sugar cane on a 10000 hectares land grant funded by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brisbane and All Hallows' Sisters of Mercy.. Others arrived soon after and a community was soon established with an economy based firmly on sugar production.