The Shire of Barcoo is a Local Government Area located in south western Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

It covers an area of 62000.7 square kilometres (23,938.6 sq mi), and has existed as a local government entity since 1887. It is named for the Barcoo River

Barcoo River

The Barcoo River in western Queensland, Australia that rises on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range, flows in a south westerly direction and unites with the Thomson River to form Cooper Creek. The first European to see the river was Thomas Mitchell in 1846, who named it Victoria Stream...

 which reaches a confluence

Confluence

Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...

 with the Thomson River

Thomson River (Queensland)

The Thomson River is situated in western Queensland, Australia, and forms part of the Lake Eyre Basin. The river was named by the explorer, Edmund Kennedy, in the 1840s....

 in the shire to form Cooper Creek

Cooper Creek

Cooper Creek is one of the most famous and yet least visited rivers in Australia. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its tributaries and is one of three major Queensland river systems that flow into the Lake Eyre Basin...

.

The major industry in the shire is beef production and some opal

Opal

Opal is an amorphous form of silica related to quartz, a mineraloid form, not a mineral. 3% to 21% of the total weight is water, but the content is usually between 6% to 10%. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most...

 mining. There has been some development of the known oil and gas reserves in the region.

History

The Barcoo Division was created on 24 December 1887 out of the eastern part of the Diamantina Division, and was subject to the Divisional Boards Act 1887. With the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, Barcoo became a shire on 31 March 1903. It subsequently lost areas when the Shires of Isisford

Shire of Isisford

The Shire of Isisford was a Local Government Area located in central western Queensland, between the towns of Longreach and Blackall. It covered an area of , and existed as a local government entity from 1908 until 2008, when it amalgamated with the Shires of Ilfracombe and Longreach to form the...

 (1908) and Quilpie (1930) were incorporated.

Its present mayor, Bruce Scott, has been in office since 2000.

Towns and localities

• Jundah
  Jundah, Queensland
  Jundah is a town in far western Queensland, Australia. The administrative centre of the Barcoo Shire Local Government Area, the town is located on the Thomson River, west of the state capital, Brisbane. At the 2006 census, Jundah had a population of 93....
  
  
• Farrars Creek
• Stonehenge
  Stonehenge, Queensland
  Stonehenge is a small outback township in western Queensland, Australia. Its name originates from when the area was a stopping point for bullock teams...
  
  
• Tanbar
• Windorah
  Windorah, Queensland
  Windorah is one of three towns in the Barcoo in south-west Queensland, Australia. It is named after the local Aboriginal word for "Big Fish". At the 2006 census, Windorah had a population of 158....
  
  

Population

Year	Population
1933	957
1947	835
1954	1,010
1961	1,037
1966	909
1971	734
1976	657
1981	711
1986	566
1991	556
1996	492
2001	576
2006	361