Bargara is a town located on the central coast of 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...

. The town lies 384 kilometres north of the state capital Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 and just 13 kilometres (8 mi) east of Bundaberg

Bundaberg, Queensland

Bundaberg is a city in Queensland, Australia. It is part of the Local Government Area of the Bundaberg Region and is a major centre within Queensland's broader Wide Bay-Burnett geographical region...

. Bargara is considered to be a satellite town of Bundaberg, with only sugar cane fields separating the two centres. Between 1912 and 1948, a railway connected the two centres. At the 2006 census

Census in Australia

The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...

, Bargara had a population of 5,525.
Bargara has grown significantly over the last decade, becoming a popular tourist and retirement destination. The main streets of Bargara are The Esplanade and The Promenade. The Esplanade runs along the Bargara Beach foreshore, and is lined with several modern holiday homes and units. The Promenade contains several hotels, restaurants and clothing shops. Bargara is also a popular fishing, swimming and surfing location.

The famous Mon Repos

Mon Repos Conservation Park

Mon Repos Conservation Park is a turtle rookery located on Queensland's central coast, 14 km east of Bundaberg. Mon Repos hosts the largest concentration of nesting marine turtles on the eastern Australian mainland and supports the most significant nesting population of the endangered loggerhead...

 turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

 rookery

Rookery

A rookery is a colony of breeding animals, generally birds. A rook is a Northern European and Central Asian member of the crow family, which nest in prominent colonies at the tops of trees. The term is applied to the nesting place of birds, such as crows and rooks, the source of the term...

 is located just north of Bargara. A wall in the reserve dating back to the very early days of settlement was constructed using Kanaka

Kanakas

Kanaka was the term for a worker from various Pacific Islands employed in British colonies, such as British Columbia , Fiji and Queensland in the 19th and early 20th centuries...

 labour and rocks taken from the nearby sugarcane

Sugarcane

Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...

 fields.

History

Prior to 1921 Bargara was officially known as Sandhills. The Sandhills Provisional School opened in 1893, and was renamed Bargara State School in 1921. The name Bargara is derived from the names of two adjacent localities, Barolin and Woongarra

Shire of Woongarra

The Shire of Woongarra was a Local Government Area located to the south and east of the regional city of Bundaberg. The shire, administered from Bundaberg itself, covered an area of , and existed as a local government entity from 1885 until 1994, when it amalgamated with Gooburrum to form the Shire...

.

External links

• University of Queensland: Queensland Places: Bargara