Boyne Valley, Australia
Encyclopedia
The Boyne Valley is an area located in the valley of the Boyne River
, in Central Queensland
, Australia
, approximately 500 km north of Brisbane
and 70 km south west of Gladstone
. The rural community consists of four small towns, including Nagoorin
, Ubobo
, Builyan
, and Many Peaks
. "The Valley" as locals call it, is part of Gladstone's hinterland
. It is also within the Shire of Calliope
and is in close proximity to Kroombit Tops National Park
.
At the 2006 census
, The Boyne Valley had a population of 646.
’s naming of the Boyne River in 1823. John Unaike noted, "We had a beautiful and extensive view of the river for many miles, through a rich brush country, the banks in many parts well clothed with timber".
The first recorded meeting of the two cultures was on Curtis Island in 1802. After showering Matthew Flinders
and his party with rocks and stones on their arrival, the "Indians" observed them for a fortnight before making contact. Two seamen became lost and spent a night tortured by mosquitoes in the mangrove swamps. They were rescued, fed, examined in a "personal manner" and guided safely back to their ship. Living on a diet of seafood, kangaroo and bird life they were described as, "stout, muscular men who went entirely naked, understood bartering better than most and were curious but not over excitable".
The first white settlers in the Boyne Valley referred to a large permanent Aboriginal camp on Raggote Creek. Their lands extended along the river between the Boyne and Many Peaks Ranges, downstream to within a few miles of the coast and upstream to The Bluff. Beyond this point a related tribe of several hundred individuals had camps around the numerous waterholes paralleling the river. One hole was called Euboba. The name remains as Ubobo, the adaptation used in 1899 by W.A.F. McDonald to name his 4000 acres (16.2 km²) selection.
Little is recorded of the life of these people but in less than thirty years their populations were decimated. McDonald (1988) reports, "The Toolooa, which still numbered about 700 in 1854, had dwindled to forty-three in 1882. The Byelee in the same period were reduced from 300 to thirty-two."
The present parishes of Milton, Weitalaba, Radley, Degalgil, and Pemberton are the names of leases held by Walsh. Bompa is the name given to the second station formed when Milton was divided into two in 1871 and Rule is the name of the original settler on Nevertire.
The Milton Goldfield was proclaimed in 1879. Norton Township grew on the site and with a population of several thousand boasted a police station, School of Arts
, two hotels
and a brick furnace. Estimates show the mine produced over 20 000 ounces of gold before it closed. Other mines followed at Eastern Boyne, Barmundoo, Mt Jacob and Monal.
Following names through the various fields allows the timeline of mining development to unfold. Mark Mansfield was listed as registered proprietor of the Grassvale Hotel at Ten Mile in 1892, The Miners Arms, Mt Jacob in 1894, The Milton Hotel at Lakeview in 1989 and The Commercial Hotel, Norton in 1905.
The discovery of copper and gold at Many Peaks and Glassford Creek in the late 1890s led to the construction of the Gladstone - Many Peaks railway line by The Mount Morgan Gold Company who used the local ore as flux in their Mount Morgan gold smelters. The Governor of Queensland opened the railway line at a gala function on the 25 July 1910.
At its height, the population of Many Peaks rose to over 3 000. Lamplighter Mr T Tighe lighted the streets. The school had a head master and four assistant teachers. There were 5 hotels, a hospital, stores, cordial works and café. A brass band provided entertainment and a horse-drawn cab transported passengers about town.
Only Many Peaks remains as testimony to this bygone era. The police station, which began life at Glassford Creek, still serves the valley. The Grand Hotel, which was originally the Railway Hotel in Gladstone, was systematically numbered, dismantled and carted by horse team to its present site in 1907. Here it was re-erected and still operates, with John and Janice Hopf as proprietors since 1980. The hospital and school remain although no longer serving their original purposes. The railway dam and gravity fed water tank used to water steam driven trains are also able to be seen. The Post Office, removed first to Littlemore as a Memorial Hall then to Ubobo now serves as a QCWA
hall.
With the turn of the century and the opening of the railway came the teamsters and the timber industry. Horse and bullock teams hauled pine and hardwood to the rail heads at Boynedale, Weitalaba, Nagoorin, Littlemore, Builyan and Many Peaks supplying Mount Morgan
mines with the props for their underground mines.
The 21-year leases expired on the cattle station
s of Ubobo, Hybla, Melrose, Degalgil and Cluden in 1920 when they were all resumed for the Ubobo Soldier Settlement
. They were surveyed into small blocks and offered to returned service personnel. The settlers came from every walk of life from shop assistant, to plantation manager, to champion Scottish ploughman. Cottages were built and the dairy and agricultural industries begun. Cotton and potato growing were introduced. Tobacco was grown with some success. But times were hard and the small blocks unviable. Disillusioned many left within the first five years.
The depression, falling prices and World War II forced further departures. The properties were sold and amalgamated to make larger holdings again. Lands with river frontage were retained for agricultural purposes; the others reverted to their former purpose, cattle grazing.
Land sales at Nagoorin led the way in 1911. Old timber houses from Norton were moved in and the smaller settlements at Lakeview and Rosa Glen fell under Nagoorin's umbrella. Classified as a marketing town Nagoorin soon had a butchery, slaughterhouse, bakery, shop and hall. Mrs Viney ran a boarding house and there was a racecourse on Gentle Annie Road.
In the 1920s Ubobo grew as a service centre for the soldier settlers with shops, hall, Masonic Lodge and Bush Nursing Home. Later cattle sale yards were built outside the town.
Meanwhile Builyan became the centre for the timber industry. Up to 80 000 super feet of raw logs were freighted through the Builyan rail yard each week at the peak of production in the late 1950s.
constructed to meet Gladstone's
growing water demands. The valley is slipping back to its pastoral beginnings. It looks to tourism as a focus for its next wave of development.
Boyne River (Queensland)
Boyne River is a river in Queensland, Australia. It flows between the twin towns of Boyne Island and Tannum Sands. The river was named by John Oxley as it reminded him of the River Boyne in Ireland. A bridge was built to cross the river joining the two towns in 1980...
, in Central Queensland
Central Queensland
Central Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast and the area extends west to the Central Highlands at Emerald, north to the Mackay Regional...
, 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...
, approximately 500 km north of 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 70 km south west of Gladstone
Gladstone, Queensland
- Education :Gladstone has several primary schools, three high schools, and one university campus, Central Queensland University. It is also home to CQIT Gladstone Campus.- Recreation :...
. The rural community consists of four small towns, including Nagoorin
Nagoorin, Queensland
Nagoorin is located in Central Queensland, Australia. It is one of four small townships within The Boyne Valley along with Ubobo, Builyan, and Many Peaks. It is part of the Gladstone Regional Council.-External links:***...
, Ubobo
Ubobo, Queensland
Ubobo is located south of Gladstone and Calliope along Highway 69 in Central Queensland, Australia. It is one of four small townships within The Boyne Valley along with Nagoorin, Builyan, and Many Peaks. It is part of the Gladstone Regional Council....
, Builyan
Builyan, Queensland
Builyan is located in Central Queensland, Australia. It is one of four small townships within The Boyne Valley along with Nagoorin, Ubobo, and Many Peaks. It is part of the Gladstone Regional Council area.-See also:*Kroombit Tops National Park*Monto...
, and Many Peaks
Many Peaks, Queensland
Many Peaks is located in Central Queensland, Australia. It is one of four small townships within The Boyne Valley along with Nagoorin, Builyan and Ubobo. It is part of the Gladstone Regional Council.-See also:*Kroombit Tops National Park*Monto*Gladstone...
. "The Valley" as locals call it, is part of Gladstone's hinterland
Hinterland
The hinterland is the land or district behind a coast or the shoreline of a river. Specifically, by the doctrine of the hinterland, the word is applied to the inland region lying behind a port, claimed by the state that owns the coast. The area from which products are delivered to a port for...
. It is also within the Shire of Calliope
Shire of Calliope
Shire of Calliope was a Local Government Area in the Capricornia region of Queensland, Australia. The shire is centred on the town of Calliope...
and is in close proximity to Kroombit Tops National Park
Kroombit Tops National Park
Kroombit Tops is a national park in Central Queensland, Australia. Located between Monto and Calliope in The Boyne Valley, it is 399 km northwest of Brisbane. Cania Gorge National Park is located approximately 25 km to the south....
.
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,...
, The Boyne Valley had a population of 646.
Introduction
The European association with the Boyne Valley began with John OxleyJohn Oxley
John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of English colonisation.October 1802 he was engaged in coastal survey work including an expedition to Western Port in 1804-05...
’s naming of the Boyne River in 1823. John Unaike noted, "We had a beautiful and extensive view of the river for many miles, through a rich brush country, the banks in many parts well clothed with timber".
Original occupants
A cultural heritage assessment published in 2000 proves that the Boyne Valley was home to Aboriginal people for thousands of years prior to European discovery.The first recorded meeting of the two cultures was on Curtis Island in 1802. After showering Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
and his party with rocks and stones on their arrival, the "Indians" observed them for a fortnight before making contact. Two seamen became lost and spent a night tortured by mosquitoes in the mangrove swamps. They were rescued, fed, examined in a "personal manner" and guided safely back to their ship. Living on a diet of seafood, kangaroo and bird life they were described as, "stout, muscular men who went entirely naked, understood bartering better than most and were curious but not over excitable".
The first white settlers in the Boyne Valley referred to a large permanent Aboriginal camp on Raggote Creek. Their lands extended along the river between the Boyne and Many Peaks Ranges, downstream to within a few miles of the coast and upstream to The Bluff. Beyond this point a related tribe of several hundred individuals had camps around the numerous waterholes paralleling the river. One hole was called Euboba. The name remains as Ubobo, the adaptation used in 1899 by W.A.F. McDonald to name his 4000 acres (16.2 km²) selection.
Little is recorded of the life of these people but in less than thirty years their populations were decimated. McDonald (1988) reports, "The Toolooa, which still numbered about 700 in 1854, had dwindled to forty-three in 1882. The Byelee in the same period were reduced from 300 to thirty-two."
Pastoralists
European settlement of the valley came in waves. First came the pastoralists led by William Henry Walsh. He claimed the Milton Run in July 1853 then added the Radley and Weitalaba Runs. When the first official land survey was undertaken in 1868 it shows Milton Run occupying 659 square miles (1,706.8 km²) of the Boyne Valley heartland.The present parishes of Milton, Weitalaba, Radley, Degalgil, and Pemberton are the names of leases held by Walsh. Bompa is the name given to the second station formed when Milton was divided into two in 1871 and Rule is the name of the original settler on Nevertire.
Gold miners
Next came the miners. In 1853 Mrs Brennan had found a 3oz nugget on the northern slopes of the Boyne Range but it was not until the proclamation of the Calliope Gold field ten years later that the rush began.The Milton Goldfield was proclaimed in 1879. Norton Township grew on the site and with a population of several thousand boasted a police station, School of Arts
School of Arts
School of Arts may refer to:*Art school*Mechanics' Institutes...
, two hotels
Australian pubs
A public house in Australia is an establishment performing many functions, often serving alcoholic beverages, meals, and providing basic accommodation.-Origin:...
and a brick furnace. Estimates show the mine produced over 20 000 ounces of gold before it closed. Other mines followed at Eastern Boyne, Barmundoo, Mt Jacob and Monal.
Following names through the various fields allows the timeline of mining development to unfold. Mark Mansfield was listed as registered proprietor of the Grassvale Hotel at Ten Mile in 1892, The Miners Arms, Mt Jacob in 1894, The Milton Hotel at Lakeview in 1989 and The Commercial Hotel, Norton in 1905.
The discovery of copper and gold at Many Peaks and Glassford Creek in the late 1890s led to the construction of the Gladstone - Many Peaks railway line by The Mount Morgan Gold Company who used the local ore as flux in their Mount Morgan gold smelters. The Governor of Queensland opened the railway line at a gala function on the 25 July 1910.
At its height, the population of Many Peaks rose to over 3 000. Lamplighter Mr T Tighe lighted the streets. The school had a head master and four assistant teachers. There were 5 hotels, a hospital, stores, cordial works and café. A brass band provided entertainment and a horse-drawn cab transported passengers about town.
Only Many Peaks remains as testimony to this bygone era. The police station, which began life at Glassford Creek, still serves the valley. The Grand Hotel, which was originally the Railway Hotel in Gladstone, was systematically numbered, dismantled and carted by horse team to its present site in 1907. Here it was re-erected and still operates, with John and Janice Hopf as proprietors since 1980. The hospital and school remain although no longer serving their original purposes. The railway dam and gravity fed water tank used to water steam driven trains are also able to be seen. The Post Office, removed first to Littlemore as a Memorial Hall then to Ubobo now serves as a QCWA
Country Women's Association
The Country Women’s Association of Australia is the largest women's organisation in Australia. It has 44,000 members across 1855 branches. Its aims are to improve the conditions for country women and children and to try to make life better for women and their families, especially those women...
hall.
Closer settlement
Closer settlement began when the large leasehold runs were resumed and broken into smaller leases. Properties such as Glengarry, Box Vale, Nevertire, and Newry were created.With the turn of the century and the opening of the railway came the teamsters and the timber industry. Horse and bullock teams hauled pine and hardwood to the rail heads at Boynedale, Weitalaba, Nagoorin, Littlemore, Builyan and Many Peaks supplying Mount Morgan
Mount Morgan, Queensland
Mount Morgan is a town located in central Queensland, Australia. It is situated on the Dee River, 38 kilometres south of the city of Rockhampton, and is 680 kilometres north of the state capital, Brisbane. The Burnett Highway passes through the town...
mines with the props for their underground mines.
The 21-year leases expired on the cattle station
Station (Australian agriculture)
Station is the term for a large Australian landholding used for livestock production. It corresponds to the North American term ranch or South American estancia...
s of Ubobo, Hybla, Melrose, Degalgil and Cluden in 1920 when they were all resumed for the Ubobo Soldier Settlement
Soldier settlement (Australia)
Soldier settlement refers to the occupation and settlement of land throughout parts of Australia by returning discharged soldiers under schemes administered by the State Governments after World Wars I and II.- World War I :...
. They were surveyed into small blocks and offered to returned service personnel. The settlers came from every walk of life from shop assistant, to plantation manager, to champion Scottish ploughman. Cottages were built and the dairy and agricultural industries begun. Cotton and potato growing were introduced. Tobacco was grown with some success. But times were hard and the small blocks unviable. Disillusioned many left within the first five years.
The depression, falling prices and World War II forced further departures. The properties were sold and amalgamated to make larger holdings again. Lands with river frontage were retained for agricultural purposes; the others reverted to their former purpose, cattle grazing.
Permanent settlements
While Many Peaks prospered, the railway also created permanent settlements around the major stations.Land sales at Nagoorin led the way in 1911. Old timber houses from Norton were moved in and the smaller settlements at Lakeview and Rosa Glen fell under Nagoorin's umbrella. Classified as a marketing town Nagoorin soon had a butchery, slaughterhouse, bakery, shop and hall. Mrs Viney ran a boarding house and there was a racecourse on Gentle Annie Road.
In the 1920s Ubobo grew as a service centre for the soldier settlers with shops, hall, Masonic Lodge and Bush Nursing Home. Later cattle sale yards were built outside the town.
Meanwhile Builyan became the centre for the timber industry. Up to 80 000 super feet of raw logs were freighted through the Builyan rail yard each week at the peak of production in the late 1950s.
Future
The United Kingdom's entry into the European Common Market in the 1970s saw the death of the dairy industry almost overnight. Irregular rainfall forced an end to dry land farming. The twenty-first century finds the land described by John Uniake gone. It's inundated by the Lake AwoongaLake Awoonga
Lake Awoonga was formed on the Boyne River by the dam located from Gladstone, in Central Queensland, Australia. It is approximately 30 minutes drive from Gladstone, via Benaraby.Lake Awoonga is the main water supply for the Gladstone region...
constructed to meet Gladstone's
Gladstone, Queensland
- Education :Gladstone has several primary schools, three high schools, and one university campus, Central Queensland University. It is also home to CQIT Gladstone Campus.- Recreation :...
growing water demands. The valley is slipping back to its pastoral beginnings. It looks to tourism as a focus for its next wave of development.
See also
- Kroombit Tops National ParkKroombit Tops National ParkKroombit Tops is a national park in Central Queensland, Australia. Located between Monto and Calliope in The Boyne Valley, it is 399 km northwest of Brisbane. Cania Gorge National Park is located approximately 25 km to the south....
- Castle Tower National ParkCastle Tower National ParkCastle Tower is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 407 km northwest of Brisbane.Mount Castle Tower can be seen from Lake Awoonga....
- Beautiful BetsyBeautiful BetsyBeautiful Betsy was the name of an American Liberator Bomber. The wreckage of the plane was discovered in what is now Kroombit Tops National Park, located in The Boyne Valley in central Queensland, Australia.-Fact sheet:...
- Lake AwoongaLake AwoongaLake Awoonga was formed on the Boyne River by the dam located from Gladstone, in Central Queensland, Australia. It is approximately 30 minutes drive from Gladstone, via Benaraby.Lake Awoonga is the main water supply for the Gladstone region...