Beaufort is a former rural

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

in the

Barcaldine Region The Barcaldine Region is a local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by three previous local government areas which had existed for over a century. It has an estimated operating budget of ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, Australia. In the , Beaufort had a population of 46 people. On 22 November 2019 the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended f ...

decided to amalgamate the localities in the Barcaldine Region, resulting in five expanded localities based on the larger towns: Alpha, Aramac, Barcaldine, Jericho and

Muttaburra Muttaburra is an outback town and locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia. Muttaburra was the discovery site of the ''Muttaburrasaurus'', one of Australia's most famous dinosaurs. Geography Muttaburra is in the central west ...

. Beaufort was incorporated into Alpha.

Geography

The southern boundary of the locality is the Central Western railway line and, to its immediate south, the

Capricorn Highway The Capricorn Highway is located in Central Queensland, Australia, and links the city of Rockhampton with western Queensland. The highway is long, and joins the Landsborough Highway at Barcaldine. Formerly National Route 66, Queensland began ...

. The Mamboo railway station () services the locality and

Sedgeford Sedgeford is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, about 5 miles south of the North Sea and east of the Wash. It is 36 miles north-west of Norwich. Its area of had a population, including Fring, of 613 at the 2011 Ce ...

to the north. The

Belyando River The Belyando River, including the Belyando River (Western Branch), is a river system located in Central Queensland, Central Queensland, Australia. At in length and with a drainage basin, catchment area of , the Belyando River system is one of th ...

flows through the locality from the south-east (

Port Wine Port wine (also known as vinho do Porto, , or simply port) is a Portuguese wine, Portuguese fortified wine produced in the Douro, Douro Valley of Norte, Portugal, northern Portugal. It is typically a sweetness of wine, sweet red wine, often ...

) to the north-west ( Surbiton/

Quetta Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه‎) is the tenth most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in south-west of the country close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of ...

). Being east of the Great Dividing Range, the river is part of the North East Coast drainage basin. It is a tributary of the

Suttor River The Suttor River is a river in Central Queensland, Australia. The Belyando River is its main tributary. The river has its origins in the Leichhardt Range, north west of Glenden. It flows into Lake Dalrymple, becoming a tributary of the Burdek ...

, which in turn is a tributary of the

Burdekin River The Burdekin River is a river located in North and Far North Queensland, Australia. The river rises on the northern slopes of Boulder Mountain at Valley of Lagoons, part of the western slope of the Seaview Range, and flows into the Coral Sea a ...

, which flows into the Coral Sea at Rita Island in the

Shire of Burdekin The Shire of Burdekin is a local government area located in North Queensland, Australia in the Dry Tropics region. The district is located between Townsville and Bowen in the delta of the Burdekin River. It covers an area of , and has exist ...

. The principal land use is

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

on native vegetation.

History

The locality presumably takes its name from the county, which in turn is named after Mount Beaufort, which in turn is named 20 July 1846 by Sir Thomas Mitchell after Rear-Admiral Sir Frances Beaufort, creator of the Beaufort Scale for indicating wind force. In 1863

Arthur Hunter Palmer Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer (28 December 1819 – 20 March 1898) was an Irish-Australian politician who served as the fifth Premier of Queensland, in office from 1870 to 1874. He later held ministerial office in Thomas McIlwraith's ministry from ...

(

Premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

from 1870 to 1874) leased nine pastoral runs in the Belyando Valley which he collectively called Beaufort Station. Over the years, he expanded or reduced the size of station, selling it finally in 1897. Mamboo railway station was established in 1954.

Queensland Railways Department Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Owned by the Queensland Government, it operates local and long-distance passenger services, as well as owning and maintaining approximately 6,600 kilometres of track and relate ...

assigned the name Mamboo on 5 July 1954. It is an Aboriginal word in the

Kabi language Kabi Kabi, also spelt Gabi-Gabi/Gubbi Gubbi, is a language of Queensland in Australia, formerly spoken by the Kabi Kabi people of South-east Queensland. The main dialect, Kabi Kabi, is extinct, but there are still 24 people with knowledge of t ...

, meaning ''dogwood tree''. However this is not an Indigenous language used in the area.

Education

There are no schools in Beaufort. The nearest primary school is in Alpha which also has the nearest secondary school, but only to Year 10. The nearest secondary schools to Year 12 are in Barcaldine to the west and Emerald to the east. Other options are boarding schools and

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

Notable residents

, Premier of Queensland, owned Beaufort Station

References

{{Barcaldine Region Barcaldine Region Unbounded localities in Queensland