Croydon is a town and

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 ...

within the

Shire of Croydon The Shire of Croydon is a local government area in western Queensland, Australia. The shire, administered from the town of Croydon, covers an area of . The council consists of a mayor plus four councillors, each of whom represents the entire Sh ...

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 , established_ ...

, Australia. It is a terminus for the

Normanton to Croydon railway line The Normanton to Croydon railway line is a heritage-listed railway line in the Gulf Country of northern Queensland, Australia. The railway line linking Normanton in the Shire of Carpentaria to Croydon Croydon is a large town in south L ...

, which operates the

Gulflander The ''Gulflander'' is a passenger train operated by Queensland Rail on the isolated Normanton to Croydon line in the Gulf Country of northern Queensland, Australia. History Steam locomotives were used until 1929. By that stage railmoto ...

tourist train. At the , Croydon had a population of 258 people.

History

The historic goldrush town of Croydon is located in the heart of the

Gulf Savannah The Gulf Country is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also called the Gulf Savannah. It ...

, west of

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

. Mining in the area quickly drove out the Tagalaka people indigenous to the area. Croydon was a large pastoral holding owned by Alexander Brown and Margaret Chalmers that covered an area of approximately , when first settled in the 1880s. The town's name is derived from a pastoral run name, that was used by their sons, Alexander Brown and William Chalmers Brown, pastoralists; William Chalmers Brown was born in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, England in 1841 and is buried at

Toowong cemetery Toowong Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery on the corner of Frederick Street and Mt Coot-tha Road, Toowong, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was established in 1866 and formally opened in 1875. It is Queensland's largest cemet ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

. Gold was discovered in 1885 and by 1887, the town's population had reached 7,000. Croydon Post Office opened on 20 March 1886. Croydon State School was established on 12 September 1889 but did not open until 7 July 1890. Gold was to be the main economic production of the area for four decades. The Mining Warden left in 1926 as there were too few miners left on the field. During its heyday, Croydon was the fourth largest town in the colony of Queensland. In 1917, Dr. Elkington, Director of the Division of Tropical Hygiene, Commonwealth Department of Health, was concerned about health and hygiene of its growing population, contemplated conducting a statistical and social survey of the town, which did not eventuate. Elkington's interest in sociological surveys of gathering social and economic details on a population later developed into the 1924 Sociological Survey of White Women conducted from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Townsville. Currently, Croydon has a much smaller population, having greatly decreased following the end of the gold rush. The population is now a few hundred people. The town is one of the termini for the

railway, opened for the gold rush in 1891 but now a tourist railway operated by

Traveltrain 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 ...

. In early 2009, the close proximity of a receding cyclone ex-

Cyclone Charlotte The name Charlotte has been used for seven tropical cyclones worldwide: four in the West Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the S ...

, caused torrential rain and Croydon to be flooded. An estimated $5 million of damage was made to town infrastructure. At the , Croydon and surrounding area recorded a population of 312 people. At the , the locality of Croydon had a population of 258 people.

Road infrastructure

National Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbere ...

runs through from east to west. The Richmond-Croydon Road runs along part of the eastern boundary.

Climate

Croydon experiences a

hot semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

, bordering on a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...

( Köppen: ''BSh/Aw'',

Trewartha Trewartha and Andrewartha are Cornish family names (and placename, Dexter). There are places called Trewartha in the parishes of Merther, St Agnes, St Neot and Veryan. According to the ''Handbook of Cornish Names'' by G. Pawley White, "Trew ...

: ''BShb/Awhb''), with a very hot, oppressively humid

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

from December to March; and a long, hot

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

from April to November.

Heritage listings

Croydon has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

sites, including: * Croydon: Homeward Bound Battery and Dam * Gulf Developmental Road: Content Mine * Gulf Developmental Road: Richmond Mine and Battery * Helen Street: Croydon railway station * Julia Creek Road:

Croydon Cemetery Mitcham Road Cemetery, previously called Croydon Cemetery, is a cemetery located next to Mitcham Common near Croydon, which is part of the London Borough of Croydon, London. Croydon Crematorium is located inside the cemetery, and are both mana ...

* Normanton (Gulf Developmental) Road:

Golden Gate Mining and Town Complex Golden Gate Mining and Town Complex is a heritage-listed mining camp at Normanton Road ( Gulf Developmental Road), Croydon, Shire of Croydon, Queensland, Australia. It commenced in 1886. It is also known as Golden Gate Township, Croydon Consol ...

* Normanton Road: Station Creek Cemetery * Normanton to Croydon:

* Off Gulf Developmental Road: Chinese Temple and Settlement Site * Samwell Street:

Court House A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-sp ...

* Samwell Street: Croydon Shire Hall (formerly Croydon Town Hall) * Samwell Street:

Police Station A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, al ...

* Sircom Street: Croydon Hospital Ward * Tabletop Cemetery * West of the railway station: Old Croydon Cemetery

Facilities

StateLibQld 1 164271 Croydon State School, ca

Croydon has a swimming pool, golf course, lawn bowls, a museum, a tourist information centre, caravan park and a primary school. The

Croydon Shire Council The Shire of Croydon is a local government area in western Queensland, Australia. The shire, administered from the town of Croydon, covers an area of . The council consists of a mayor plus four councillors, each of whom represents the entire Sh ...

operates a public library at 63 Samwell Street. Croydon State School is a government primary school (years P-6) in Brown Street. In 2014, it had 42 students enrolled with 2 classes (years P-3 and years 4-6) with 3 teachers. Water supply is sourced from

Lake Belmore Lake Belmore was built in 1995 to supply town water to Croydon in Queensland, Australia. The waters behind the dam are stocked with barramundi and redclaw crayfish. See also *List of reservoirs and dams in Australia A ''list'' is any set of ...

. St Margaret's Church at Lot 9, Alldridge Street is shared by the Anglican and Catholic congregations. It is within the Gulf Savannah Parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns.

In popular culture

Croydon was mentioned in the 1950 novel '' A Town Like Alice'' by Nevil Shute, as an example of a largely abandoned

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

town. Australian Country music singer-songwriter Jamey Fitzgerald had lived in Croydon during his teen age years and early adulthood. In 2012 he was featured on television Channel 9 discussing his music and life living in the town.

References

External links

University of Queensland: Queensland Places: Croydon and Croydon Shire
* {{authority control Towns in Queensland North West Queensland Shire of Croydon Localities in Queensland