Eromanga is an

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

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 ...

in the

Shire of Quilpie The Shire of Quilpie is a Local government in Australia, local government area in South West Queensland, Australia. It covers an area of , and its administrative centre is the town of Quilpie, Queensland, Quilpie. The dominant industry is gra ...

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. In the , the locality of Eromanga had a population of 119 people.

Geography

The town lies on the edge of what is called the Eromanga Inland Sea, which existed in the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

. The Eromanga region has abundant oil wells and

opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms ...

mines. Dinosaur fossils, including Australia's largest dinosaur a

titanosaur Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still th ...

species of sauropod, have also been found here making it an area of interest for palaeontologists. It is located on

Ngandangara The Ngandangara were an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland. Country In Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and e ...

territory. Eromanga has been touted as the town in Australia located the farthest from any ocean. However, this claim does not stand up to scrutiny.Ken Blanch
Eromanga's Boast Doesn't Hold Water!
, Courier Mail, 9 November 1985. See

Pole of inaccessibility A pole of inaccessibility with respect to a geographical criterion of inaccessibility marks a location that is the most challenging to reach according to that criterion. Often it refers to the most distant point from the coastline, implying a ...

for approximations of other locations in Australia that could also make such claims.

History

The name of the town Eromanga goes back as far as about 1860. The name is thought to have come from an Aboriginal word that means "hot gale plain" or "windy plain", though the language and dialect is unknown. Eromanga Post Office opened by October 1902 (a

receiving office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

had been open from 1892). Eromanga Provisional School opened on 5 July 1897 but closed in 1908. In 1910 it reopened as Eromanga State School but closed again on 28 February 1911. The school reopened on 23 October 1917 but closed again. It reopened in 1919 until it closed on 22 March 1936. It reopened on 28 May 1956 and closed again on 11 December 1981. It reopened 29 January 1990. One property which is located in Eromanga which was first written up in 1928 by Keith Pegler, Monler Station, is now in its third generation of farmers. The property, located 11 km south of the town centre, was originally run as a sheep and cattle farm by Keith and has since been passed to Ross Pegler before the current Scott Pegler who runs the station with his family. The property has struggled over the years with natural disasters ranging from drought to flooding. In 2019 a period of over 200 days "without a decent downpour" was reported. As at 2012, the town of Eromanga had a population averaging from 30 to 40. In the , the locality of Eromanga had a population of 119 people.

Economy

The

Eromanga Refinery Eromanga Refinery is a small, specialist oil refinery near Eromanga, Queensland Eromanga is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Quilpie, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Eromanga had a population of 119 people. Ge ...

is an oil microrefinery which is specialized in producing mining equipment fuel. There are also agricultural industries such as

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

and sheep as many pioneering property owners came and took up land in the 1860s.

Education

Eromanga State School is a government primary (Early Childhood-6) school for boys and girls in Donald Street (). Between 2010 and 2013, the school had 5 or 6 students enrolled with all students on an individual learning plan with one permanent teacher, a teacher aide (partly funded by the community) plus visiting teachers from other schools. In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 6 students with 2 teachers (1 full-time equivalent) and 3 non-teaching staff (1 full-time equivalent). There are no secondary schools in Eromanga or nearby. The options are

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 ...

and boarding school.

Amenities

The Eromanga branch of the

Queensland Country Women's Association The Queensland Country Women's Association (QCWA) is the Queensland chapter of the Country Women's Association in Australia. The association seeks to serve the interests of women and children in rural areas in Australia through a network of loca ...

has its rooms on the corner of Deacon and Donald Streets.

Popular culture

Due to its name, the town was referenced in the first episode of Volume 2 in the

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

Ninja Nonsense , also known as ''2×2 = Shinobuden'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ryoichi Koga. The series subtitle is ''"The Nonsense Kunoichi Fiction"''. The manga was serialized in MediaWorks' ''Dengeki Daioh'' magazine between ...

'', in episode 18 of ''

Samurai Flamenco is an anime television series conceptualized by Manglobe and produced by Aniplex, Fuji TV, Kyoraku Industrial Holdings, Dentsu, Hobibox, Movic and DeNA. It is directed by Takahiro Omori, with Hideyuki Kurata handling series scripts, Chinatsu K ...

'', and again in the light novel/anime ''

Eromanga Sensei is a Japanese light novel series written by Tsukasa Fushimi and illustrated by Hiro Kanzaki. ASCII Media Works has published thirteen volumes in the series under its Dengeki Bunko imprint from December 2013 to August 2022. A manga adaptati ...

'' for its similarity to the term ero manga (literally meaning ''erotic

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

'').

References

{{authority control Towns in Queensland South West Queensland Shire of Quilpie Localities in Queensland