Middleton is a 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

Shire of Winton The Shire of Winton is a local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. It covers an area of , and has existed as a local government entity since 1887. Its administrative centre is located in the town of Winton. It is named aft ...

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 Middleton had a population of 9 people.

Geography

The locality is on the

Kennedy Developmental Road The Kennedy Highway is a highway in northern Queensland, Australia. It runs as National Route 1 for approximately 243 km from Smithfield, on the northern outskirts of Cairns, to the Gulf Developmental Road in the vicinity of Forty Mile S ...

, northwest of the state capital

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 ...

and southeast of the regional centre of

Mount Isa Mount Isa ( ) is a city in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, Australia. It came into existence because of the vast mineral deposits found in the area. Mount Isa Mines (MIM) is one of the most productive single mines in world history, bas ...

. Lying within the locality is the former site of Collingwood (), a town that lost out in regional competition to its neighbour, Winton. It had been given up by about 1900. The region in which Middleton lies is a circular zone that has been shown to be a crustal anomaly. Scientists from

Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...

believe that it is an

impact structure An impact structure is a generally circular or craterlike geologic structure of deformed bedrock or sediment produced by impact on a planetary surface, whatever the stage of erosion of the structure. In contrast, an impact crater is the surface ...

formed by an asteroid that struck the area about 300 million years ago. Final proof of this as the anomaly's genesis has not yet been found.

History

European exploration of the Middleton area began with explorer John McKinlay's expedition in search of the missing

Burke and Wills expedition The Burke and Wills expedition was organised by the Royal Society of Victoria in Australia in 1860–61. It consisted of 19 men led by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, with the objective of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the ...

in 1862. McKinlay named a watercourse in the area Middleton Creek after his second-in-charge Thomas Middleton. The Middleton Hotel was established at the creek crossing as a

Cobb & Co Cobb & Co was the name used by many successful sometimes quite independent Australian coaching businesses. The first was established in 1853 by American Freeman Cobb and his partners. The name Cobb & Co grew to great prominence in the late 19th ...

changing station on the route between Winton and

Boulia Boulia () is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Boulia, Queensland, Australia. In the , Boulia had a population of 301 people. Boulia is the administrative centre of the Boulia Shire, population approximately 600, which covers an area ...

. Middleton Provisional School opened on 1908 and closed on 1913. Another Middleton Provisional School opened in 1937 and closed circa 1943. Middleton Post Office opened by March 1916 (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 1889) and closed in 1968. At the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

, Middleton and the surrounding area had a population of 121. In the Middleton had a population of 9 people. The 2016 film '' Goldstone'' was filmed in Middleton.

Heritage listings

The

Elderslie Homestead Elderslie Homestead is a heritage-listed homestead at the Elderslie Station, Winton-Boulia Road, Middleton, Shire of Winton, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1881 to . It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 199 ...

() on the Winton-Boulia Road is a

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 ...

site.

Education

There are no schools in Middleton. Although the nearest primary and secondary school is Winton State School in Winton to the east, it is sufficiently distant that

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 would be alternatives.

Facilities

The town has been mostly abandoned and now consists of the Middleton Hotel, campground and the disused hall.

References

{{authority control Towns in Queensland Shire of Winton 1916 establishments in Australia Localities in Queensland