Oontoo is a former
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 within the
locality of
Durham in the
Shire of Bullo,
Queensland, Australia.
Geography
Oontoo is in
South West Queensland, immediately east of the border with
South Australia.
History
The township of Oontoo once existed in the area along the banks of the
Cooper Creek.
The Queensland Government offered approximately 70 town lots for sale on 11 April 1886. A border customs post was established at Oontoo in 1886 on a piece of land resumed from
Nappa Merrie
Nappa Merrie Station, most commonly known as Nappa Merrie, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in central west Queensland, Australia.
Description
The property is located north east of Innamincka and south east of Birdsvi ...
cattle station.
The post was created to collect taxes from
drovers who crossed to Queensland border travelling down
Strzelecki Creek.
The first customs officer was Mr Ivory who arrived in 1886 and lived in a tent until a house was completed the following year. In 1887 the post was also used as a depot for materials used in the construction of the
rabbit proof fence
The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits, and other agricultural pests from th ...
.
[
A shanty public house followed soon afterward with a more substantial stone hotel built by Thomas Costello in 1888. The hotel had eight rooms, kitchen, stables and a store.][ Several race meetings were held in the town starting in 1888. The town soon boasted a store, doctor and school.][
Severe flooding occurred in 1891 with Cooper Creek breaking its banks after of rain fell in the area in January.
By 1897 the population had shrunk to 14.][
The customs post was closed in 1902.]
References
{{authority control
South West Queensland
Shire of Bulloo