Quilpie ( ) is a rural 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 , Quilpie had a population of 595 people. The town is the administrative centre of the

Quilpie Shire The Shire of Quilpie is a local government area in South West Queensland, Australia. It covers an area of , and its administrative centre is the town of Quilpie. The dominant industry is grazing. Opal fields are also worked within the shire. ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

. The town of

Toompine Toompine is a town in the locality of Quilpie in the Shire of Quilpie, Queensland, Australia. History The town of Toompine was surveyed in 1870. The name is believed to derive from the Aboriginal name Thaumpine, meaning ''leech''. Toompine Pr ...

is also within the locality. The

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

of the area is based on the grazing and mining industries. The area has one of the largest deposits of boulder opal in the world, and also has extensive deposits of

gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

and

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

Geography

Quilpie is in

Channel Country The Channel Country is a region of outback Australia mostly in the state of Queensland but also in parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. The name comes from the numerous intertwined rivulets that cross the region ...

on the banks of the

Bulloo River The Bulloo River is an isolated drainage system in western Queensland, central Australia. Its floodplain, which extends into northern New South Wales, is an important area for waterbirds when inundated. It comprises most of the Bulloo-Banc ...

. It is on the

Diamantina Developmental Road The Diamantina Developmental Road is a gazetted road in Queensland, Australia, that runs from Charleville in the south-central part of the state to Mount Isa in the north-west. Route description The road passes through the towns of Quilpie ...

, west of

Charleville Charleville can refer to: Australia * Charleville, Queensland, a town in Australia **Charleville railway station, Queensland France * Charleville, Marne, a commune in Marne, France *Charleville-Mézières, a commune in Ardennes, France ** ...

, and west 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 ...

. Quilpie is the administrative centre of the Quilpie Shire. The town of

() is within the locality of Quilpie Other townships in the shire include

Adavale Adavale is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Quilpie, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Adavale had a population of 93 people. Geography Adavale is in South West Queensland, west of the state capital, Brisbane. Between A ...

and Eromanga. Quilpie has quite a few trees but sometimes drought takes over and the landscape can become dry and desolate.

History

Quilpie is believed to lie on the border of the Bunthamurra and

Margany The Maranganji (also rendered Margany, Mardigan) were an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland. Country Norman Tindale's estimate of Maranganji tribal lands was . They were the original people of Quilpie, Cheepie and Beehchal, ...

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

tribal areas.

(also known as Marganj, Mardigan, Marukanji, Maranganji) is an

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

spoken by the Margany people. The Margany language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the

, taking in Quilpie, Cheepie and Beechal extending towards

Eulo Eulo is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Paroo, Queensland, Australia. In the , Eulo had a population of 95 people. It is known for its opal mining. Geography Eulo is west of Cunnamulla and west of Brisbane. The town is located ...

and

Thargomindah Thargomindah (frequently shortened to Thargo) is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Bulloo, Queensland, Australia. The town of Thargomindah is the administrative centre for the Shire of Bulloo. In the , Thargomindah had a population of ...

, as well as the properties of Dynevor Downs and Ardoch. Toompine Provisional School and Duck Creek Provisional School both opened in 1900. In 1901 they became half-time schools (meaning they shared a single teacher between the two schools). Toompine Provisional School closed in July 1902, enabling Duck Creek Provisional School to revert to full-time status. Due to low student numbers, Duck Creek Provisional School closed in 1905. Quilpie was gazetted as a town in 1917 owing to the Western railway line that was laid down from Brisbane. It takes its name from the

word for

stone curlew The stone-curlews, also known as dikkops or thick-knees, consist of 10 species within the family Burhinidae, and are found throughout the tropical and temperate parts of the world, with two or more species occurring in some areas of Africa, Asia, ...

, ''quilpeta''. The name was proposed by pastoralist James Hammond of Tenham Station. The

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 ...

mistakenly named the railway station ''Quillpill''. The town and station name were standardised to Quilpie on 16 June 1917 by the Governor in Council. Quilpie State School opened on 10 September 1918. The school began offering secondary education in 1966. On 5 December 2008 it was renamed Quilpie State College. The first post office was opened in 1921. Two years later the telephone reached Quilpie . A fire destroyed a block of the main street in 1926. With no town water the residents watched helplessly. In 1927 the first court house was established. Prior to 1930, Quilpie was within the

Shire of Adavale The Shire of Adavale is a former local government area in the south-east of Queensland, Australia, centred on the town of Adavale. It existed from 1879 to 1930. History On 11 November 1879, the Murweh Division was created as one of 74 divisions ...

, headquartered at

. However, the decision to route the railway line through Quilpie rather than Adavale had led to a population drift away from Adavale making Quilpie the larger town. On 17 July 1930, there was a re-organisation of local government in the district, resulting in the abolition of the Shire of Adavale and the creation of the Shire of Quilpie with Quilpie as its headquarters. A bore was sunk into the

Great Artesian Basin The Great Artesian Basin (GAB), located in Australia, is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world, stretching over , with measured water temperatures ranging from . The basin provides the only source of fresh water through much of ...

in 1933. It provided drinking water for the town and for a period between 1952 and 1963 the hot water was used to generate electricity for the town. St Finbarr's Catholic School opened in early 1950, shortly after the arrival in January 1950 of three

Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, often called the Josephites or Brown Joeys, are a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Mary MacKillop (1842–1909). Members of the congregation use the postnominal initials RSJ (Religious Sist ...

, Sisters Macrina, Carmel and Magdalen. By the end of 1950, over 60 children were enrolled. A boarding school for boys and girls was opened in 1951. The first

lay Lay may refer to: Places *Lay Range, a subrange of mountains in British Columbia, Canada *Lay, Loire, a French commune *Lay (river), France *Lay, Iran, a village *Lay, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community People * Lay (surname) * ...

teacher, Michael West, was appointed in 1983. When the boarding facility closed in 2008, it was the last rural Catholic primary boarding school in Queensland. In 2009, the first lay principal, Aaron Wells, was appointed and the administration of the school passed from the Sisters to the Catholic Education Office of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba The Roman Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba is a Latin Rite suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, established in 1929, covering the Darling Downs and south west regions of Queensland, Australia. St Patrick's Cathedral is the seat of ...

who operate the school in the

Mary MacKillop Mary Helen MacKillop RSJ (15 January 1842 – 8 August 1909) was an Australian religious sister who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church, as St Mary of the Cross. Of Scottish descent, she was born in Melbourne but is best known fo ...

tradition (MacKillop being the founder of the Sisters of St Joseph). Goombie State School opened on Goombie Station (north of Quilpie at ) on 27 January 1875 and closed on 9 December 1977. At the , Quilpie had a population of 645. Around 14% of the population of Quilpie identity as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and around 2% were born outside Australia. The current Quilpie Public Library building opened in 2005. At the , Quilpie had a population of 560. At the , Quilpie had a population of 574 people. In the , Quilpie had a population of 595 people.

Economy

The area is wholly devoted to

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 ...

. Boulder opal, oil and gas

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

are major secondary industries for the local economy. The majority of the employees of these industries are local residents, with low rates of both unemployment and itinerant work. Quilpie has one opal mining field; Toompine Field is located between Quilpie and Yowah.

Flora and fauna

The most common species of trees in the district are: * Mulga * Gidgee *

Red river gum ''Eucalyptus camaldulensis'', commonly known as the river red gum, is a tree that is endemic to Australia. It has smooth white or cream-coloured bark, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of seven or nine, white flowers an ...

Bloodwood Bloodwood is a common name for several unrelated trees, including: * '' Baloghia inophylla'' (Brush or Scrub bloodwood), '' Baloghia marmorata'' (Marbled bloodwood), '' Baloghia parviflora'' (Small-flowered bloodwood), all found in Australia * ' ...

Sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...

* Beefwood There are a large range of animals (including reptiles and insects) that can be found in the area including: *

Bearded dragon ''Pogona'' is a genus of reptiles containing six lizard species which are often known by the common name bearded dragons. The name "bearded dragon" refers to the underside of the throat (or "beard") of the lizard, which can turn black and gain we ...

Sand goanna The sand goanna (''Varanus gouldii'') is a species of large Australian monitor lizard, also known as Gould's monitor, sand monitor, or racehorse goanna. Taxonomy John Edward Gray described the species in 1838 as ''Hydrosaurus gouldii'', noting ...

(''Varanus gouldii'') – ''bungarra'' in some aboriginal languages *

Black-headed python The black-headed python (''Aspidites melanocephalus'') Mehrtens JM (1987). ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . is a species of snake in the Pythonidae (the python family). The species is endemic to A ...

* Inland taipan (''Oxyuranus microlepidotus'') – also known as western taipan and fierce snake *

Mulga snake The king brown snake (''Pseudechis australis'') is a species of highly venomous snake of the family Elapidae, native to northern, western, and Central Australia. Despite its common name, it is a member of the genus ''Pseudechis'' (black snakes) ...

(''Pseudechis australis'') – also known as the king brown *

Brolga The brolga (''Antigone rubicunda''), formerly known as the native companion, is a bird in the crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithologist John Gould in his ''Birds of Austral ...

(''Grus rubicunda'') *

Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...

(''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') *

Wedge-tailed eagle The wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax'') is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. Adults of this species have lon ...

(''Aquila audax'') *

Red kangaroo The red kangaroo (''Osphranter rufus'') is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest terrestrial mammal native to Australia, and the largest extant marsupial. It is found across mainland Australia, except for the more fertile areas, such as sou ...

(''Macropus rufus'') * Eastern grey kangaroo (''Macropus giganteus'') *

Common wallaroo The common wallaroo (''Osphranter robustus''), also known as the euro, hill wallaroo, or simply wallaroo, is a species of macropod. The word ''euro'' is particularly applied to one subspecies (''O. r. erubescens'').WE Poole and JC Merchant (198 ...

(''Macropus robustus'') * Bilby (''Macrotis lagotis'') * Water rat (''Hydromys chrysogaster'') *

Dingo The dingo (''Canis familiaris'', ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (Basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage of dog found in Australia (continent), Australia. Its taxonomic classification is de ...

Facilities and services

Quilpie residents enjoy free access to many amenities including the town library, swimming pool, golf course, museum, sports grounds, an air-conditioned hall and supper room etc. There are well stocked stores and plenty of attractions for visitors with displays of opals and the works of local artists and as well as an information centre. The Brick Hotel has been restored to house displays of opal and art and provide a community learning space. Quilpie Shire Council operates Quilpie Shire Library, 52 Brolga Street, Quilpie. The Quilpie 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 at 17 Brolga Street.

Education

Quilpie State College
is a government primary and secondary (Early Childhood-10) school for boys and girls at Cnr Chulungra & Boonkai Streets (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 61 students with 12 teachers (11 full-time equivalent) and 12 non-teaching staff (9 full-time equivalent). For Students wanting to study Year 11 and 12, the closest secondary school i
Charleville State High School
in Charleville, 208 kilometres (129 mi) to the east. Alternatively, Year 11 and 12 students can also study through th
Charleville School of Distance Education
or move away to various boarding schools.
St Finbarr's School
is a Catholic primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at Jabiru Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 30 students with 5 teachers (3 full-time equivalent) and 5 non-teaching staff (2 full-time equivalent).
Eromanga State School
currently operates in the township of Eromanga approximately 90 km west of Quilpie. It has had a chequered history when it was open in the following years – 1897–1908, 1910–1911, 1917–1936, 1967–1981, 1990–present. Many other public schools have operated in the Quilpie district. The Milo Provisional School was functional between 1888 and 1906. Adavale State School had a long history from 1888 to 1968. Cheepie State School opened in 1915 and closed in 1974. The Toompine Provisional School was open between 1900 and 1902, for a time operating as a half-time school with Duck Creek State School which was open between 1901 and 1905. The Goombie State School operated between 1875 and 1977.

Climate

Quilpie 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 ...

( Köppen: ''BSh'', Trewartha: ''BShl''); with very hot summers with occasional rains; warm to hot, relatively dry springs and autumns; and mild, dry winters.

Events

* The Pride of the West festival is held in September every year. * The Quilpie Cup Races * The Kangaranga Do festival is held in September every year on the Tuesday before the Birdsville Races.

Notable people from Quilpie

Vaughan Johnson Vaughan Monroe Johnson (March 24, 1962 – December 12, 2019) was an American professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for the New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles. He also was a member of t ...

, Queensland state politician *

Ewen Jones Ewen Thomas Jones (born 7 March 1960) is a former Australian politician representing the division of Herbert for the Liberal National Party from the 2010 federal election until the 2016 federal election. Jones won the division of Herbert in ...

, Australian federal politician * Professor Don Markwell, social scientist and educational leader *

Sandy McPhie Alexander Carpendale "Sandy" McPhie (10 February 1929 – 5 December 2015) was an Australian politician. He was a National Party member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1983 to 1989, representing the electorate of Toowoomba North. ...

, former Queensland state politician * Justine Saunders, late Australian actor

Gallery

References

External links

University of Queensland: Queensland Places: Quilpie and Quilpie Shire

Official website of Shire of Quilpie

Town map of Quilie, 1984
*
Living in Quilpie
' by Ben Hall, a 3 min 20 sec video, published by

State Library of Queensland The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Queensland Libraries Act 1988. It contai ...

as part of Storylines:Q150 digital stories {{Authority control Towns in Queensland South West Queensland Shire of Quilpie Populated places established in 1917 1917 establishments in Australia Localities in Queensland