Toonpan is a rural locality in the

City of Townsville The City of Townsville is a local government area (LGA) located in North Queensland, Australia. It encompasses the city of Townsville, together with the surrounding rural areas. To the south are the communities of Alligator Creek, Woodstock a ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. In the , Toonpan had a population of 62 people.

Geography

The locality is bounded to the west by the Mount Isa railway line and the Flinders Highway. The terrain varies from above sea level with the higher elevations in the east of the locality, the foothills of Mount Elliot. The land use is predominantly

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

on native vegetation with a small amount of crop growing.

History

The first section of the Great Northern railway line opened on 20 December 1880 and followed a southerly path from Townsville to Reid River via Stuart, Antill Plains, Toonpan,

Woodstock The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...

and

Calcium Calcium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to it ...

. Toonpan railway station was at (now within the present-day boundaries of the suburb of Ross River). Toonpan Provisional School opened circa 1895, becoming Toonpan State School on 1 January 1909. Between 1920 and 1923, it operated as a half-time school with Manton Provisional School (meaning the two schools shared a single teacher). It resumed as a full-time state school in 1923. It closed in circa 1940. It was located immediately south-west of the railway station. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the 29th Brigade of the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

was based in Toonpan from May to September 1942. After September it moved to the Black River area, north of

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

, before going to

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

in January 1943. In the 1980s, the second stage of the Ross River Dam necessitated a deviation of the Flinders Highway and Mount Isa railway line (which otherwise ran straight north–south) further east. This was completed by 1986 and resulted in the closure of Toonpan and Barringha railway stations on the removed route; they were not re-established on new route. The locality was officially named and bounded on 27 July 1991.

Demographics

In the , Toonpan had a population of 57 people. In the , Toonpan had a population of 62 people.

Education

There are no schools in Toonpan. The nearest government primary school is Woodstock State School in

to the south. The nearest government secondary school is William Ross State High School in Annandale,

, to the north.

Geography

History

Demographics

Education

References

Further reading