Widgeegoara 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 Paroo The Shire of Paroo is a local government area in South West Queensland, Australia. The administrative centre is the town of Cunnamulla. The Paroo Shire covers an area of . In the , the Shire had a population of 1,679. The region incorporates t ...

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 , Widgeegoara had a population of 34 people.

Geography

Noorama Creek and Widgeegoara Creek flow through the locality from the north-west (

Cunnamulla Cunnamulla () is a town and a locality in the Shire of Paroo, Queensland, Australia. It is south of Charleville, and approximately west of the state capital, Brisbane. In the , Cunnamulla had a population of 1,140 people. Geography Cunnamulla ...

) to the south ( Noorama). These creeks are

distributaries A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Distributaries are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation. The opposite of a distributar ...

of the

Warrego River The Warrego River is an intermittent river that is part of the Darling River, Darling catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, which is located in South West Queensland and in the Orana (New South Wales), Orana region of New South Wales, Aus ...

. The predominant land use is grazing of cattle and sheep.

History

The locality's name come from the parish and creek of the same name, which in turn was the name of a pastoral run used since 1867. It is believed to be an Aboriginal word combination meaning ''turn around quickly''. In 1878 the Widgeegoara Station was described when offered for sale as:

''The well-known Widgeegoara Station, in the Warrego district, situate about 180 miles from Bourke, and containing about 180 square miles of magnificent sheep country, consisting of open plains, heavily grassed with blue, barley, and other grasses and herbage, and saltbush in abundance, and is of the most fattening description.'' ''The run is abundantly watered, having fifteen miles frontage to the Widgeegoara Creek, with two large dams, and has also two tanks, one of 12,000 yards, with ten miles of drains leading into it, and one of 800 yards, and two fresh-water wells, one of which has been in constant use for five years, and gives a good supply.'' ''The tanks and dams are all full at present.'' ''The improvements also comprise home paddock, stock and sheep yards, a good dwelling-house, with kitchen, store, outhouses, and stable.'' ''The run will be sold without stock.'' ''The wethers from this station have averaged 621b. in the Sydney market.''

In October 1884 Messrs Bignell of Widgeegoara Station successfully constructed a bore that obtained sub-artesian water, the first in Queensland. Widgeegoara Provisional School opened circa 1898. From May 1903 it was a half-time school operated in conjunction with Abbadoah Provisional School (presumably at Abbadoah Station at ) with a single teacher serving at the two schools, but that arrangement was reversed in June 1903 with the teacher returning to Widgeegoara Provisional School on a full-time basis. However, due to low student numbers, the school was closed in either late 1903 or early 1904.

References

{{Shire of Paroo Shire of Paroo Localities in Queensland