Collinsville 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
Whitsunday Region
The Whitsunday Region is a local government area located in North Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by two previous local government areas with a history extending back to the establishment of regional local government ...
,
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 , Collinsville had a population of 1,496 people.
[
]
Geography
Collinsville is in the coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
-rich Bowen Basin
The Bowen Basin contains the largest coal reserves in Australia. This major coal-producing region contains one of the world's largest deposits of bituminous coal. The Basin contains much of the known Permian coal resources in Queensland includ ...
region of Central Queensland
Central Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Capricorn Coas ...
, north of 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 south-west of the coastal town of Bowen. The Bowen Developmental Road
Bowen Developmental Road is a rural strategic main road in Queensland, Australia. It is part of State Route 77, and functions as a highway. It has a length of and extends in northeast-southwest direction from Bowen on the east coast of Au ...
passes through the town connecting with Bowen to the north-east and the Gregory Highway
The Gregory Highway is a state highway in Queensland, Australia that serves the major coal-mining centres of Central Queensland. The highway was named after Augustus Gregory, an early explorer.
Route description
The highway runs southward from ...
at Belyando Crossing to the south-west.
The Newlands railway system passes through Collinsville serving local mines. The line passes through the town itself but the Collinsville railway station is only a siding near the junction of Station Street and Railway Road ().
History
Biri (Birri) is an Aboriginal language of Central Queensland
Central Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Capricorn Coas ...
and North Queensland
North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...
. Biri refers to a language chain extending from Central Queensland towards Townsville
Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...
and is often used as a universal name for other languages and/or dialects across the region. The language area includes the towns of Bowen, Ayr
Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire Subdivisions of Scotland, council area and the historic Shires of Scotlan ...
, Collinsville and Nebo.
European settlement of the region began in 1861 with the opening of the lands to pastoralists, with some cattle station
In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stati ...
s still in operation.
Coal was discovered in 1866 but it was not until 1912 that large-scale mining operations commenced.
The town was originally known as ''Moongunya'', an aboriginal word that roughly translates to ''place of coal''.Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
This is a list of members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, the state parliament of Queensland, sorted by parliament.
See also
* Queensland Legislative Assembly electoral districts
This is a list of current and former electoral div ...
for Bowen from 1915 to 1936.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 1922).Bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
Joseph Shiel
Joseph Shiel (17 February 1873 – 7 April 1931) was a Roman Catholic priest in Australia. He was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Rockhampton from 26 January 1913 until his death on 7 April 1931.
Early life
Joseph Shiel was born on 17 February 18 ...
officially opened the church in the presence of many people, including almost 500 people who had travelled from Bowen on a special train arranged for the occasion accompanied by the Bowen Brass Band.
Methodist services were being held in Collinsville by the Methodist minister based in Bowen since at least 1935. In December 1946 tenders were called to erect a Methodist church in Sonoma Street. In 1947 the foundation stone for the Collinsville Methodist Church was laid. On 7 February 1948 the church was officially opened. When the Methodist Church amalgamated into the Uniting Church in Australia
The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union ...
in 1977, it became the Collinsville Uniting Church.
The St John Bosco Catholic School was established in 1936 under the Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...
. The school is named after Saint John Bosco
John Melchior Bosco ( it, Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco; pms, Gioann Melchior Bòsch; 16 August 181531 January 1888), popularly known as Don Bosco , was an Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic priest, educator, writer and saint of the 19t ...
, a Roman Catholic priest who devoted himself to the betterment of children through love and education.
On 13 October 1954, seven men were killed in the deepest part of the Collinsville State Coal Mine about 1.5 kilometres from the entrance of the No. 1 tunnel, when an outburst dislodged 900 tonnes of earth. The Collinsville mine disaster
The Collinsville mine disaster on 13 October 1954 resulted in the death of seven men at the Collinsville coal mine in Collinsville, Queensland, Australia.
Before the disaster
The coal in the mine was very porous. The floor in the "dip" (near th ...
was the largest loss of life in a Queensland mine since the Mount Mulligan mine disaster
__NOTOC__
The Mount Mulligan mine disaster occurred on 19 September 1921 in Mount Mulligan, Far North Queensland, Australia. A series of explosions in the local coal mine, audible as much as 30 km away, rocked the close-knit township.
...
in 1921.
Collinsville State High School opened on 28 January 1986.
Heritage listings
Collinsville has a number of 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 ...
sites, including:
* Collinsville-Scottville Road: Collinsville Cemetery
* Strathbowen-Leichhardt Range Road: Bowen River Hotel
Bowen River Hotel is a heritage-listed hotel at Strathbowen-Leichhardt Range Road, Mount Wyatt, Whitsunday Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built . It is also known as Heidelberg Inn. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 ...
Economy
The town is home to a number of coal mines. This includes the Collinsville coal mine
The Collinsville Coal Mine is a coal mine located in Springlands and Collinsville in the Whitsunday Region, Queensland, Australia. The open-cut mine lies in the northern Bowen Basin. Collinsville produces coking and steaming coal for both dome ...
and the Sonoma Mine. These provide significant employment to the town and surrounding areas.
The town is expected to grow further with the development of more mining related projects, and green energy such as solar power is shaping up to be an important job creating industry for Collinsville.
It is also hoped that a new connecting road, leading to Proserpine, will be built. This will enable faster travel between the town and the coastal plain, and will also open up new opportunities for land development and export.
Facilities
Facilities in Collinsville include a district hospital, a pharmacy, a newsagent, a bakery, two fuel stations, two medium size grocery stores, two places to buy clothing and a hardware shop.
Amenities
The Whitsunday Regional Council
The Whitsunday Region is a local government area located in North Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by two previous local government areas with a history extending back to the establishment of regional local government ...
operates the Collinsville Library, located on 37 Conway Street, Collinsville. It was opened in 1982.
The Collinsville 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 ...
meets at 33 Conway Street.
There are four churches: Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
, Uniting, and Assembly of God
The Assemblies of God (AG), officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 144 autonomous self-governing national groupings of churches that together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination."Assemblies of God". ...
. Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is at 28 Stanley Street (). Collinsville Uniting Church is at 33 Sonoma Street (corner of Conway Street, ).
Sporting facilities include a golf course, rugby league grounds, tennis courts, a public swimming pool, squash courts, and lawn bowls.
Education
Collinsville has two primary schools, Collinsville State School and St John Bosco's Catholic Primary School, and a State High School.
Attractions
A recreational vehicle park has been built offering 72-hour free stays for recreational vehicles and campervans.
References
External links
*
Coalface Experience - Mining Museum Website
Collinsville Memoirs Online
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Towns in Queensland
Mining towns in Queensland
Whitsunday Region
Localities in Queensland