Brandon is a rural town and

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

in the

Shire of Burdekin The Shire of Burdekin is a local government area located in North Queensland, Australia in the Dry Tropics region. The district is located between Townsville and Bowen in the delta of the Burdekin River. The shire covers an area of . It has e ...

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 , the locality of Brandon had a population of 1,088 people.

History

Brandon was surveyed as a site for a township in 1882 and the first allotments were sold later that year. The town is named after Henry Brandon a sugar pioneer in the Mackay and Lower Burdekin regions. Henry Brandon was also the son-in-law of the colonist, Korah Halcomb Wills. Brandon

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

opened on 6 September 1883. Prior to that a Receiving office called Pioneer Estate, Lower Burdekin had serviced the area. The Receiving office name was changed to Brandon in August 1883. Brandon Provisional School opened in the town on 9 April 1888. It became Brandon State School on 11 July 1898. Kalamia State School opened beside the Kalamia Sugar Mill on 18 July 1928.

Demographics

In the , the town of Brandon had a population of 783 people. In the , the locality of Brandon had a population of 1,267 people. In the , the locality of Brandon had a population of 1,094 people. In the , the locality of Brandon had a population of 1,088 people.

Heritage listings

Brandon has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and human-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In ma ...

sites, including: * St Patrick's Catholic Church, 27 Spiller Street

Economy

Brandon is a

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

growing area with underground water supplies to irrigate crops. Wilmar Sugar Australia operates two sugar mills in Brandon, the Kalamia Sugar Mill in the north-east of the locality on Lilliesmere Road beside the Lilliesmere Lagoon () and the Pioneer Sugar Mill in the west of the locality on Pioneer Mill Road ().

Education

Brandon State School is a government primary (Prep–6) school for boys and girls at Drysdale Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 45 students with 4 teachers and 6 non-teaching staff (4 full-time equivalent). Kalamia State School is a government primary (Prep–6) school for boys and girls at Lilliesmere Road (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 14 students with 1 teacher and 5 non-teaching staff (2 full-time equivalent). There are no secondary schools in Brandon. The nearest government secondary school is Ayr State High School in neighbouring

Ayr Ayr ( ; ; , meaning "confluence of the River Àir"), is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. A former royal burgh, today it is the administrative centre of South Ayrshire Council, and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With ...

to the east.

Sport

Pioneer Park Speedway is a

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

venue to the south west on Bruce Highway. The track has been a significant venue for important speedway events, including qualifying rounds of the

Speedway World Championship The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The first official championsh ...

and the final of the

Australian Solo Championship The Australian Individual Speedway Championship historically known as the Australian Solo Championship is a motorcycle speedway championship held each year to determine the Australian national champion. It is organised by Motorcycling Australia ...

References

External links

* *
Burdekin OnlineBurdekin Shire Council
{{authority control Towns in Queensland Shire of Burdekin Localities in Queensland