Butchers Creek is a rural

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

Tablelands Region The Tablelands Region is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia inland from the city of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns. Established in 2008, it was preceded by four previous local government areas ...

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 , Butchers Creek had a population of 85 people.

Geography

Butchers Creek is on the eastern edge of the

Atherton Tableland The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau, which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It has very deep, rich basaltic soils and the main industry is agriculture. The principal river flowing across the plateau is the B ...

. It is one of the few parts of the tableland that drains eastward, its creeks being tributaries of the

Mulgrave River The Mulgrave River, incorporating the East Mulgrave River and the West Mulgrave River, is a river system in Far North Queensland, Australia. The -long river flows towards the Coral Sea and is located approximately south of . Location and feat ...

. The area receives high rainfall and the traditional land use has been for dairying and beef fattening.

History

Butchers Creek is said to take its name from a massacre of the

Ngajanji The Ngajanji, also written ''Ngadyan,'' and Ngadjon-Jii are an Indigenous Australian people of the rainforest region south of Cairns, in northern Queensland. They form one of eight groups, the others being Yidin, Mamu, Dyirbal, Girramay, War ...

people at a

bora ring Bora is an initiation ceremony of the Aboriginal people of Eastern Australia. The word "bora" also refers to the site on which the initiation is performed. At such a site, boys, having reached puberty, achieve the status of men. The initiation ...

in the area in the 1880s. In the early 20th century, a group of Russian immigrants established dairy farms in the area, giving it the nickname "Little Siberia". Butchers Creek Provisional School opened on 8 October 1913 with 11 students studying under teacher John Tait. It became Butchers Creek State School in 1918. The school celebrated its centenary in 2013.

Demographics

In the , Butchers Creek had a population of 113 people. In the , Butchers Creek had a population of 85 people.

Education

Butchers Creek State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at the corner of Topaz and Gadaloff Roads (). In 2016, the school had an enrolment of 27 students with 2 teachers and 4 non-teaching staff (2 full-time equivalent). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 11 students with 2 teachers (1 full-time equivalent) and 4 non-teaching staff (2 full-time equivalent). It includes a special education program.

Notable residents

Alexander Prokhorov Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, ; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Russian physicist and researcher on lasers and masers, in the former Soviet Union. He shared the Nobel Prize in P ...

, winner of the

Nobel Prize for Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prize, Nobel Prizes establi ...

in 1964, was born in Butchers Creek (then part of Peeramon) and attended Butchers Creek State School.

References

{{Tablelands Region Tablelands Region Localities in Queensland