Collinsville, Queensland
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Collinsville is a 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 Whitsunday Region,
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 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 Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...
-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 imprecisely-defined 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 Cap ...
, north of
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
and south-west of the coastal town of Bowen. The Bowen Developmental Road 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 fro ...
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 ().


Climate


History

Biri (Birri) is an Aboriginal language of
Central Queensland Central Queensland is an imprecisely-defined 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 Cap ...
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 North Queensland, trop ...
. Biri refers to a language chain extending from Central Queensland towards
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 ...
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 ( ; ; , 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 ...
, 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''. On 20 September 1921 it was officially renamed Collinsville after Charles Collins who was the Labor
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 dis ...
for Bowen from 1915 to 1936. Collinsville State School opened on 27 June 1921. Collinsville Post Office opened on 21 May 1923 (a
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). The foundation stone of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church was laid on Sunday 3 April 1927 by Reverend Father Eveney. On Sunday 17 July 1927
Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
Joseph Shiel 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) is a united church in Australia. The church was founded on 22 June 1977 when most Wiktionary:congregation, congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church o ...
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 for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...
. The school is named after Saint
John Bosco John Melchior Bosco, Salesians of Don Bosco, SDB (; ; 16 August 181531 January 1888), popularly known as Don Bosco or Dom Bosco (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ), was an Italian Catholic priest, educator and writer. While working in Tu ...
, 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 was the largest loss of life in a Queensland mine since the Mount Mulligan mine disaster in 1921. Collinsville State High School opened on 28 January 1986.


Demographics

In the , the locality of Collinsville had a population of 1,501 people, which declined to 1,248 in the , before rebounding to 1,496 in the .


Heritage listings

Collinsville 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: * Collinsville Cemetery, Collinsville-Scottville Road * Bowen River Hotel, Strathbowen-Leichhardt Range Road


Economy

The town is home to a number of coal mines. This includes the Collinsville coal mine 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 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 List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
,
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
, Uniting, and
Assembly of God The World Assemblies of God Fellowship (WAGF), commonly known as the Assemblies of God (AG), is a global cooperative body or communion of over 170 Pentecostal denominations that was established on August 15, 1989. The WAGF was created to provi ...
. 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. In 2014, the Collinsville State School had an enrolment of 42 students with 4 teachers. In 2014, the Collinsville State High School had an enrolment of 77 students with 12 teachers (11 full-time equivalent). In 2016, St John Bosco's Catholic Primary School had an enrolment of 50 students.


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
{{authority control Towns in Queensland Mining towns in Queensland Whitsunday Region Localities in Queensland