Georgetown 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 Etheridge,

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 Georgetown had a population of 254 people.

Geography

Georgetown is on the Etheridge River in

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The

Gulf Developmental Road Gulf Developmental Road is an Australian highway linking the Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and Normanton, Queensland, Normanton regions in northern Queensland, Australia. It is the only sealed (Asphalt concrete, asphalt) road linking these two reg ...

passes through the town, linking

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

- to the east - and Normanton - to the west. Georgetown is the administrative headquarters of the Shire of Etheridge, a local government area encompassing the nearby settlements of Mount Surprise, Forsayth and Einasleigh.

Climate

Georgetown has a borderline

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry "winter") and ''As'' (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Aw'') bordering on a

hot semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...

(''BSh''). The

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...

from mid-November to March is hot and humid with like all of tropical Queensland highly erratic rainfall. During the wet season, rainfall is highly concentrated into a few days from monsoonal depressions or remnant

cyclones In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an ant ...

. Wet season weather can vary from daily thunderstorm rains in active monsoon months like January and February 1974 when rain fell on fifty-five consecutive days and fell between December and March, to long sweltering and dry spells as in 1925/1926, when only fell during those four months. The

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

from April to mid-November is very warm, becoming sweltering in the "build-up" to the wet season during October and November and almost completely dry. Nevertheless, the height of the dry season features cool to pleasant mornings more typical of the

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

areas to the southeast, and Georgetown is amongst the most northerly locations in Australia to record frost, with the temperature falling as low as on 9 July 1974.

History

Georgetown area may have been part of North America 1.7 billion years ago based on the characteristics of rocks found in Georgetown matching those of northern Canada rather than the rest of Australia. Researchers at

Curtin University Curtin University (previously Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology) is an Australian public university, public research university based in Bentley, Western Australia, Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. ...

have postulated that 100 million years later, this landmass collided with what is now northern Australia, at the

Mount Isa Mount Isa ( ) is a city in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, Australia. It came into existence because of the vast mineral deposits found in the area. Mount Isa Mines (MIM) is one of the most productive mines in world history, based on co ...

region, forming the Nuna supercontinent. Ewamian are the traditional owners of the area around Georgetown. The Etheridge River was the site of a gold rush in the 1870s; the town of Georgetown was established on the site of the diggings. Originally known by the name Etheridge, the town's name was changed in 1871 to honour an early gold commissioner, Howard St George. Georgetown Post Office opened on 15 January 1872. Georgetown State School opened on 14 September 1874. As in many places around Australia associated with gold, Chinese miners also prospected and this included one or possibly two Joss Houses. By 1900, grazing had replaced gold mining as the region's primary source of income. The Georgetown Public Library opened in 2003.

Demographics

In the , the town of Georgetown had a population of 254 people. In the , the locality of Georgetown had a population of 243 people. In the , the locality of Georgetown had a population of 348 people. In the , the locality of Georgetown had a population of 254 people.

Heritage listings

Georgetown 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: * Aspasia Mine and Battery,

* Antbed House, South Street

Education

Georgetown State School is a government primary (Early Childhood to Year 6) school for boys and girls at High Street (). In 2014, Georgetown State School had an enrolment of 57 students with 3 teachers. In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 42 students with 4 teachers (3 full-time equivalent) and 7 non-teaching staff (4 full-time equivalent). There are no secondary schools in Georgetown, nor nearby. The options are

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

and boarding school.

Facilities

Georgetown Terrestrial Information Centre

Georgetown has a racecourse, swimming pool and a tourist information centre and camping/caravan park. The Etheridge Shire Council operates a public library at Low Street, Georgetown. The Georgetown branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association has its rooms on the Gulf Developmental Road. The Terrestrial Information Centre contains the Ted Elliot Mineral Collection, comprising over 4500 local and international mineral specimens. St Patrick's Catholic Church is at 26 High Street. It is within the Gulf Savannah Parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns.

In popular culture

Georgetown is one of the real locations mentioned several times in the novel ''

A Town Like Alice ''A Town Like Alice'' (United States title: ''The Legacy'') is a romance novel by Nevil Shute, published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia. Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman, becomes romantically interested in a fellow prisoner ...

'' by

Nevil Shute Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 189912 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name to protect his enginee ...

References

External links

University of Queensland: Queensland Places: Georgetown

Etheridge Shire Council

Town map, 1983

{{authority control Towns in Queensland Populated places in Far North Queensland Shire of Etheridge Localities in Queensland