Jericho 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

Barcaldine Region The Barcaldine Region is a local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by three previous local government areas which had existed for over a century. It has an estimated operating budget of ...

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 Jericho had a population of 229 people.

Geography

Jericho is in

Central West Queensland Central West Queensland (abbreviated CWQ) is a remote region in the Australian state of Queensland which covers 396,650.2 km2. The region lies to the north of South West Queensland and south of the Gulf Country. It has a population of appr ...

. The town is centrally located in the south of its locality. The

Capricorn Highway The Capricorn Highway is located in Central Queensland, Australia, and links the city of Rockhampton with western Queensland. The highway is long, and joins the Landsborough Highway at Barcaldine. Formerly National Route 66, Queensland began ...

traverses the locality from west (

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis (cartoonist), Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976 (later changed to ''Garfield'' in 1977), then in nationwide Print syndication, syndication from 1978, it chro ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

) to east ( Hobartville/Mexico), passing through the town on Darwin Street. The Blackall–Jericho Road commences at the town and exits the locality via the south (Mexico). The Central Western railway passes through the town and locality, immediately to the south of the highway to the west of the town and immediately to the north of the highway to the east of the town. The town is served by the Jericho railway station on Darwin Street (). Lagoon Creek rises north of the town and exits the locality to the north-east (Garfield). Jordan Creek enters the locality from the south (Mexico), passes to the immediate east of the town and splits into two branches north of the town, both of which exit the locality to the north (Garfield). All of these watercourses become tributaries to the Alice River in Garfield and contribute to the Lake Eyre drainage basin. The principal land use outside of the town is

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

on native vegetation.

History

The first exploration by Europeans was by Major Thomas Mitchell who passed through the area in 1846. By the 1850s, settlers had moved in. The Jordan Creek/River (as it is variously known) was named after Harry Jordan, an early settler in the area. The town and locality name are derived from the railway station, which had been named Jericho in 1885 by railway surveyor and engineer Willoughby Hannam in a reference to the Biblical town of

Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...

being to the west of the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

, since it was the first station to the west of Jordan Creek. The Central Western railway was opened to Jericho on 8 June 1885. Jericho Post Office opened on 2 July 1885; 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 1884. Jericho State School opened on 20 February 1888. Jericho Methodist Church opened in October 1930. It became the Jericho Uniting Church following the merger of many Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches 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, but closed subsequently and is now in private ownership. It was at 15 Davy Street (). In December 2010, half of the town's houses were inundated by

floods A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

. On 22 November 2019 the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

decided to amalgamate the localities in the Barcaldine Region, resulting in five expanded localities based on the larger towns:

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

, Aramac, Barcaldine, Jericho and

Muttaburra Muttaburra is an outback town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia. Muttaburra was the discovery site of the ''Muttaburrasaurus'', one of Australia's most famous dinosaurs. In the , t ...

. Jericho was expanded to incorporate Dunrobin (all except the south-west corner),

(all except the western corner), Grant (eastern corner), Hobartville (south-western part),

, and Narbethong (north-east corner).

Demographics

In the , Jericho and the surrounding region had a population of 369 people. In the , the locality of Jericho had a population of 115 people. In the , the locality of Jericho had a population of 229 people.

Facilities

Jericho has a drive-in theatre, park, swimming pool, town hall and showground. Barcaldine Regional Council operates a library at 6 Darwin Street inside the Tourist Information Centre. The Jericho 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 ...

has its rooms at 7 Faraday Street.

Education

Jericho State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at Pasteur Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 9 students with 1 teacher and 4 non-teaching staff (2 full-time equivalent).

Tourist attractions

The Crystal Trumpeters monument and the statue of

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

made of

barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire or bob wire (in the Southern and Southwestern United States), is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the ...

are both located within Jericho.

References

External links

Town map of Jericho, 1981

{{authority control Towns in Queensland Barcaldine Region Localities in Queensland