Kinchant Dam 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

Mackay Region The Mackay Region is a local government area located in North Queensland, Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by three previous local government areas with modern histories extending back as far as 1869. It has an estimat ...

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 , Kinchant Dam had a population of 183 people.

Geography

The water storage facility named Lake Kinchant created by the

Kinchant Dam Kinchant Dam is a dam in the locality of Kinchant Dam in the Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia. It created the reservoir Lake Kinchant (). It has a storage capacity of . Geography The dam is built on Sandy Creek to provide irrigation and t ...

is wholly within the locality. The dam is built on Sandy Creek to provide irrigation and town water. However most of the water in the lake does not come from Sandy Creek but is pumped from the

Pioneer River The Pioneer River is a river in North Queensland, Australia. The long river flows through the city of . History Captain John Mackay and his party were the first Europeans to discover the river in 1860. Mackay named it Mackay River after his ...

at Mirani Weir into an channel into the lake. Mount Kinchant is in the south-west of the locality () and rises to above sea level. Much of the mountain is within the Mount Kinchart Conservation Park. The locality is south-west of Mackay via the

Bruce Highway The Bruce Highway is a major highway in Queensland, Australia. Commencing in the state capital, Brisbane, it passes through areas close to the eastern coast on its way to Cairns in Far North Queensland. The route is part of the Australian Natio ...

Peak Downs Highway The Peak Downs Highway links the towns of Mackay, Queensland, Mackay and Clermont, Queensland, Clermont in the Australian state of Queensland. It represents the main link between Queensland's Whitsunday Islands, Whitsunday Coast and the Central ...

, North Eton Road, Marian – Eton Road ( State Route 5) and Kinchant Dam Road.

History

Francis Charlton Kinchant (1790–1815) was killed in the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...

. His middle name (Charlton) was his grandmothers maiden surname. While it may not have been a well-used given name, his heroic death may have inspired another Kinchant (not necessarily a relative) to name his son “Francis Charlton”. In 1856 a man named Francis Charlton Kinchant arrived in Australia. On 18 March 1867 he married Jane Martin in

Mackay Mackay may refer to: *Clan Mackay, the Scottish clan from which the surname "MacKay" derives Mackay may also refer to: Places Australia * Mackay Region, a local government area ** Mackay, Queensland, a city in the above region *** Mackay Airport ...

, supposedly the first wedding in that town. His connection to the Mackay district is unknown but it is likely that Mount Kinchant was named for him. He died in Mackay in 1913. The dam was built in 1977.

Demographics

In the , Kinchant Dam had a population of 123 people. In the , Kinchant Dam had a population of 183 people.

Education

Kinchant Dam Outdoor Education Centre is an Outdoor and Environmental Education Centre at 685 Kinchant Dam Road (). It offers camping programs to develop teamwork, leadership, and resilience. There are no regular schools in the locality. The nearest primary schools are North Eton State School in neighbouring North Eton to the east, Eton State School in neighbouring

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England *Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States *Éton, a commune in the Meuse depa ...

to the south-east and Mirani State School in neighbouring Mirani to the north. The nearest secondary school is Mirani State High School in Mirani.

Attractions

Kinchant Dam offers opportunities for fishing and boating. There is a boat ramp into Kinchant Dam on Kinchant Dam Road (), which is managed by the

SunWater Sunwater is a statutory Queensland Government -owned corporation that supplies bulk water to over irrigation, industry and urban customers and water consultancy services to a range of institutional clients across regional Queensland, Australia ...

. There is also a downhill mountain bike circuit. There is a lookout and picnic and barbeque facilities. Camping is available.

References