Koumala is a rural town and coastal

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 , the locality of Koumala had a population of 772 people.

Geography

In the east, Cape Palmerston National Park protects the landscape surrounding Mount Funnel and Cape Palmerston. To the west is the Hatfield Range known locally are the Koumala Range. A gravel road over this range provides alternate access to the Sarina hinterland and was the only route available for several years after the paved route over the Sarina range was destroyed by landslides that occurred during

Cyclone Debbie Severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie in 2017 was the strongest tropical cyclone to strike Queensland since Cyclone Marcia, Marcia in 2014–15 Australian region cyclone season, 2015, and was the costliest tropical cyclone in Australia since Cyclone ...

. The main rail line between the

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 ...

coal mines Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

and the port of Hay Point also passes over this range with speed restricted to on the downhill section of line, because of several derailments which have occurred in this section of track. There are a number of neighbourhoods within the locality, including: * Inneston () * Karremal () * Kelvin () * Koumala South () * Loloma () Yukan railway station is located at .

Etymology

The town name ''Koumala'' originally derives from the name of its railway station, which was named in 1914 after a sugar property used by Alfred H. Burbank, a sugar grower and surveyor, using a Fijian word meaning ''

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...

''. The neighbourhood name ''Inneston'' comes from the Inneston railway station, which was named by the

Queensland Railways Department Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Queensland Rail is owned by the Queensland Government, and operates both suburban and interurban rail services in South East Queensland, as well as long-distance passenger t ...

on 25 November 1911 after Alexander (Alex) Innes (6 April 1866 - 24 August 1948). Innes was the chairman of

Plane Creek Sugar Mill Plane Creek Sugar Mill is a sugar mill in Sarina, Queensland, Sarina, Queensland, Australia. It is owned and operated by Wilmar Sugar Australia. History The Plane Creek Sugar Mill opened in 1896. It was owned and operated by the Plane Creek ...

in the late 1890s and again for 36 years from 1911 and also the chairman of

Sarina Shire Council The Shire of Sarina was a local government area located in the Central Queensland region of Queensland, Australia. The shire, administered from the town of Sarina, covered an area of , and existed as a local government entity from 1912 until 200 ...

in 1912 and in 1920. The neighbourhood name ''Karremal'' comes from the Karremal railway station, which was named on16 December 1920. It is an Aboriginal word meaning ''heat''. The neighbourhood name ''Loloma'' comes from the Loloma railway station, named on 19 November 1914. The name ''Yukan'' is an Aboriginal word meaning ''rain''.

History

British colonisation at Koumala began in the early 1860s when Mark Millet Christian established the ''Kelvin Grove'' pastoral farming station. In 1867, after some Aboriginal people had speared cattle at this pastoral lease, the

Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...

troopers chased members of the clan to some islands offshore and when they tried to return to the mainland "such a lesson was administered" to keep them from "committing outrages in that locality". Koumala Post Office opened on 28 February 1884. The town was part of the former

Shire of Sarina The Shire of Sarina was a Local government in Australia, local government area located in the Central Queensland region of Queensland, Australia. The shire, administered from the town of Sarina, Queensland, Sarina, covered an area of , and exist ...

. Koumala State School opened in August 1922. The railway goods shed and associated huts doubled for school purposes from 1922 to 1923 when a proper school house was built, as well as for social functions until a hall was built. Yukan State School opened on 1929 and closed circa 1942. On Sunday 30 May 1954, the Catholic Church of the Holy Family was officially opened by

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 ...

Andrew Gerard Tynan Andrew Gerard Tynan (1907–1960) was a Catholic prelate and the Bishop of Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia, from 31 March 1946 until his death on 3 June 1960. He was the first Queenslander to be appointed as a bishop. He was born in Br ...

. It has now closed. It was at 18-20 Graham Street (). The church building is still extant.

Demographics

In the , the locality of Koumala had a population of 789 people. In the , the locality of Koumala had a population of 831 people. In the , the locality of Koumala had a population of 772 people.

Heritage listings

Koumala 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: * Koumala War Memorial: Mumby Street ()

Education

Koumala State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at Bull Street (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 114 students with 8 teachers (6 full-time equivalent) and 8 non-teaching staff (5 full-time equivalent). There is no secondary school in Koumala. The nearest secondary school is

Sarina State High School Sarina State High School is located in the small rural town of Sarina, Queensland, Australia. The school had 600 students in 2013 with a reported 20 percent continuing studies at University. Sarina State High previously boasted a marine aquarium ...

in neighbouring

Sarina Sarina is a rural town and coastal Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Sarina had a population of 5,619 people. Geography Sarina lies just inland of the east coa ...

to the north.

Amenities

The Mackay Regional Council operates a mobile library service on a fortnightly schedule at Bull Street near the school. The Koumala 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 the CWA Hall at 33 Brown Street ().

References

External links

* * * {{authority control Towns in Queensland Mackay Region Coastline of Queensland Localities in Queensland