Kilcoy, Queensland
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Kilcoy is a rural town and
locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...
in the
Somerset Region The Somerset Region is a local government area located in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland, Australia, about northwest of Brisbane and centred on the town of Esk. It was created in 2008 from a merger of the Shire of Esk and t ...
,
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...
, Australia. In the , the locality of Kilcoy had a population of 1,898 people.


Geography

The township is on the
D'Aguilar Highway The D'Aguilar Highway is a two-lane highway linking the Bruce Highway near Caboolture with Kingaroy in the state of Queensland, Australia. Major towns along the route include Woodford, Kilcoy, Blackbutt, Yarraman, Nanango and Kingaroy. The hi ...
, north west of the state capital,
Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
, and just to the north of
Lake Somerset The Somerset Dam is a mass concrete gravity dam with a gated spillway across the Stanley River in Queensland, Australia. It is within the locality of Somerset Dam in the Somerset Region in South East Queensland. The main purpose of the dam i ...
. The topography directly north of the town is dominated by the mountains of the
Conondale Range The Conondale Range is a mountain range in Queensland, located between Maleny, Kenilworth, Kilcoy and Jimna. The range is the most westerly part of the Sunshine Coast hinterland and part of the Great Dividing Range. The highest point on the rang ...
and covered by forests, some of which are protected in state forests and the Conondale National Park. Kilcoy is located in the
Somerset Region The Somerset Region is a local government area located in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland, Australia, about northwest of Brisbane and centred on the town of Esk. It was created in 2008 from a merger of the Shire of Esk and t ...
.


Climate

The Somerset region experiences a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa) with hot and humid summers and mild to warm winters with cool overnight temperatures. Median monthly rainfall at the Post Office weather Station in Kilcoy since records began in 1890 is . The highest recorded annual rainfall was in 1893, the year of the
1893 Brisbane flood The 1893 Brisbane flood, occasionally referred to as the Great Flood of 1893 or the Black February flood, occurred in 1893 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The Brisbane River burst its banks on three occasions in February 1893. It was the ...
also known as the Black February floods. Records of rainfall for the year of the
2010–11 Queensland floods 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...
in South East Queensland and for the period February 2010 to January 2011 are incomplete. Rainfall in January 2013, another year of floods was .


History


Aboriginal history

The Aboriginal people of the Brisbane River Valley and Kilcoy region are the Jinibara People, traditionally a nation of five clans: the Dungidau centred in the Kilcoy region and the junction of the
Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...
and Brisbane Rivers; the Dala or Dallumbara clan inhabiting the Conondale Range west to the Brisbane River; the Gurumngar around the southern end of the D’Aguilar Range; the Nalbo along the Maleny-Mapleton escarpment and the Dungibara on the Upper Brisbane River. '' Duungidjawu (''also known as ''Kabi Kabi, Cabbee, Carbi, Gabi Gabi)'' is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken on Duungidjawu country. The Duungidjawu language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of
Somerset Region The Somerset Region is a local government area located in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland, Australia, about northwest of Brisbane and centred on the town of Esk. It was created in 2008 from a merger of the Shire of Esk and t ...
and
Moreton Bay Region The Moreton Bay Region is a local government area in the north of the Brisbane metropolitan city in South East Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it replaced three established local government areas, the City of Redcliffe and the Shir ...
, particularly the towns of Caboolture, Kilcoy,
Woodford Woodford may refer to: Places Australia *Woodford, New South Wales *Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region *Woodford, Victoria Canada * Woodford, Ontario England *Woodford, Cornwall * Woodford, Gloucestershire *Woodford, Greate ...
and Moore''.'' Kilcoy was the heartland of the Jinibara People and the name comes from a patch of lawyer cane (jini) on Mount Kilcoy; 'bara' means' people' or 'folk'; thus Jinibara are the 'People of the Lawyer cane'. Kilcoy was known as Bumgur, meaning the 'blue cod'. The Kilcoy region is a rich Aboriginal cultural landscape. Mount Archer was known as Buruja, and also the name of a wetland near Villeneuve that was one of the main camps of the Dungidau clan. Bora rings existed at 'Wellcourt' on Somerset Dam and at Sandy Creek east of Kilcoy, Oaky Creek and Waraba Creek. The junction of the Brisbane and Stanley Rivers was known as Gunundjin, meaning a 'hollow place', and a sacred place, called Gairnbee Rock, recalled a dreaming story of a girl who went swimming there and was turned by her father, a gundir (clever man) by magic into a rock to save her from a dangerous evil spirit.Winterbotham, 1957 The Stanley River was also called Gairnbee, meaning the water gum. The Brisbane River was known as Mairwar or Mairrwarrh, meaning 'platypus' in Dungidau.


British colonisation

In 1841, brothers Evan and Colin Mackenzie, of Kilcoy Castle, Newtown Scotland, took up land west of Durundur (in the Stanley River valley) and began grazing sheep soon after land was opened to free settlement.Pioneers of the Kilcoy District Volume 1 Published 2002 by KDHS They named it after their home town. They sold the property to Charles A. Atherton in 1849. Atherton in turn sold it to Captain
Louis Hope Louis Hope (19 October 1817 – 15 August 1894) was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council. Early years Hope was born in Linlithgow, Scotland in 1817 to General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, and his wife Louisa Dorothea (né ...
and John Ramsay in 1854. The partnership broke up ten years later, and Hope became sole owner and built the Kilcoy Station homestead of bricks, made on the property, and red cedar. Station managers for Captain Hope were Bryant about 1860, Captain Talbot, 1864 and William Butler from 1871 until the sale, where he purchased the homestead block. Hopetoun Post Office opened on 1 December 1892 (a Kilcoy
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 s ...
had been open from 1889) and was renamed Kilcoy in 1907.


Massacre of Aboriginal people

In 1842 on the outskirts of Kilcoy Station owned by MacKenzie, 30–60 aborigines of the
Gubbi Gubbi The Gubbi Gubbi people also known as Kabi Kabi are an Aboriginal Australian people native to south-eastern Queensland. They are now classified as one of several Murri language groups in Queensland. Naming As is often the case, ethnonyms dist ...
tribe, two
Djindubari The Djindubari, also written Jindoobarrie or Joondubarri, are or were an Aboriginal Australian people of southern Queensland, whose traditional lands were located on Bribie Island. They are thought to be a horde or clan of the Undanbi. Language ...
and some men from the Dalla tribe died from eating flour that settlers had laced with strychnine or arsenic. Contrary to some claims, there were not a number of widely publicised instances around this time of large teams (30-50+) of white shearers being killed with strychnine in their evening meal, always in the period between them finishing the year's work and receiving their pay. The claim is completely specious. There were, however, many well documented instances of both mass poisonings and poisonings involving smaller numbers of Aboriginal Peoples Kilcoy, Whiteside, Wide Bay, the Clarence River, the Manning River, the Condamine, Maryborough (Qld), west of Mackay, the Hodgkinson Goldfields, Kowanyama, to name but a few. (Bottoms. Timothy, 2013. Conspiracy Of Silence. Allen and Unwin. Sydney. pp79-80.) In fact, in 1915, Dr Walter Roth, the former Chief Protector of Aborigines, was moved to write to a colleague, "As for arsenic (the) only experience the poor devils had of it was when mixed purposely with station flour.) (ibid. p 79)


Establishment of township

Towards the end of the 1800s, large properties and Government leases began to be divided up for closer settlement. Blocks capable of supporting a family were eagerly sought after, fenced and cleared. The main source of income for these settlers was dairying. In 1877, were resumed from the Kilcoy pastoral run and offered for selection on 19 April 1877. Timber milling operations were established as early as 1877, with Frank Nicholson building at Villeneuve, followed by James Green (1888), Hancock Brothers (1897), George Seeney and William and Stan Kropp in the same vicinity. The turn of the century saw a huge increase in activity as Hancock & Gore timber mill began operation. The site of the 'Town of Kilcoy' was surveyed by W. E. Hill by April 1888, and the first land sale was on 6 November that year. The township quickly developed at the junction of Sheep Station and Kilcoy Creeks to service these settlers and their families. By the 1890s, the only original lease country left was in the Mt Kilcoy and Sandy Creek districts, part of Durundur Station. This country was not opened for settlement until 1902.Kilcoy District Historical Society records Kilcoy's first Provisional School was opened in 1884 at Sheep Station Creek, some five to six miles north of Kilcoy Homestead, the name changing to Sheep Station Creek Provisional School in 1892 when the Kilcoy School opened its doors in Hope Street in Kilcoy. At that time there were still no subdivisions north of William Street as that was part of Kilcoy Station which was sold up in 1907.Pioneers of the Kilcoy District Volume 2 Published 2002 by KDHS A postal receiving office was established in 1889 .On 1 December 1892, the Hopetoun Post Office was opened at Kilcoy in rented premises in Royston Street. It was named after
Louis Hope Louis Hope (19 October 1817 – 15 August 1894) was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council. Early years Hope was born in Linlithgow, Scotland in 1817 to General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, and his wife Louisa Dorothea (né ...
(the uncle of the first Governor General of Australia,
Lord Hopetoun John Adrian Louis Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, (25 September 1860 – 29 February 1908) was a British aristocrat and statesman who served as the first governor-general of Australia, in office from 1901 to 1902. He wa ...
, who was a visitor to Kilcoy Station).''Pioneers of the Kilcoy District volume 2. 1900 to 1920''. Published 2002 by KDHS The township was referred to unofficially as Hopetoun. Kilcoy Township Provisional School opened on 15 August 1892. In 1893 it was renamed Kilcoy Provisional School. In1898 it was renamed Hopetoun Provisional School. In 1907 it became Hopetoun State School. In 1914 it was renamed Kilcoy State School.


20th century

In 1908, the post office name was changed from Hopetoun to Kilcoy, to avoid incorrect mail distribution to other towns of the same name in Victoria and Western Australia. In 1912, the Shire of Kilcoy was formed, and the area became independent from the
Caboolture Shire The Shire of Caboolture was a local government area located in the Australian state of Queensland on the northern urban fringe of the capital, Brisbane, and south of the Sunshine Coast. The Shire covered an area of , of which approximately on ...
. The post office in Kennedy Street opened in 1913. The establishment of the
Kilcoy railway line The Kilcoy railway line is a disused, partly demolished narrow gauge railway in South East Queensland, Australia. History The first section of the line opened from Caboolture to Woodford on 6 December 1909. It was extended to Kilcoy on 22 D ...
in 1913 created a surge in the timber industry with more mills opening near Kilcoy (Bert Woodrow – c. 1916; Thurecht Brothers – c. 1918, George Payne – c. 1919) and at Louisavale (1912), Monsildale (1912) and Yednia (early 1900s). The rural areas within a relatively small radius of Kilcoy township catering for the settlers laboring in the industries of dairy, cattle and timber were flourishing with cultural activity and those early years around the turn of the century witnessed small schools spring up in West Vale (1887–1910), Villeneuve (1902–1960), Hazeldean ( Stanley River, 1898–1973), Gregors Creek (1896–1963), Woolmar (1894–1941), Louisavale (1915–1940), Monsildale (1913–1922 and 1941–1961), Jimna (1923–2006), Yednia (1911–1946), Sheep Station Creek (1884–1942), Somerset at upper Mount Kilcoy (1915–1943), Mount Kilcoy (1909) and Sandy Creek ( Winya, 1918–1960).
Somerset Dam The Somerset Dam is a mass concrete gravity dam with a gated spillway across the Stanley River in Queensland, Australia. It is within the locality of Somerset Dam in the Somerset Region in South East Queensland. The main purpose of the dam is ...
was constructed between 1935 and 1959 with suspension of construction during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. The dam is situated on the Stanley River approximately upstream from the mouth of the Brisbane River. Construction of the Somerset Dam created many jobs. In 1953, the Kilcoy Pastoral Company established an abattoir in the town. The Jinibara people were granted Native Title by the Federal Court of Australia in 2012. The application used a series of tape recordings made in the 1950s of Aboriginal man, Gaiarbau, (also known as Willie MacKenzie) that provided detailed understandings of Aboriginal culture in southeast Queensland. Gaiabau was born at Kilcoy in the 1870s and died in a Salvation Army Home in Brisbane and was buried on 24 June 1968 in Mt Gravatt Cemetery. In the 1960s, road transport ensured the demise of the railway line (1964) and the old Kilcoy railway yard was converted many years later into a park known as Yowie Park. In January 1963, a secondary department was added to Kilcoy State School. On 1 January 1972 Kilcoy State High School opened, replacing the secondary department at Kilcoy State School. Deregulation of the dairy industry has caused a lot of these small farms to become unviable.


21st century

In the , the town of Kilcoy had a population of 1,714. The current Kilcoy library opened in 2011. A
sand mining Sand mining is the extraction of sand, mainly through an open pit (or sand pit) but sometimes mined from beaches and inland dunes or dredged from ocean and river beds. Sand is often used in manufacturing, for example as an abrasive or in conc ...
operation was proposed for the town in 2011, but the application was withdrawn on 31 October 2012 following strong opposition by the local residents. In the , the locality of Kilcoy had a population of 1,898 people.


Heritage listings

Kilcoy has a number of heritage-listed sites, including
Kilcoy Homestead Kilcoy Homestead is a heritage-listed homestead at Kilcoy-Murgon Road, Winya, Somerset Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built . It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. History Kilcoy Homestead, a single-st ...
on
Kilcoy-Murgon Road Kilcoy-Murgon Road is a major inland rural road located in Queensland, Australia. It is a state-controlled district road (number 491) rated as a local road of regional significance (LRRS). The road runs from the D'Aguilar Highway in to the Bun ...
.


Economy

Most of Kilcoy's residents are employed servicing the surrounding pastoral area. The town's industry mainly revolves around beef, with 1/3 of the primary school's population made of immigrants who came for work in the Kilcoy Pastoral centre.


Education

Kilcoy State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 47 Royston Street (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 304 students with 28 teachers (20 full-time equivalent) and 21 non-teaching staff (11 full-time equivalent). Kilcoy State High School is a government secondary (7-12) school for boys and girls at Seib Street (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 405 students with 39 teachers (36 full-time equivalent) and 25 non-teaching staff (18 full-time equivalent). It includes a
special education Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...
program.


Amenities

The
Somerset Regional Council The Somerset Region is a local government area located in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland, Australia, about northwest of Brisbane and centred on the town of Esk. It was created in 2008 from a merger of the Shire of Esk and ...
operates a public library at 15 Kennedy Street. The Kilcoy 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 QCWA Hall at 33 Rose Street. Kilcoy Wesleyan Methodist Church is at 30 McCauley Street (). It is part of the
Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia is a Christian denomination with its origins in Wesleyan Methodism. It is the organisational name for contemporary The Wesleyan Church in Australia. (The historic Wesleyan Methodist denomination in Aust ...
. There are three other
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
churches in the town: the Kilcoy United
Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement
Church, the Kilcoy
Uniting Church The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Unio ...
and the Kilcoy Seventh Day Adventist Church. The local Stanley River Roman Catholic parish has a strong ecumenical focus. St Mary's Anglican Church is at 67 William Street.


Notable residents

*
Merri Rose Merrilyn Miriam Rose (born 24 January 1955) was a minister in the Beattie government and member for Currumbin in the Queensland Parliament.Crown Content ''Who's Who in Australia'' 2007, page 1771 Early life She was born Merrilyn Miriam Gitti ...
– politician ( Labor Party)


See also

* Kilcoy District Historical Society


References


Further reading

* * *


External links


Kilcoy Historical Society

Kilcoy Tourism Body

Somerset Regional Council
{{authority control Massacres of ethnic groups History of Indigenous Australians Massacres in Australia Suburbs of Somerset Region Localities in Queensland