Macknade 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

Shire of Hinchinbrook The Shire of Hinchinbrook is a Local government in Australia, local government area in North Queensland, Queensland, Australia. The shire, administered from the town of Ingham, Queensland, Ingham, covers an area of , and has existed since its cr ...

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 Macknade had a population of 203 people.

Geography

Mackade is bounded by the

Herbert River The Herbert River is a river in Far North Queensland, Australia. The southernmost of Queensland's wet tropics river systems, it was named in 1864 by George Elphinstone Dalrymple explorer, after Robert Herbert, Robert George Wyndham Herbert, th ...

() on the south and east, the Seymour River () on the west and the Hinchinbrook Channel () to the north (separating the mainland from

Hinchinbrook Island Hinchinbrook Island (or Pouandai to the Biyaygiri people) is an island in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It lies east of Cardwell, Queensland, Cardwell and north of Lucinda, Queensland, Lucinda, separated from the north-eas ...

). Seaforth Channel is another off-shore passage ().

History

The Macknade Sugar Company opened a sugar plantation and the Macknade Sugar Mill in the area in 1874. The district took its name from the mill, which in turn took its name from a house in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

where the mill's owners had lived. Macknade Provisional School opened on 13 November 1893. On 1 January 1909, it became Macknade State School. The postal receiving office opened in about 1901 and became a post office in October 1902. The post office closed on 29 October 1993.

Demographics

In the , the locality of Macknade had a population of 304 people. In the , the locality of Macknade had a population of 229 people. In the , the locality of Macknade had a population of 203 people.

Economy

The Macknade Sugar Mill () is situated on the banks of the

. It is the oldest raw sugar mill in Queensland. Its highest output was in 2005 when it crushed 1.82 million tonnes of sugar cane. The estuarine location of Macknade is well-suited for sugar growing, but it is also well-suited for aquaculture with Seafarms operating a large prawn-farming business on Neames Inlet Road ().

Education

Macknade State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 79 Farrell Drive (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 26 students with 6 teachers (3 full-time equivalent) and 4 non-teaching staff (2 full-time equivalent). There is no secondary school in Macknade. The nearest government secondary school is Ingham State High School in Ingham to the south-west.

References

External links

* {{authority control Shire of Hinchinbrook Towns in Queensland Coastline of Queensland Localities in Queensland