Minnie Downs 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

Blackall-Tambo Region The Blackall-Tambo Region is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by two previous local government areas dating from the 1870s. For the financial year ...

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 , Minnie Downs had a population of 12 people.

Geography

The

Landsborough Highway Landsborough Highway is a highway in western Queensland, Australia, running in the northwest–southeast direction from Morven to Cloncurry. The Landsborough Highway runs through vast tracts of land that was once occupied by William Landsboro ...

passes to the north-east. Langlo Road commences at the highway and enters the locality from the north-east ( Macfarlane) and exits to the south ( Lumeah). Elizabeth Creek commences in the north of the locality at the confluence of Western Head Creek and Boggy Creek. It is a braided creek which flows south, exiting to the south (Lumeah) where Elizabeth Creek becomes a tributary of the Langlo River. The pastoral station "Minnie Downs" is in the north-east of the locality. The land use in the locality 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

In 1861, Mr J. T. Allen established the "Elizabeth Creek" pastoral station. In 1873, it was bought by the

Archer brothers The Archer brothers were among the earliest European settlers in Queensland, Australia. They were explorers and pastoralists. Seven sons of William Archer, a Scottish timber merchant, they spent varying amounts of time in the colony of New Sout ...

who renamed it Minnie Downs in honour of Mary Louise (Minnie) Mackenzie, the eldest daughter of Sir Robert Ramsay Mackenzie, who married Alexander Archer (one of the Archer brothers) in 1871. In 1890, Alexander and Minnie Archer died in the shipwreck of the

RMS Quetta RMS ''Quetta'' was an iron-hulled steamship that was built in Scotland in 1881 and wrecked with great loss of life in the Torres Strait in 1890. She was operated by British India Associated Steamers (BIAS), which was controlled by the British I ...

. Minnie Downs was developed as a sheep station and horse stud. The Minnie Downs pastoral station can be seen on an 1892 map.

Demographics

In the , Minnie Downs had a population of 13 people. In the , Minnie Downs had a population of 12 people.

Education

There are no schools in Minnie Downs. The nearest government school is Tambo State School (Kindergarten to Year 10) in

Tambo Tambo may refer to: People * Adelaide Tambo (1929–2007), South African anti-apartheid activist * Dali Tambo (born 1959), South African anti-apartheid activist, TV presenter and also son of Oliver Tambo and Adelaide Tambo * Oliver Tambo (1917� ...

to the north-east, but it would be too distant from some parts of Minnie Downs to attend. Also there is no nearby school providing education to Year 12. The alternatives are

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

and boarding school.

References

{{Blackall-Tambo Region Blackall-Tambo Region Localities in Queensland