Mount Murchison 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

Shire of Banana The Shire of Banana is a Local government in Australia, local government area located in the Capricorn region of Queensland, Australia, inland from the regional city of Gladstone, Queensland, Gladstone. The shire was named after the first townsh ...

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 , Mount Murchison had a population of 128 people.

Geography

Callide Power Station Callide Power Station is an electricity generator at Mount Murchison, Shire of Banana, Queensland, Australia. It is coal-powered with four steam turbines with a combined generation capacity of 1,544 megawatts (MW) of electricity. Callide A was ...

is in the south-east of the locality at 1092 Biloela Callide Road ().

History

Mount Murchison State School opened on 24 April 1935. The new school was built to cater for up to 24 students with a single 18x18 foot classroom with 8 foot verandas front and rear; it was a timber building with a galvanised iron roof and was built on the property of Mr C. G. Skinner. The teacher was Reg Davidson. Callide Power Station commenced operation in 1965. It was officially opened by

Queensland Premier The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is appointed ...

Frank Nicklin Sir George Francis Reuben Nicklin, (6 August 1895 – 29 January 1978) was an Australian politician. He was the Premier of Queensland from 1957 to 1968, the first non- Labor Party premier since 1932. Early life and career Nicklin was born in M ...

on 21 August 1965. The mobile library service commenced in 2004. On 25 May 2021, an explosion and subsequent fire at Callide Power Station caused a significant power outage that affected over 375,000 premises.

Demographics

In the , Mount Murchison had a population of 226 people. In the , Mount Murchison had a population of 149 people. In the , Mount Murchison had a population of 128 people.

Economy

Callide Power Station is a coal-powered electricity generator with eight

steam turbines A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

with a combined

generation A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and b ...

capacity of 1,720

megawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor o ...

(MW) of electricity. As of 2018, generation capacity was 1510 MW.

Education

Mount Murchison State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at Lot 137 Dawson Highway (). In 2013, the school had 16 students in a single multi-age class with one teacher. In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 33 students with 3 teachers and 6 non-teaching staff (2 full-time equivalent). There is no secondary school in Mount Murchison. The nearest secondary school is Biloela State High School in

Biloela Biloela ( ) is a rural town and suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Banana, Central Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the shire. In the , the locality of Biloela had a population of 5,692. The loc ...

to the south-west.

Amenities

Banana Shire Council operate a fortnightly mobile library service to the school. Biloela Dirt Riders operate the Stoneyridge Raceway on Cocups Road ().