Nerada 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

Cassowary Coast Region The Cassowary Coast Region is a Local government in Australia, local government area in the Far North Queensland region of Queensland, Australia, south of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and centred on the towns of Innisfail, Queensland, Innisfail, ...

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 , Nerada had a population of 88 people.

Geography

The locality is bounded to the west, north-west, north, north-east, and east by the

Johnstone River The Johnstone River, comprising the North Johnstone River and the South Johnstone River, is a river system in Far North and North Queensland, Australia. The headwaters of the river system rise in the Atherton Tablelands. The north branch o ...

. Palmerston Rocks National Park is in the south-east of the locality. Apart from the national park, the land use is predominantly growing crops, including

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

and

bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – berry (botany), botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called pla ...

with some

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

The locality takes its name from the former Nerada railway station () on the Innisfail Tramway. The name is believed to be an Aboriginal word from the Mamoo language meaning ''grass country''. In May 1936, the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

decided to construct a school at Nerada. Nerada State School opened on 11 February 1937. It closed in 1945. It was located at approximately 334 Nerada Road (). About 1951, the school building was relocated to Woopen Creek State School. In 1958, Dr Allan Maruff started the first commercial tea plantings in Australia since 1886 in the Nerada valley, south of

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

, using seedlings from the former Cutten brothers plantation at Bingil Bay. In 1969, Tea Estates of Australia (TEA) commenced tea planting adjacent to the Nerada plantation. In 1971, Nerada Tea Estates (NTE) opened Australia's first commercial tea factory. In 1973, TEA purchased NTE, ceased selling bulk tea and marketed the tea under the Nerada brand. After a number of problems in the 1980s, the original Nerada tea plantation was sold to banana farmers.

Demographics

In the , Nerada had a population of 97 people. In the , Nerada had a population of 88 people.

Education

There are no schools in Nerada. The nearest government primary school is Mundoo State School in Wangan to the east. The nearest government secondary school is

Innisfail State College Innisfail State College is a government secondary school and technical college in Innisfail Estate, a suburb of Innisfail, Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It is a combined secondary school and TAFE facility which opened in 2010 ...

Innisfail Estate Innisfail Estate is a semi-rural Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Innisfail Estate had a population of 1,454 people. Geography Innisfail Estate is bounded by the Johnst ...

to the north-east.

References

{{Cassowary Coast Region Cassowary Coast Region Localities in Queensland