Nicholson is a coastal

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

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 Burke The Shire of Burke is a local government area in North West Queensland, Australia. The shire lies on the south coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria and abuts the border with the Northern Territory. It covers an area of , and has existed as a local ...

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. It is on the border with the Northern Territory. In the , Nicholson had a population of 32 people.

Geography

The

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

forms northern and north-eastern boundaries of the locality, separated by the coastal locality of Gangalidda. The Nicholson River enters from the south-west (

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

) and then forms parts of the southern boundary before re-entering the locality to discharge into the Gulf. National Highway 1 enters the locality from the south ( Doomadgee) before turning north-west to run through the locality, exiting to the Northern Territory (). This section of the highway is also part of the

Savannah Way The Savannah Way is a route of highways and major roads across the tropical savannahs of northern Australia, linking Cairns in Queensland with Broome in Western Australia. Promoted as a self-drive tourist route, it joins Cairns, Normanton, ...

, a tourist route. There is a small part of the

Boodjamulla National Park Boodjamulla National Park, formerly known as Lawn Hill National Park, is a national park in the Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. The Riversleigh World Heritage Area is a World Heritage Site within the park. The park lies on the traditional ...

(formerly Lawn Hill National Park) in the south-west of the locality. Apart from this protected area, the land use is grazing on native vegetation. The land close to the close of the Gulf of Carpentaria is marshland, mostly

mangrove swamps A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen and remove sal ...

History

Hells Gate Roadhouse is a tourist stop on the

, 80 km from Doomadgee and 50 km from the Northern Territory border () on the Cliffdale cattle station. It opened on 5 April 1986. The name refers to a gap in the nearby escarpment where the road passes through.

Demographics

In the , Nicholson had "no people or a very low population". In the , Nicholson had a population of 32 people.

Heritage listings

Nicholson has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and human-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In ma ...

sites, including: * Old Westmoreland Homestead ()

Education

There are no schools in Nicholson. The nearest schools are Burketown State School (Prep to Year 6) in neighbouring

Burketown Burketown is an isolated outback town and coastal Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Cairns and west of Normanton, Queensland, Normanton on the Albert River (Gulf Sa ...

to the east and Doomadgee State School (Early Childhood to Year 10) in neighbouring Doomadgee to the south. However, these schools are too distant from many parts of Nicholson for a daily commute. Nor are there any schools nearby 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.

Attractions

The Hells Gate Roadhouse provides fuel, meals, and a range of accommodation from camp sites to motel rooms. Scenic helicopter flights are available.

Transport

Hells Gate airstrip () has one runway of length . It is across the road form the Hells Gate roadhouse.

Indigenous languages

Yukulta The Yukulta people, also spelt Jokula, Jukula, and other variants, and also known as Ganggalidda or Gangalidda, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. They may be the same as the Yanga group. Country Norman Tindale ( ...

(also known as Ganggalida) is an

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

. The Yukulta language region is the Gulf Country including the local government areas of the

Aboriginal Shire of Doomadgee The Aboriginal Shire of Doomadgee is a special local government area in North West Queensland, Queensland, Australia. It is managed under a Deed of Grant in Trust under the ''Local Government (Community Government Areas) Act 2004''. In the , th ...

and Shire of Mornington. Yulluna (also known as Yalarnga, Yalarrnga, Jalanga, Jalannga, Wonganja, Gunggalida, Jokula) is an

. The Yulluna language region includes the local government boundaries of the

Shire of Cloncurry The Shire of Cloncurry is a Local government in Australia, local government area in North West Queensland, Australia. It covers an area of , and has existed as a local government entity since 1884. The major town and administrative centre of the ...

and other areas near the

References

External links

Hells Gate Roadhouse
{{Shire of Burke Shire of Burke Coastline of Queensland Localities in Queensland