Theodore is a rural town and
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.
It was established in the 1920s as part of
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 ...
Ted Theodore
Edward Granville Theodore (29 December 1884 – 9 February 1950) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of Queensland from 1919 to 1925, as leader of the Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch), state Labor Party. He later entere ...
's ambitious Dawson River Irrigation Scheme which failed to eventuate. It was originally known as Castle Creek, but that name is now used by
another locality in the area.
In the , the locality of Theodore had a population of 451 people.
[
]
Geography
Theodore is situated on the Dawson River just off the Leichhardt Highway
The Leichhardt Highway is a major transport route in Queensland, Australia. It is a continuation northward from Goondiwindi of the Newell Highway, via a section of the Cunningham Highway.
It runs northward from Goondiwindi for more than 600 k ...
north-west of the state capital, Brisbane
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
. Castle Creek flows through the town and into the Dawson River immediately south of the town centre.
Climate
Theodore has a humid subtropical climates ( Köppen: Cfa), with hot, wet summers and mild, dry winters with cool nights. Average maxima vary from in December to in July while average minima fluctuate between in January and February and in July.
Mean average annual precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...
is moderate: , but is highly concentrated during the summer
Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...
. Rainfall is spread across 53.1 precipitation days (above the threshold), and the town experiences 86.7 clear days and 44.8 cloudy days per annum. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 28 January 1990 to on 6 July 1982. Sunshine data was sourced from Brigalow Research Station, which is northwest of Theodore.
History
The Aboriginal inhabitants of the area were the Gangulu
The Gangulu people, also written Kangulu, Kaangooloo, Ghungalu and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mount Morgan area in Queensland, Australia.
Name
At least one variant name for the Kangulu, ''Kaangooloo'', was ...
people. '' Gangalu (Gangulu, Kangulu, Kanolu, Kaangooloo, Khangulu)'' 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 ...
spoken on Gangula country. The Gangula language region includes the towns of Clermont and Springsure
Springsure is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Springsure had a population of 950 people.
Geography
Springsure is situated by road ...
extending south towards the Dawson River.
The first European settler in the district was Joseph Thompson who amassed a number of pastoral leases from 1850 to his death in 1857, including Oxtrack Creek, Okangal, Coteeda, Delusion Creek, Macoom, Hope, Thalba and Woolthorpe. He entered a partnership with James Reid who acquired the Boam run and acquired Thompson's runs after his death and then acquired further runs, before beginning to sell out to new settlers.
In 1864 a town called Woolthorpe was surveyed and town lots offered for sale, but few were sold and no town developed at that time.[
In 1893, William Woolrych acquired of land alongside the Dawson River and gradually built it up through further land acquisitions into the very large Woolthorpe Station.][
]
Dawson River Irrigation Scheme
In 1905, the Queensland Minister for Lands Joshua Thomas Bell
Joshua Thomas Bell (13 March 1863 – 10 March 1911) was an Australian barrister and politician.
Bell was the son of Sir Joshua Peter Bell, and his wife Margaret Miller, née Dorsey and was born in Ipswich, Queensland. Bell was educated at Br ...
and fellow Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
This is a list of members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, the state parliament of Queensland, sorted by parliament.
See also
* Queensland Legislative Assembly electoral districts
This is a list of current and former Electoral dis ...
Robert Herbertson
Robert Herbertson (1852–1940) was a politician in Queensland, Australia. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.
Early life
Robert Herberston was born on 4 January 1852 in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land, the son of Andrew Herber ...
conducted a tour of the district. Herbertson reported that Woolthorpe was ''"a splendid property, consisting of downs and black soil flats"'' used for sheep grazing. Herbertson also reported favourably on an experiment to raise lucerne by irrigating of cleared land beside the Dawson River. His opinion was that there was plenty of water available in the Dawson River for irrigation and the land could grow almost any crop. Herbertson believed that, with irrigation, the district would be capable of supporting a large population, provided there was cheap, easy and quick transport to the coast. This comment about transport followed Minister Bell's earlier criticism of the condition of the roads west of Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party.
In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...
which were the responsibility of the Banana Shire and the Taroom Shire.
The idea of a major irrigation scheme involving the Dawson River continued to be considered by the Queensland Parliament
The Parliament of Queensland is the unicameral legislative body of the Australian state of Queensland. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Queensland, and the ...
over a number of years. However, it was not until February 1920, that the Premier of Queensland
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 ...
Ted Theodore
Edward Granville Theodore (29 December 1884 – 9 February 1950) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of Queensland from 1919 to 1925, as leader of the Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch), state Labor Party. He later entere ...
announced his support for a Dawson River irrigation scheme. Later that year, in September 1920, Ted Theodore announced that a dam would be built at The Gorge on the Dawson River () enabling of fertile land to be created through irrigation along of the Dawson River. The irrigated area would be organised into five zones: Isla, Castle Creek (later Theodore), Huon, Moura and Coolibah, with each zone having a central township.[ There would be irrigated farms closer to the river and dry (non-irrigated) blocks further away. It was estimated that there would be about 5000 farms and that, together with those living in the towns providing services to the farmers, the irrigation scheme would support about 50,000 people.][ Each town would be a "model garden city" as the local population would be sufficient to enable all modern amenities and recreational facilities; this was seen as important to attract younger people, who were believed to be abandoning rural towns in favour of cities to which many had been exposed during the ]Great War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.
In 1922, it was announced that the gorge and the dam would both be named after Matthew Nathan
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Matthew Nathan (3 January 1862 – 18 April 1939) was a British soldier and colonial administrator, who variously served as the governor of Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Hong Kong, Natal and Queensland. He was Under-Secre ...
, the (then) Governor of Queensland
The governor of Queensland is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in the state of Queensland. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia, governor-general at the national level, the governor Governors of ...
. The dam would be the second largest in the world, submerging over and capable of storing 2,485,000 acre feet (3.065 cubic kilometres) of water. (For comparison, the present day Wivenhoe Dam
Wivenhoe Dam is a rock and earth-fill embankment dam with a concrete spillway across the Brisbane River in South East Queensland, Australia. The dam takes it names from the local Wivenhoe Pocket rural community. The dam wall is located abou ...
has an area of 109.4 square kilometres and a capacity of 2.61 cubic kilometres).
Also in 1922, it was announced that, in addition to the dam, the Dawson Valley Irrigation scheme would include the construction of a railway line to service the Dawson Valley. The funding for the overall scheme was to be through a loan from America for approximately £2.5 million.
Creating the town of Theodore
As it would take some time to build the Nathan Dam, it was decided to commence on a smaller scale by initiating the Castle Creek irrigation zone by building a small low-cost weir nearby on the Dawson River, from which water would be pumped along canals to the irrigated farms. A power station was also built beside the river. The land offered for initial settlement was 264 irrigated farms of average size and 109 dry blocks of average size .[
The town was initially called Castle Creek after the local railway station, which in turn took its name from the creek which flowed into the Dawson River just south of the town. However, in November 1926, it was renamed in honour of ]Ted Theodore
Edward Granville Theodore (29 December 1884 – 9 February 1950) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of Queensland from 1919 to 1925, as leader of the Australian Labor Party (Queensland Branch), state Labor Party. He later entere ...
, who as Premier of Queensland
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 ...
had given so much support to the irrigation scheme.[
Theodore State School opened on 6 May 1924.]
The Castle Creek receiving office opened on 1 December 1924, but was upgraded to a post office on 15 December 1924. It was renamed Theodore Post Office on 1 July 1927.
The Hotel Theodore was originally built as a boarding house to accommodate new residents to the district.
The Theodore branch of the Country Women's Association
The Country Women's Association (CWA) is a women's organisation in Australia, which seeks to advance interests of women, families, and communities in Australia, especially those in rural, regional, and remote areas.
It comprises seven indep ...
was established in about 1928. In 1932, they opened their original rest rooms in Theodore in 1923 at a cost of £113. On 21 February 1953, their current hall on The Boulevard was opened. The land was donated and the building cost £3,000. It is painted in the traditional blue-and-white colours of the CWA.
The Theodore Public Library was opened in 1959.
Postponement of Nathan Dam
However, Ted Theodore never obtained funding for the Nathan Dam and in 1925 he resigned as Queensland Premier in order to move into federal parliament
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch of Australia (represented by the governor ...
. In 1933, the Nathan Dam was postponed for 25 years. Without the water needed for irrigation, many of the small farm blocks around Theodore became economically unviable and many sold at a loss. This enabled others to enlarge their holdings to a size where it became possible to support a family with dry farming. However, with fewer families, the population estimates used for Theodore's planning could not be achieved in practice, making many aspects of the town's existing and planned infrastructure economically unviable to the disappointment of the settlers attracted by the government's promotional material of a model garden city.
In 2006, 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, ...
announced that the Nathan Dam was the preferred short-to-medium-term water supply solution for the district to meet the needs of the growing mining activity in the Surat Basin
The Surat Basin is a geological basin in eastern Australia. It is part of the Great Artesian Basin drainage basin of Australia. The Surat Basin extends across an area of 270,000 square kilometres and the southern third of the basin occupies a larg ...
but indicated that only existing agricultural users would be supplied, suggesting there is no plan to revive the Dawson River Irrigation Scheme more generally. The dam was originally intended to be operational by 2014. In 2009, environmental impact studies discovered that half of the already endangered Boggomoss snail ( Adclarkia dawsonensis) population would be within the inundation area of the dam. A mitigation strategy would be to relocate those snail communities to other suitable habitats outside the inundation area. A trial relocation project was established but required three years to complete as the success criteria require that relocated snail communities successful breed and rear young for two generations. This trial would delay the project by at least two years. Later in 2009, SunWater
Sunwater is a statutory Queensland Government -owned corporation that supplies bulk water to over irrigation, industry and urban customers and water consultancy services to a range of institutional clients across regional Queensland, Australia ...
claimed other studies of the snails discovered 18,000 snails in other unidentified locations, reducing the concern about the population in the inundation area and allowing the dam project to resume. However, as at August 2015, the Queensland Government still lists the snail as "endangered in Queensland" with only two population groups. Although the Environmental Impact Statement for the dam was completed in 2012, changes to the proposed route of the pipeline in 2013 meant the environmental impact statement
An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An E ...
had to be revised. As at November 2015, the revised EIS had not been released for public comment.
Flooding
In March 2010 the Dawson River flooded
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civ ...
, causing significant economic damage to the town. On 28 December 2010, a second flood forced evacuation of the town, with the level of the Dawson River exceeding 14.6 metres.
Demographics
In the , the locality of Theodore had a population of 452 people.
In the , the locality of Theodore had a population of 438 people.
In the , the locality of Theodore had a population of 451 people.
Economy
The town's economy is closely linked to coal mining – Theodore is at the southern end of Queensland's coal-rich Bowen Basin
The Bowen Basin contains the largest coal reserves in Australia. This major coal-producing region contains one of the world's largest deposits of bituminous coal. The Basin contains much of the known Permian coal resources in Queensland includ ...
.
Education
Theodore State School is a government primary and secondary (Prep-10) school for boys and girls at The Boulevard (). The school motto is 'Learn with a will'. In 2015, Theodore State School had 120 students enrolled. In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 108 students with 14 teachers (13 full-time equivalent) and 15 non-teaching staff (8 full-time equivalent).
For schooling to Year 12, the nearest government school is Moura State High School in Moura to the north-west.
Transport
Despite the name, Theodore Airport is located in neighbouring Lonesome Creek. No regular scheduled services operate from it. The community has raised funds to install solar-powered lighting so the runway can be used for medical emergency flights at night.
Amenities
The Banana Shire Council
The Shire of Banana is a local government area located in the Capricorn region of Queensland, Australia, inland from the regional city of Gladstone. The shire was named after the first township in the region (Banana), which in turn was named af ...
operates a library on The Boulevard in Theodore.
Attractions
The Theodore War Memorial commemorates Australians who have served in all wars and conflicts. It is located on the oval in the centre of The Boulevard ().
Events
The Theodore Annual Show is held each May; it is organised by the Theodore Show Society.
Notable residents
* Mal Anderson
Malcolm James Anderson (born 3 March 1935) is an Australian former tennis player who was active from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. He won the singles title at the 1957 U.S. National Championships and achieved his highest amateur ranking o ...
, tennis champion at the 1957 U.S. National Championships, was born in Theodore
* Nev Hewitt
Neville Thomas Eric "Nev" Hewitt (19 October 1920 – 19 July 2016) was an Australian politician. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.
Early life
Hewitt was born at Theodore, Queensland, Theodore, Queensland in 1920 to Herb ...
, Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly h ...
was born in Theodore
* Rob Simmons, 2008 - 2017 of the Queensland Reds
The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...
, 2018 - member of the New South Wales Waratahs
The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), often referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team based in Sydney that represents the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby Pacific competition. The Waratahs play t ...
Gallery
File:Dawson River, Theodore, 2014.JPG, Dawson River at the back of the Hotel Theodore, 2014
File:StateLibQld 1 112548 Hotel Theodore, 1938.jpg, Hotel Theodore, 1938
File:Hotel Theodore, side view, Theodore, 2014.JPG, Hotel Theodore, 2014
File:Airport, Theodore, 2014.JPG, Airport, Theodore, 2014
References
External links
*
*
Banana Shire Website
Central Queensland University's Bowen Basin Website (includes information on Theodore)
{{authority control
Mining towns in Queensland
Towns in Queensland
1864 establishments in Australia
Populated places established in 1864
Shire of Banana
Localities in Queensland