Warkon 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

Maranoa Region Maranoa Region is a Local government in Australia, local government area in South West Queensland, Australia. The town of Roma, Queensland, Roma is the administrative headquarters of the region. In the , the Maranoa Region had a population of 1 ...

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 , Warkon had a population of 30 people.

Geography

The Balonne River (a continuation of the

Condamine River The Condamine River, part of the Balonne catchment that is part of the Murray-Darling Basin, drains the northern portion of the Darling Downs, an area of sub-coastal southern Queensland, Australia. The river is approximately 500 kilometres (3 ...

) forms the southern boundary of the locality and a number of creek flow through the locality into the river. Bingi Crossing (also written as Bingie Crossing) is the ford on the Balonnne River near the current River Road () which connects Warkon with neighbouring Noorindoo. The Roma-Condamine Road passes from west to east through the locality. The land use is predominantly cattle grazing and there are a number of areas of state forests: Yuleba State Forest, Wallabella State Forest 1, and Tinowon State Forest.

History

The locality name derives from a pastoral run name used from 1850 and is an Aboriginal word group (possibly from the

Mandandanji language Bidjara, also spelt Bidyara or Pitjara, is an Australian Aboriginal language. In 1980, it was spoken by 20 elders in Queensland between the towns of Tambo and Augathella, or the Warrego and Langlo Rivers. There are many dialects of the la ...

) meaning ''plenty of water''. Warkon Station was established on the Balonne River in 1850 by Henry Bingham, one of the early settlers in the Maranoa district. From 1858 to 1872 the property was operated by Alexander and Harriet Barlow. Warkon Station had Aboriginal workers from a number of different

language groups A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics anal ...

. Harriet Barlow was one of the first people to record the Aboriginal languages of this region, which she called Coongarri, Wirri-Wirri, Ngoorie, Yowaleri, Cooinburri, Begumble, Cambooble and Parrungoom. She published her work in a number of journals. The Warkon Station was subsequently owned by Leonard Reynolds Schwennesen who added further notes to Barlow's material. The

State Library of Queensland State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the Government of Queensland, state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, whi ...

hold a collection of the manuscripts of Barlow and Schwennesen. Retreat Provisional School opened circa 1896. It operated from at least 1899 to 1905 as a half-time school in conjunction with Nellybri Provisional School (meaning the two schools shared a single teacher). In 1906 Retreat Provisional School became a full-time school but closed later that year. Retreat is a pastoral property in Warkon (). St Paul's Anglican Church opened at Bingie Crossing circa June 1914. It was served by the Bush Brotherhood. Its last service was 20 December 1942. Yuleba Creek State School opened on 23 January 1967 and closed on 31 December 1999. It was on Roma Condamine Road () with Yuleba Creek flowing beside the school.

Demographics

In the , Warkon had a population of 33 people. In the , Warkon had a population of 30 people.

Education

There are no schools in Warkon. The nearest government primary schools are: * Yuleba State School in

Yuleba Yuleba ( ) is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Maranoa Region, in the south-west of Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Yuleba had a population of 271 people. Geography Yuleba is located east of ...

to the north * Dulacca State School in Dulacca to the north-east * Glenmorgan State School in Glenmorgan to the south * Surat State School in

Surat Surat (Gujarati Language, Gujarati: ) is a city in the western Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. The word Surat directly translates to ''face'' in Urdu, Gujarati language, Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of t ...

to the south-west The nearest government secondary schools are: * Wallumbilla State School (to Year 10) in Wallumbilla to the north-west * Surat State School (to Year 10) in Surat to the south-west However, students in the east of the locality will be too distant from these secondary schools. Also, there are no secondary schools offering education to Year 12 nearby. 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

External links