Rannes is a rural town in the west of the

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 ...

Goovigen Goovigen is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Banana, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Goovigen had a population of 349 people. A second town, Rannes, Queensland, Rannes (), is also wit ...

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.

Geography

Rannes is in

Central Queensland Central Queensland is an imprecisely-defined geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Cap ...

between

Wowan Wowan is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Banana, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Wowan had a population of 170 people. The town of Deeford is also within the locality. Geography The '' Dee River'' forms part of the ...

and

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

on 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 ...

and the

Don River The Don () is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its basin is betwee ...

History

Rannes was established as a

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...

property in April 1853 by Scottish brothers James, Norman and Charles Leith Hay. The brothers were the offspring of

Peninsula War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

veteran

Andrew Leith Hay Sir Andrew Leith Hay of Rannes (17 February 1785 – 13 October 1862) was a Scottish soldier, Whig politician and writer on architecture. Biography Andrew Leith Hay was the eldest son of General Alexander Leith Hay of Rannes and Mary Forbes o ...

and the grandsons of General

Alexander Leith Hay thumb General Alexander Leith-Hay 'formerly'' Alexander Leith(1758 – 16 May 1838), was a British Army officer. Life Hay was born in Aberdeen on 21 December 1758, the second son of John Leith (1731–1763) of Leith Hall, Aberdeenshire and his ...

Leith Hall Leith Hall is a country house in Kennethmont, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was built in 1650, on the site of the medieval Peill Castle, and was the home of the Leith-Hay family for nearly three centuries. Since 1945 it has been run by the N ...

. They were the first Europeans to occupy the region and at that time Rannes was the northern-most outpost of British colonisation in Eastern Australia. The brothers named the property Rannes after a Leith Hay family

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

located near

Buckie Buckie () is a burgh town (defined as such in List of burghs in Scotland, 1888) on the Moray Firth coast of Scotland. Counties of Scotland, Historically in Banffshire, Buckie was the largest town in the county until the administrative area was ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. On 11 May 1853, James Leith Hay sent a letter to Lieutenant John Murray, reporting that two of his shepherds had been murdered by Aborigine men and requested the services of the

Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...

. On 16 May, Murray and a section of troopers arrived at Rannes Station. Two days later, Murray went in search for those responsible. In November 1853, James Leith Hay requested a section of Native Police be posted permanently at Rannes after two men were killed and one hundred sheep stolen. A sort of peace ensued and some of the local tribes were allowed onto the property. On the night of 23 September 1855, the Native Police barracks at Rannes was attacked by a large number of Aboriginal men, killing three troopers and leaving all but one wounded. Murray then led the Native Police and pursued Aborigines "who had taken forcible possession of a station and were prevented from murdering the inhabitants by the timely arrival of the troopers." Sub-Lieutenant Walker also led a patrol to search for the murderers but did not find them. The town of Rannes was surveyed by surveyor A.F. Wood in July 1860 and the town reserve was gazetted 2 October 1860 (page 396). Rannes was once a major

railway town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated, or was expanded, as a result of a railway line being constructed there. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, temporary, ...

at the junction of the Dawson Valley railway line and the

Callide Valley railway line The Callide Valley railway line ran from Rannes, Queensland, Rannes to Lawgi in Queensland, Australia. The Callide Valley lies to the south-west of Rockhampton, Queensland, Rockhampton in Central Queensland. History There were grand plans to ...

. Both railway lines having been abandoned, the Rannes railway station is no longer extant (). In 1880, the local government area Banana Division (later the

) was established with its headquarters in

(taking its name from the town). However, in 1930 the shire headquarters became Rannes and the shire offices were physically relocated from Banana to Rannes. Since 1946, the shire has its headquarters 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 ...

. Rannes railway station was originally named Kuyul, but was changed 29 April 1915. Rannes State School opened on 14 March 1916. It closed on 23 February 1960 but reopened on 30 January 1962. It closed permanently on 18 March 1966. It was on the northern side of Goovigen Rannes Road and the railway line (approx ). Woolein State School opened on 27 February 1918 and closed on 17 August 1924. Rannes was badly flooded in February 1942 due to heavy rainfall in the Callide Valley swelling the

Dee Dee or DEE may refer to: People Surname * Dee, an alternate spelling of the Welsh surname Day * Dee, a romanization of several Chinese surnames, including: ** Those listed at Di (surname) ** Some Hokkien pronunciations of the surname Li () ...

and Don Rivers to be over a mile wide and deep and flowing very fast. The townspeople were evacuated using the stranded mail train which moved to the higher ground for a night and a day before they could return. Many buildings were flooded, some to two storeys, and many smaller buildings had been washed away. Hundreds of cattle were washed away with some found in caught in trees above the ground.There was so much damage to roads, railways, bridges and telephone lines, that Rannes residents were unable to request assistance, but the police from

managed to get through to bring essential provisions to Rannes. In March 1949, Rannes was badly flooded again, but the river height was lower than in the 1942 flood. The Rannes railway bridge was covered by of water, stranding all trains.

Economy

Rannes is primarily a farming town which specialises in the

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...

and

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

industry.

Education

There are no schools in Rannes. The nearest government primary school is Goovigen State School in the town of Goovigen to the east. The nearest government secondary schools are Baralaba State School (to Year 10) in Baralaba to the west and Biloela State High School (to Year 12) in

to the south-east.

References

External links