Central West Queensland is a remote region in the Australian state of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

which covers 396,650.2 km². The region lies to the north of

South West Queensland South West Queensland is a remote region in the Australian state of Queensland which covers . The region lies to the south of Central West Queensland and west of the Darling Downs and includes the Maranoa district and parts of the Channel Coun ...

and south of the

Gulf Country The Gulf Country is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also called the Gulf Savannah. It ...

. It has a population of approximately 12,387 people.

History

The first exploration by Europeans was by Major Thomas Mitchell who passed through the area in 1846. Mitchell was near Isisford on the Barcoo River when his party was lacking supplies and threatened by Aboriginals. He then decided to return to Sydney, completing a successful expedition which had explored a large area of unknown country.

Geography

$Farming equipment, Ilfracombe, Queensland$ Scrammy Gorge Winton

The eastern extent of the Simpson Desert lies within the region.

Haddon Corner Haddon Corner is a heritage-listed site in Tanbar, Shire of Barcoo, Queensland, Australia. It is in outback Channel Country at South-West Queensland, on the border corner with South Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Regist ...

and Poeppel Corner on the Queensland border are also located here. Bioregions in the area include the

Channel Country The Channel Country is a region of outback Australia mostly in the state of Queensland but also in parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales. The name comes from the numerous intertwined rivulets that cross the region, ...

. Part of the Cooper Basin is located in the region. The basin contains the most significant on-shore petroleum and natural gas deposits in Australia. At the federal level the region partly falls in the Division of Maranoa and the

Division of Kennedy The Division of Kennedy is an Australian electoral division in the state of Queensland. History The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first federal election. It is named after ...

Local government areas A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a state, province, division, or territory. The phra ...

included in the region are Shire of Barcoo,

Shire of Diamantina The Shire of Diamantina is a local government area in Central West Queensland, bordering South Australia and the Northern Territory. Its administrative centre is in the town of Bedourie. Like most places in Queensland with the "Diamantina" na ...

Shire of Boulia The Shire of Boulia is a local government area in Central West Queensland, bordering the Northern Territory. Its administrative centre is in the town of Boulia.It covers an area of , and has existed as a local government entity since 1887. The m ...

Shire of Winton The Shire of Winton is a local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. It covers an area of , and has existed as a local government entity since 1887. Its administrative centre is located in the town of Winton. It is named aft ...

Longreach Region The Longreach Region is a local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it superseded three previous local government areas that had existed for more than a century. It has an estimated operating budget of ...

Blackall-Tambo Region The Blackall-Tambo Region is a local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by two previous local government areas dating from the 1870s. For the financial year 2010/11 it had an approximate ...

and

Barcaldine Region The Barcaldine Region is a local government area in Central West Queensland, Australia. Established in 2008, it was preceded by three previous local government areas which had existed for over a century. It has an estimated operating budget of ...

Geology

The Diamantina River's hook-shaped upper reaches have drawn scientific attention. In March 2015,

Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowle ...

reported that the river's course at and near its headwaters flows along the edge of a roughly circular crustal anomaly that might well be an

impact structure An impact structure is a generally circular or craterlike geologic structure of deformed bedrock or sediment produced by impact on a planetary surface, whatever the stage of erosion of the structure. In contrast, an impact crater is the surfa ...

. It is 130 km in diameter and lies some 60 km west of Winton; Middleton and

Dagworth Station Dagworth Station is a cattle station located north-west of Winton in central west Queensland in Australia. It was established in 1876 by Messrs Hunter and Urquhart who were living in a grass hut on the property in 1878 when they were still bui ...

lie right in it. The

asteroid impact An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have physical consequences and have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or me ...

, if indeed this is the explanation for the anomaly, would have happened roughly 300 million years ago.

Settlements

Major towns of Central West Queensland include Longreach, Winton, Blackall and Barcaldine. Barcaldine was the location for the

1891 Australian shearers' strike The 1891 shearers' strike is one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes. The dispute was primarily between unionised and non-unionised wool workers. It resulted in the formation of large camps of striking workers, and min ...

, one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes. The

Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame is a museum located in Longreach, Queensland, Australia, which pays tribute to pioneers of the Australian outback. The centre is also dedicated to Australian stockmen who have shown bravery and courage. ...

is a museum located in Longreach which pays tribute to pioneers of the Australian

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

. The building was completed in 1987 and opened by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states durin ...

on 29 April 1988. Smaller towns in the region include Bedourie, Birdsville, Boulia, Urandangi,

Ilfracombe Ilfracombe ( ) is a seaside resort and civil parish on the North Devon coast, England, with a small harbour surrounded by cliffs. The parish stretches along the coast from the 'Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay toward the east and along t ...

, Isisford,

Yaraka Yaraka is a rural town and locality in the Longreach Region of Queensland, Australia. Until 2021, the town of Yaraka was part of the locality of Isisford. Geography Yaraka is in Central West Queensland, Australia. It was the terminus of a Ya ...

Jundah Jundah is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Barcoo, Queensland, Australia. Jundah is the administrative centre of the Barcoo Shire local government area. In the , the locality of Jundah had a population of 106 people. Geography The ...

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connec ...

, Windorah,

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whi ...

Aramac Aramac is a rural town and locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Aramac had a population of 299 people. Geography Aramac is located north of Barcaldine, and by road from the state capital, Brisbane. It is situat ...

Jericho Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho ...

, Tambo and Muttaburra. The ghost town of Betoota has been designated as Australia's smallest town. Other ghost towns in the region include Scarrbury and Collingwood, both of which have vanished without a trace. There is also the depopulated town of Middleton, with only a handful of inhabitants.

Rivers

Waterways coursing through Central West Queensland include the

Barcoo River The Barcoo River in western Queensland, Australia rises on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range, flows in a south-westerly direction and unites with the Thomson River to form Cooper Creek. The first European to see the river was Thomas ...

Georgina River The Georgina River is the north-westernmost of the three major rivers of the Channel Country in Central West Queensland, that also flows through a portion of the Northern Territory, in central Australia. Part of the Lake Eyre basin, the Geor ...

Diamantina River The Diamantina River is a major river located in Central West Queensland and the far north of South Australia. The river was named by William Landsborough in 1866 for Lady Diamantina Bowen (née Roma), wife of Sir George Bowen, the first Gover ...

, Thomson River, Burke River, Hamilton River and

Cooper Creek The Cooper Creek (formerly Cooper's Creek) is a river in the Australian states of Queensland and South Australia. It was the site of the death of the explorers Burke and Wills in 1861. It is sometimes known as the Barcoo River from one of its ...

Protected areas

A number of national parks have been declared in the region, including Simpson Desert National Park,

Cudmore National Park Cudmore is a national park in Central West Queensland, Australia, 844 km northwest of Brisbane. The terrain of the park has an elevation of 398 meters. Wildlife 166 species of animals and 147 species of plants have been recorded in the p ...

Diamantina National Park Diamantina National Park is a national park in the Channel Country of South West Queensland, Australia, west of Brisbane. Like the Diamantina River that flows through it, it is named for Lady Diamantina Bowen, wife of Sir George Bowen, the firs ...

Astrebla Downs National Park Astrebla Downs is a national park in Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. Geography Astrebla Downs is located in the Channel Country of outback Queensland, 1298 km west of Brisbane. The landscape is flat and barren with few tree ...

, Welford National Park,

Goneaway National Park Goneaway is a national park in Central West Queensland, Australia, 1158 km west of Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and ...

, Lochern National Park and

Bladensburg National Park Bladensburg is a national park in Shire of Winton, Queensland, Australia. It includes an area once occupied by a sheep station called Bladensburg Station. History Bladensburg lies in the area of what was once Koa tribal territory and, on white ...

Transport

Major roads in the region include the Capricorn Highway and the

Landsborough Highway Landsborough Highway is a highway in western Queensland, Australia, running in the northwest–southeast direction from Morven to Cloncurry. The Landsborough Highway runs through vast tracts of land that was once occupied by William Landsborou ...

. In the north of the region, the

Kennedy Highway The Kennedy Highway is a highway in northern Queensland, Australia. It runs as National Route 1 for approximately 243 km from Smithfield, on the northern outskirts of Cairns, to the Gulf Developmental Road in the vicinity of Forty Mile S ...

leads from Boulia to

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

on the eastern coast of Australia. The Central railway line reached Longreach in 1892. Today, the

Spirit of the Outback The Spirit of the Outback is a long-distance passenger rail service in Queensland, Australia, operated by Queensland Rail's Traveltrain division. Route Debuting in November 1993 by combining the former '' Capricornian'' and '' Midlander'' tr ...

is a long-distance passenger rail service operating from

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

to Longreach. The region is serviced by six airports, including

Longreach Airport Longreach Airport is situated in Longreach, Queensland, Australia. The airport is northeast of the city. The Royal Flying Doctor Service has one of its nine Queensland bases at Longreach Airport. History Longreach has played a major part ...

Winton Airport Winton Airport is an airport serving Winton, Queensland, Australia. It is located northeast of Winton and operated by the Winton Shire Council. Facilities The airport is at an elevation of above sea level. It has two runways: 14/32 with ...

Windorah Airport Windorah Airport is an airport serving Windorah, Queensland, Australia. It is operated by the Barcoo Shire Council. The airport received $183,578 in funds for security upgrades from the Australian Government in 2006. Facilities The airport ...

Barcaldine Airport Barcaldine Airport is an airport in Barcaldine, Queensland, Australia. Airlines and destinations See also * List of airports in Queensland This is a list of airports in the Australian state of Queensland. __TOC__ List of airports ...

, Aramac Airport and Blackall Airport.

Media

Through a series of powerful

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

s and less powerful repeater stations located throughout the vast region, Central West Queensland is serviced by the local ABC radio station ABC Western Queensland along with commercial stations

4LG 4LG is an Australian radio station serving the Longreach region owned and operated by Resonate Broadcasting Resonate Broadcasting is an Australian media company, operating radio stations across various centres across regional Queensland, as we ...

and

West FM West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

, both owned by

Resonate Broadcasting Resonate Broadcasting is an Australian media company, operating radio stations across various centres across regional Queensland, as well as Hawaii. Formed in 2008, it currently operates 16 radio stations across Australia and the United States. ...

. The Central West's local newspaper is ''

The Longreach Leader ''The Longreach Leader'' is a newspaper published in Longreach, Queensland, Australia. History The first issue was published on 5 January 1923. In early October 2021 the owners of the paper advised that production of the weekly paper would be ...

'', published weekly.

References

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