St George, Queensland
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St George is a rural town and
locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...
in the
Shire of Balonne The Shire of Balonne is a local government area in South West Queensland, Australia, over from the state capital, Brisbane. It covers an area of , and has existed as a local government entity since 1879. It is headquartered in its main town, S ...
,
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 ...
, Australia. It is the administrative centre for the
Shire of Balonne The Shire of Balonne is a local government area in South West Queensland, Australia, over from the state capital, Brisbane. It covers an area of , and has existed as a local government entity since 1879. It is headquartered in its main town, S ...
. In the , St George had a population of 3,048 people.


Geography

The town is due 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 Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...
and the
Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...
and sits just inside the region 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 ...
, Australia. St George is on the
Balonne River The Balonne River, part of the Murray-Darling Basin system, is a short yet significant part of the inland river group of South West Queensland, Australia. Course and features The river is a continuation of the Condamine River. After flowing th ...
which is reputedly an excellent fishing site for fish such as Yellowbelly and Murray Cod. It sits at the junction of several
highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...
s including the
Castlereagh Highway Castlereagh Highway is a state highway located in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. The highway's northern terminus is at a junction with Carnarvon Highway, south of , Queensland. Its southern terminus is at a junction with Great West ...
, the Moonie Highway, the Carnarvon Highway and the
Balonne Highway The Balonne Highway, a state highway of Queensland, is the continuation westward of State Route 49 (Moonie Highway) from the town of St George to its termination at Cunnamulla. There are no large settlements between St George and Cunnamulla. U ...
. The only crossing of the
Balonne River The Balonne River, part of the Murray-Darling Basin system, is a short yet significant part of the inland river group of South West Queensland, Australia. Course and features The river is a continuation of the Condamine River. After flowing th ...
is the
Andrew Nixon Bridge The Andrew Nixon Bridge is a road bridge over the Balonne River in St George, Queensland, Australia. The bridge, which is part of the Balonne Highway The Balonne Highway, a state highway of Queensland, is the continuation westward of State ...
on the Balonne Highway.


History


Aboriginal people

The present township of St George was founded on the boundaries of three Aboriginal cultural groups, the
Mandandanji The Mandandanyi are an indigenous Australian people of Queensland. Country The Mandandanji owned of tribal territory, which took in the Maranoa and Balonne rivers north of St. George. Their western extension reached as far Bollon and Wallam ...
to the north, the Kooma to the south-west and the Bigambul to the south-east. These people of the Balonne River fished with hoop nets and hunted ducks and marsupials for meat. They supplemented their diet with the small native melons that grew in abundance in the area, and with yams dug out from the flats along the riverbanks. Their funeral rites consisted of constructing an elevated bark platform on which the deceased would be placed, with fires lit underneath to smoke and preserve the corpse. The mummified remains would then be wrapped in bark and possum cloaks and carried with care by the relatives until they were deposited in a hollow of a tree. Surrounding trees were marked and decorated.


British colonisation

In 1845, pastoralist squatters John Gordon Town and Christopher Bagot entered the vicinity looking for land to take up for cattle. The local Commissioner for Crown Lands, Roderick Mitchell conducted an expedition along the Balonne River later that year, taking the name for the river from the Aboriginal residents. In 1846, the site where the town of St George now stands was Major Thomas Mitchell's Camp VIII of his expedition into northern Australia. He noticed the natural rocky ford across the
Balonne River The Balonne River, part of the Murray-Darling Basin system, is a short yet significant part of the inland river group of South West Queensland, Australia. Course and features The river is a continuation of the Condamine River. After flowing th ...
on
St George's Day Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, and cities of which he is the patron saint, including Bulgaria, England, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Cáceres, Alcoy, Aragon and Catalonia. Sai ...
, 23 April, thereby naming the site St George's Bridge. He directed his second-in-charge
Edmund Kennedy Edmund Besley Court Kennedy J. P. (5 September 1818 – December 1848) was an explorer in Australia in the mid nineteenth century. He was the Assistant-Surveyor of New South Wales, working with Sir Thomas Mitchell. Kennedy explored the interio ...
to construct a cattle depot there while he explored further north. Kennedy and his stockmen remained at St George's Bridge for around a month. In 1847, the first
cattle station In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm ( station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a '' grazier''. The largest cattle stat ...
s were established: Burgorah (also known as Warroo, owned by
Robert Fitzgerald Robert Stuart Fitzgerald (; 12 October 1910 – 16 January 1985) was an American poet, literary critic and translator whose renderings of the Greek classics "became standard works for a generation of scholars and students".Mitgang, Herbert (Janua ...
and managed by Patrick Brennan); Boombah (owned by Henry Dangar and managed by George Hazard); Gulnarbar (owned by George and Anthony Loder, and managed by William Clay); and Wagoo (also known as Wachoo or Culpa, owned by William Ogilvie Jnr, and managed by Robert Hazard). Conflict with the local Aborigines over land and the killing of cattle ensued with around 40 Aboriginal people and up to nine whites being killed on Burgorah in 1849, Patrick Brennan being wounded in the leg by a spear. Aboriginal men later counter-attacked the stockmen on Burgorah, forcing them to flee to the nearby Boombah property, where Dangar's men were able to reinforce and arm both the stockmen and members of a rival Aboriginal clan. Upon returning to Burgorah, they slaughtered the resident Aboriginal people, burying around 70 of their corpses in a large pit. In 1852, sweeps by the paramilitary
Native Police Australian native police units, consisting of Aboriginal troopers under the command (usually) of at least one white officer, existed in various forms in all Australian mainland colonies during the nineteenth and, in some cases, into the twentie ...
began in the area. Sergeant Richard Dempster with property managers Patrick Brennan and others, shot at least five Aboriginal people on Wagoo. Later that year, a detachment under Lieutenant George Fulford drove the free Aborigines into the "back country". Some Aboriginal people were allowed to remain on the properties to be utilised as labourers and prostitutes. These were called "station blacks" and by 1855 there were around 40 remaining on Burgorah and 200 at Boombah. By 1862, Burgorah and Gulnarbar were being utilised as a temporary Native Police barracks where Aboriginal prisoners were tied to trees and flogged, and occasionally shot dead. Lieutenant John Marlow and his troopers made a final sweep of the region in 1862, destroying Aboriginal camps and pursuing them as far as Angellala Creek where he "dispersed" them after a brief battle.


Township of St George

The township of St George was gazetted upon a portion of the Burgorah run in March 1864 with the first 59 parcels of land offered for sale a month later. Andrew Nixon was contracted in 1890 by the Queensland government to build a timber bridge across the Balonne River at St George's Bridge. This was completed in 1892 and later replaced by the current Andrew Nixon bridge and Jack Taylor Weir in 1953. The first St Patrick's Catholic Church was built in 1874; it is now known as the old parish hall. On 3 May 1959 the new St Patrick's Catholic Church was blessed and opened. The
Balonne Beacon The ''Balonne Beacon'' was a newspaper published in St George, Shire of Balonne, Queensland, Australia from 1878 to 2020. It was originally called the ''St. George Standard and Balonne Advertiser''. History The first issue of the ''St. Georg ...
newspaper was published in St George from 2 January 1909 to 29 December 1954. The St. George Standard and Balonne Advertiser newspaper was published from 1878 - 1879 and 1902 - 1904.


Floods

The town was severely affected by flooding in March 2010, which peaked at 13.5 metres, and again in December 2010 - January 2011. Flooding once again occurred in February 2012, and about 2000 residents were mandatorily evacuated on 4 and 5 February to evacuation centres in Dalby and
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 ...
. A temporary levee was built in St George on the morning of 5 February (Sunday). The Balonne River reached a height of 13.85 metres on Tuesday 7 February.


Climate

St George, experiences a hot semi-arid climate ( Köppen: ''BSh'', Trewartha: ''BShl''); with very hot summers; warm to hot springs and autumns; and mild winters. Precipitation is moderately low throughout the year due to its distance from the coast. Climate data for St George was collected at the St George Post Office from 1881 to 1997.


Heritage listings

St George has the following heritage-listed sites: * Wagoo Road (): The Anchorage


Economy

The town is a centre for
cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
growing, as well as
sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...
,
wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
,
onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onio ...
s, garlic, corn, carrots and
grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...
s.


Facilities

St George has a visitor information centre, cultural centre, swimming pool, showground, bowling and the St George Golf Club. The address of the golf club is Wagoo Road. It was opened in 1948. The town also has an airport, St George Airport. Balonne Shire Council operates a library in Victoria Street. The St George branch of the
Queensland Country Women's Association The Queensland Country Women's Association (QCWA) is the Queensland chapter of the Country Women's Association in Australia. The association seeks to serve the interests of women and children in rural areas in Australia through a network of loca ...
has its rooms at 73 Victoria Street. Christ Church Anglican is at 133 Victoria Street (). The St George Lutheran congregation hold their services at the Anglican Church.


Education

St George State School opened on 2 February 1874. In 1960 a secondary department was added which operated until St George State High School was opened in 1978. St George State School is a government primary (Early Childhood-6) school for boys and girls at Grey Street (). In 2015, the school had an enrolment of 217 students with 24 teachers (22 full-time equivalent) and 15 non-teaching staff (12 full-time equivalent). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 246 students with 25 teachers (24 full-time equivalent) and 17 non-teaching staff (13 full-time equivalent). It includes a
special education Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...
(Early Childhood-12) program. St George State High School is a government secondary (7-12) school for boys and girls at 2 Victoria Street (). In 2015, the school had an enrolment of 221 students with 25 teachers (22 full-time equivalent) and 24 non-teaching staff (17 full-time equivalent). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 205 students with 28 teachers (23 full-time equivalent) and 20 non-teaching staff (16 full-time equivalent). Burgorah South Provisional School opened in 1902. On 1 January 1909 it became Burgorah South State School. It closed on circa 1917. Myrtlemount Provisional School, Warrie Provisional School and Hollymount Provisional School (all named after local pastoral stations) opened on 29 September 1919 as a group of part-time schools (sharing a teacher between them). All three schools closed in 1922 due to low student numbers. Tow Towri State School opened circa 1931. It closed circa 1945. Towtowri is a local pastoral property. Rocky Crossing State School opened on 25 January 1988 and closed on 31 December 2003. It was from St George. St Patrick's Catholic School was established by the
Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, often called the Josephites or Brown Joeys, are a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Mary MacKillop (1842–1909). Members of the congregation use the postnominal initials RSJ (Religious Siste ...
. The school opened on 19 February 1933. However, rain caused the official opening and blessing by Bishop James Byrne to be postponed to Sunday 28 May 1933. In 1988 the Sisters withdrew from the operation of the school and it is now under lay leadership. St Patrick's School is a Catholic primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 36-44 Balonne Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 180 students with 14 teachers (12 full-time equivalent) and 12 non-teaching staff (9 full-time equivalent).


Events

The St George show is celebrated every year over the Labour Day long weekend (weekend of the first Monday in May). Everyone is encouraged to go and locals have a great time sharing stories at the bar and watching the rodeo.


Sport

The St George Dragons (named after the much more famous NRL team) play in the
Roma District Rugby League The Roma District Rugby League is a competition in the Maranoa district of South West Queensland, Australia, run under the auspices of the Queensland Rugby League. History The Roma District Rugby League was established in 1914. Rugby Leagu ...
competition.


Notable residents

St George gained national attention with the election of local accountant
Barnaby Joyce Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce (born 17 April 1967) is an Australian politician who served as the 17th deputy prime minister of Australia under Malcolm Turnbull from 2016 to 2018 and under Scott Morrison from 2021 to 2022. He was the leader of the ...
to the Australian Senate following the 2004 federal election. It is also the hometown of
National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
player
Dale Shearer Dale Shearer (born 25 July 1965), also known by the nickname of "Rowdy", is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A Queensland State of Origin and Australian international representative ...
. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's father was also a resident being the Bank of New South Wales manager during the 1930s.


See also

* St George Airport (Queensland)


References


Attribution


Further reading

* * * *


External links

* * *
St George's New Website 2006

Balonne Shire Council


— St. George
George Community Profile St George Community Profile

Balonne Shire Internet Exchange
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint George, Queensland Towns in Queensland Populated places established in 1862 Shire of Balonne 1862 establishments in Australia Localities in Queensland