Bluff 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

Central Highlands Region Central Highlands Region is a local government area in Queensland, Australia. In the , the Central Highlands Region had a population of 27,836 people. History '' Wadja'' (also known as ''Wadjigu'', ''Wadya'', ''Wadjainngo'', ''Mandalgu'', a ...

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 , the locality of Bluff had a population of 324 people.

Geography

The town is located on the

Capricorn Highway The Capricorn Highway is located in Central Queensland, Australia, and links the city of Rockhampton with western Queensland. The highway is long, and joins the Landsborough Highway at Barcaldine. Formerly National Route 66, Queensland began ...

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 ...

, 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 ...

. Bluff's location between some of Queensland's largest

coal mines Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

and the port 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 ...

has led to it becoming a major interchange station for large coal trains, some up to two kilometres long.

History

Based on artefacts found on the nearby

Blackdown Tableland National Park Blackdown Tableland is a national park in the Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia. Geography The park is in Central Queensland, northwest of Brisbane. The mountainous terrain of the tablelands provides a unique landscape featuring ...

, Aboriginal people lived in this area for thousands of years. The first European settlement occurred in the district in the 1860s as early pastoralists moved to the area. The district was originally called Duckworth or Duckworth Creek, but in 1877 the name was changed to Bluff to match the name of the railway station. The Bluff name was derived from a local hill known as Arthur's Bluff. Duckworth Post Office opened by September 1906 (a

receiving office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

had been open from late 1905) and was renamed Bluff in 1907. Duckworth Provisional School was established in January 1907 and opened in June 1907. However, the local people disliked the name Duckworth and a few months later, the name was changed to Bluff or Bluff Colliery Provisional School. On 1 January 1909, it became Bluff State School. In 2017, a suspicious fire completely destroyed the Bluff Family Store, the town's local general store. Without anywhere to buy groceries, local Bluff residents needed to travel to Blackwater for supplies following the fire. However, three years after the fire, an independent business called the Bluff Servo opened in the town to continue supplying the community with groceries, toiletries and fuel. Bluff and the surrounding districts are served by the Bluff Town and Rural Fire Brigade which has had active members on its books since 1975. A small shed in Church Street was built to house the brigade in 1980. After obtaining funding to build a larger facility in 2016, a new fire shed was built in Church Street which was officially opened in May 2018.

Demographics

In the , the locality of Bluff had a population of 370 people. In the , the locality of Bluff had a population of 373 people. In the , the locality of Bluff had a population of 324 people.

Education

Bluff State School is a government primary (Prep–6) school for boys and girls at Main Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 15 students with 2 teachers and 4 non-teaching staff (2 full-time equivalent).

Notable residents

* Casey Conway,

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

player for

Sydney Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

References

External links

* * {{authority control Towns in Queensland Central Highlands Region Localities in Queensland