Lochington 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

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 , Lochington had a population of 128 people.

Geography

Lochington is bounded to the east and south-east by the

Nogoa River The Nogoa River is a river in Central Queensland, Australia. Course and features The river rises on the Carnarvon Range, part of the Great Dividing Range, in the Carnarvon National Park and flows in a generally north easterly direction towards ...

. The locality is within the Fitzroy River drainage basin. 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 ...

passes through the northernmost part of the locality from Anakie Siding to

Willows Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

. The Snake Range National Park () lies within the locality to the east. It is . The predominant land use is

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

on native vegetation.

History

Lochington pastoral station obtained a mail service on 1 January 1937. Lockington Provisional School opened 23 January 1961 on land that was once part of Lockington pastoral station, and became Lockington State School at a new site in January 1965. The school closed 14 December 1979 due to low student numbers, but reopened in January 1991, as Lochington State School (a new spelling of the name). On 17 April 2020, the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

re-drew the boundaries of

localities 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 ...

within the Central Highlands Region by replacing the locality of The Gemfields with three new localities of Rubyvale, Sapphire Central and Anakie Siding (around the towns of Rubyvale,

Sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name ''sapphire ...

, and Anakie respectively). This included adjusting the boundaries of other existing localities in the Region to accommodate these changes; Lochington lost a small portion of land to the north to the new Anakie Siding, lost a strip of land from its north-eastern edge mostly to

Gindie Gindie is a rural locality in the Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Gindie had a population of 232 people. Geography The settlement of Fernlees is located in southern Gindie (). The Gregory Highway passes through the ...

but gained a small piece of land from

Minerva Minerva (; ; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Be ...

, with the overall effect of reducing the area of the locality from . As a consequence of these changes, the boundary between Lochington and Minerva/Gindie more closely follows the course of the

Demographics

In the , Lochington's population was deemed to be too low to be reported separately and was combined with neighbouring

which had a reported population of 308 people. At the , Lochington had a population of 57 people. In the , Lochington had a population of 128 people.

Education

Lochington State School is a government co-educational primary (Prep to Year 6) school at the Lochington pastoral homestead at 101 Lochington Access Road (). In 2013, the school had 3 students (from the same family) and 1 teacher. In 2016, enrolment was 10, in 2017, eight, and in 2018, seven. In 2021, enrolment was six, including three students in their Prep year.

Geography

History

Demographics

Education

References

Further reading