Tree of Knowledge memorial marker

The Tree of Knowledge before it was poisoned

Australian Workers Heritage Centre

A medium sized outback town famous for its role in one of the more significant events in the political life of Australia: the shearers' strike of 1891, which played an important role in the events which led to the formation of the Australian Labor Party.

Where is it?: Queensland: Outback. Barcaldine is 1080 km north-west Brisbane at the junction of the Capricorn and Matilda (Landsborough) Highways.

Things to see and do:

The landmark Tree of Knowledge, an imposing ghost gum under which the strikeing shearers met, stood outside the railway station. The is in the town's main street. It was here that the strikers sang Henry Lawson's great poem 'Freedom on the Wallaby'. In 2006, persons unknown poisoned the tree with the herbicide Roundup, which led to its demise. The tree's location is marked today.

The Australian Workers Heritage Centre is a national project commemorating not just these events, which changed the course of the nation's working history, but is a tribute to all Australian working men and women. Set in over five acres of landscaped gardens, it is also home to the Wanpa-rda Matilda Outback Education Centre - a unique residential facility for schools and community groups.

Barcaldine is home to the old world Radio Theatre, complete with its canvas seats, and the working windmill that pumps water into the sculpture designed and erected by the Youth of Barcaldine, which stands outside the information centre.

Barcaldine and District Folk Museum, like many of the museums in western Queensland, is full of memorabilia collected from locals, including a rare Edison gramophone dating from 1900, some barbed wire from the 1870s and a 1923 ticket issued by Qantas.

About Barcaldine

The town is situated on Lagoon Creek, which flows into the Alice River approximately five kilometres south of the Barcaldine. This is the administrative centre of the Barcaldine region. Major industries are sheep and beef cattle rearing.

Brief history: the first European to pass through the Barcaldine area was Sir Thomas Mitchell who arrived after good rains and proceeded to sing the praises of the area, describing it as 'the finest region I have seen in Australia' . The locals, who know only too well how dry and harsh the area around Barcaldine can become, look upon Mitchell's analysis with bemusement. Mitchell's enthusiasm encouraged Donald Cameron to overland sheep from the New England area and establish Barcaldine Station. The town was established in 1886 when it became the western terminus for the railway from Rockhampton.
The town's name originated 1863 when Donald Charles Cameron overlanded sheep from the New England area of NSW and settled on a 64-km frontage along the Alice River which he named Barcaldine Station after his family's property in Argyllshire, Scotland.