MOONIE, QUEENSLAND

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A small township on the edge of the Surat-Bowen oil and gas basin.
Location: 323 km west of Brisbane at the junction of the Moonie and Leichhardt Highways.
Origin of name: the town's name is derived from Moonie River, first recorded as Mooni by Sir Thomas Mitchell (1792-1855) NSW Surveyor-General, in November 1846 when he passed through here. He left no record of the meaning or significance of the name which is believed to be of Aboriginal origin.
Brief history: The area was first settled in the 1840s but it only came to prominence in December 1961 when it became Australia's first commercial oil field. It produces one per cent of Australia's oil and gas reserves.
Built features: oil wells, pipeline from Moonie to Brisbane (1969)