TEXAS, QUEENSLAND

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A quiet rural town on the NSW border beside the Dumaresque River whose boundaries cover a wide area of land, much of it undeveloped. Texas is on the Rural Getaway – a quiet alternate tourist route between Queensland and New South Wales.  Stretching from the Fossickers Way at Warialda in New South Wales and joining with the Country Way at Mundubbera in Queensland, the Rural Getaway provides the most direct route from Tamworth to Rockhampton.
Location: 101 km from Stanthorpe; 159 km from Tenterfield on the Dumaresq River.
Origin of name: the name is derived from a pastoral run used by pastoralist Donald Norris McDougall from 1857. McDougall was from Texas in America, which was the subject of conflict between the USA and Mexico at the time. McDougall had to contest ownership of the run after temporarily abandoning it.
Brief history: Texas Station, one of the largest landholdings in the area, was established in 1842. By the 1870s, the district had become a leading tobacco producing area with most farms operated by Chinese. It had its own factory which converted the tobacco leaves into cakes and plugs. A flood on 28th March 1890 wiped out the tobacco factory and all that there was of the tiny settlement. The town moved 2 km north to higher ground. By the 1950s tobacco growing had fallen into decline, so much so that there is little evidence of tobacco growing today.
Natural features: Dumaresq River; Sundown National Park
Built features: Glenlyon Dam
Heritage features: Texas Historical Museum (located in the old Police house, 1890)