 About the area: a vast inland area of rural Queensland encompassing the central section of Queensland on and to the west of the Great Dividing Range. The eastern section of this region is often referred to as the Golden West but is better known to many as the Darling Downs, one of the richest agricultural areas in the world. Major highways traverse the whole of the Golden West region, allowing easy access to a most scenic part of inland Queensland. Attractions include numerous museums in the area that preserve the heritage of the pioneers. Activities are plentiful, with bushwalkers, horse riders and fishing enthusiasts particularly well catered for.
The western sector of Central Queensland borders South Australia and the Northern Territory, and consists of the Barcaldine, Barcoo, Blackall-Tambo, Boulia, Diamantina, Longreach and Winton local government areas. The most outlying towns and settlements in the Central West are covered in detail in the Outback Queensland section of this guide. The northern section of Central Queensland is covered in detail in the Cape & Gulf Country section of this guide.
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Mount Morgan |
Carnarvon National Park |
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Natural Wonders
Natural Attractions
Waterfalls
Caves
Historic Places
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- Barcaldine: Beta Farm Slab Hut (reconstruction of an 1880s structure); Glengyle Station; Australian Workers' Heritage Museum; The Shearers' Strike Camp; Barcaldine and District Folk Museum; Masonic Lodge Hall (1908); St Peter's Church (1899)
- Blackall: statue of 'World Champion Blade Shearer Jackie Howe (John Robert Howe) 1861-1920
- Chinchilla: Boonargo Cactoblastis Hall; Wongongera Slab Cottage; Chinchilla Folk Museum (steam sawmill)
- Clermont: St Mary's Roman Catholic Church (1890); Carinya homestead '(1912); Clermont Museum; mining ruins of Copperfield (4 km south) and Miclere (31 km north)
- Dirranbandi: old Railway Station Master's Office (1913)
- Emerald: Emerald Pioneer Cottage (1880); town lockup (built 1910, in use until 1970), St Marks Presbyterian Church (1884); Emerald Railway Station (1900)
- Hughenden: site of the Historic Coolabah tree (also known as the Walker/Landsborough tree), blazed as they passed through this area in search for Burke and Wills
- Longreach: Bimbah homestead (22 km north-east)
- Miles: Miles Historical Village
- Mitchell: Mitchell Museum; Kenniff Courthouse (where the infamous bushrangers Patrick and James Kenniff were committed to stand trial for the murder of a policeman and station manager in 1902)
- Mt. Morgan: railway station (1898); Mt. Morgan Historical Museum; Court House (1899)
- Roma: Roma Court House; School of Arts Hotel (1918); Meadowbank Museum (12 km west)
- Springsure: Pattern Comet Windmill (1935); Old Rainworth Fort (1856); Old Rainworth Station (includes Cairdbeign School 1896) and Cairdbeign Homestead (1870s); Fly'n Horse Shoe Museum; Historical Association Museum
- St George: The St George Heritage Centre; post office (1872); the town's first school house (1873); Catholic Church (1874); Anglican Church (1889); the original town bore (1904); Begonia Homestead (73 km north); Aboriginal Rock Wells (37 km east); Weengallon Aboriginal Rock wells (66 km south-east); Nindigully Hotel (46 km south, a former Cobb & Co staging post that has featured in commercials and in the movie, Paperback Hero).
- Surat: Cobb & Co Museum
- Theodore: Dawson Folk Museum
Misc. Attractions
- Barcaldine: Wanpa-rda Matilda Outback Education Centre; the Tree of Knowledge - it was under this 150-year-old ghost gum they sang Henry Lawson's great poem 'Freedom on the Wallaby')
- Blackall: The Black Stump (originated in rural Australian mythology as a place beyond which was no man's land. Hence the impossible location of 'beyond the black stump'); The Blackall Woolscour (4.2 km north, 1906); Black's Palace (the largest complex of Aboriginal drawings known to exist in Central Queensland. The paintings are set on the sandstone cliff faces of a gorge. There are some 9,471 figures in the area ranging from stencils of hands, feet, boomerangs and axes to drawings of spears, clubs, shields, snakes and lizards.)
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- Capella: Gregory coal mine; Capella Pioneer Village and historic homestead; remnants of the village of Lilyvale
- Chinchilla: petrified wood (very prevalent in the area including rare finds of fossilised Pentoxlin trees)
- Dirranbandi: Cubbie Station (one of the largest privately owned cotton properties in Australia)
- Emerald: Fossilised Wood (displayed outside the Emerald Town Hall, estimated to be 250 million years old)
- Gin Gin: Boolboonda Tunnel (the longest unsupported man-made tunnel in Australia); Railway Station and complex; Gin Gin Museum
- Goondiwindi: Macintyre Cotton Gin; Gunsynd memorial; BHP coal mine
- Longreach: Stockman's Hall of Fame; Qantas Founders Museum; Jacksons Weapons Museum; Qantas hangar, Longreach Airport (1923); Starlight's Lookout (recalls cattle duffer Harry Redford, aka Captain Starlight)
- Meteor Creek: Kenniff Aboriginal Archeological Area (tools, tool making sites, shelters, rock art); Kenniff Cave (Aboriginal rock art, hideout of notorious cattle duffers, the Kenniff brothers)
- Miles: Dogwood Crossing
- Miriam Vale: Giant Crab
- Mitchell: Great Artesian Spa
- Monto: Aboriginal rock art, Cania Gorge; Monal Gold Fields relics; 'Beautiful Betsy' crash site, Kroombit Tops (WWII B24 Liberator crashed February 1945)
- Mt. Morgan: Mt. Morgan Visitors' Centre and Historic Rail Complex; Suspension Foot Bridges (1890s); Chinese Heung Lew (Prayer Oven or Incense Burner)
- Roma: Romavilla Winery
- Springsure: Carnarvon National Park Aboriginal cave and rock art galleries including fine examples of hands, axes, emu tracks and boomerangs
- St George: Beardmore Dam (21 km north); The Unique Egg (a collection of hand-carved emu eggs); vineyard; Rosehill Aviaries Wildlife Park
- Stanwell: Windy Hill Wind Farm
- Surat: Surat Oil Field (80 km south); the Window to the Balonne freshwater fish aquarium; winery
- Taroom: Taroom & District Historical Society; Ludwig Leichhardt Memorial; Leichhardt's tree
- Wandoan: Waterloo Plains Environmental Park; Wandoan Windmill; heritage trail
Journeys
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