Springsure, Queensland
| Springsure Queensland |
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Springsure Presbyterian Church
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 Springsure
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| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | ||||||||
| Population | 829 (2006 census)[1] | ||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 4722 | ||||||||
| Elevation | 344.9 m (1,132 ft) | ||||||||
| Location |
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| LGA(s) | Central Highlands | ||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Gregory | ||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Flynn | ||||||||
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Springsure is a small town in Queensland, 66 kilometres (41 mi) south of Emerald on the Gregory Highway. It is 765 kilometres (475 mi) northwest of Brisbane. At the 2006 census, Springsure had a population of 829.[1]
Contents
History
The area was originally owned by Aboriginal people, for thousands of years.
Ludwig Leichhardt was the first European to explore the area between 1843 and 1845. His favourable reports encouraged settlers to move in and take land already owned by local Aboriginal groups. Squatter Horatio Wills and a party of Victorian settlers arrived near modern-day Springsure in 1861. Two weeks later, 19 of the group, including Wills, were killed by Aboriginal Australian people, the Kairi or Gayiri, in the Cullin-La-Ringo massacre, the largest massacre of European settlers by Aborigines in Australian history.[2] At least 370 Aboriginal men, women and children were murdered[3] by the Queensland Native Police and militias of local European colonists and their employees, in a series of reprisals over the months that followed. However, the massacre of the 19 European colonists was itself a retaliatory response to an earlier shooting of local Gayiri people by Jesse Gregson (manager of nearby Rainsworth Station) with Second Lieutenant Alfred March Patrick and Native Police Troops in his command.[4] Prior to the massacre of the 19 colonists, Second Lieutenant Patrick had complained, in early 1861, to Charles Dutton (lessee of Bauhinia Downs pastoral lease 148 km south-east of Springsure) that other officers in the Queensland Native Police "...had been able to bag their first Aborigine after only a few weeks in the Force; he had served for six months and still had not yet killed a black."[5] The Old Rainworth Fort was built in 1862 by the colonists of Springsure in order to defend themselves from future raids by Aboriginal landowners.
Horatio's son, star cricketer and Australian rules football pioneer Tom Wills, survived the massacre, and remained on site until 1864.
One author[6] estimates 24,000 Aboriginal men, women and children (British subjects) died at the hands of the Native Police (excluding the murders committed by mounted parties of colonists) in colonial Queensland between 1859 and 1897 alone, and suggests an equal number of Aboriginal deaths in the same period were attributable to white settlers. This number of Aboriginal deaths - for which there is no memorial or public remembrance - are comparable to the number of Australians killed in World War I: about 60,000.[7]
On 6 December 1919, the Springsure State School Memorial Fountain was dedicated by Mrs Annie Wheeler (née Laurie), a former pupil at the school. The memorial is a marble fountain and commemorates students of the school who served in World War I.[8][9]
On 16 November 1943 a Douglas C-47A Skytrain broke up in mid-air during a violent storm in the area, and crashed on Rewan Station, just south of Spingsure.[10] All 19 people on board the aircraft perished in the crash.[10]
Today, Springsure is a pastoral settlement serving cattle farms, and sunflower, sorghum, wheat and chickpea plantations.
Heritage listings
Springsure has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
- Wealwandangie Road: Old Rainworth Stone Store[11]
- 13 Woodbine Street: Springsure Hospital Museum[12]
Feature
A cliff face in the hills surrounding Springsure is known to the area as Virgin Rock, named because it once looked like the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus, although years of erosion have blurred the original resemblance.
Facilities
Facilities at Springsure include an airport, caravan park, hospital, library, motocross track, police station, service station and showground.
Mining
Springsure is the hub for several coal mines such as the Minerva Mine and the Rolleston Mine. These mines are letting Springsure prosper. Significant exploration is ongoing in the district. It is also a staging point for expeditions to the Carnarvon National Park.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ T. Bottoms (2013) Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland's frontier killing times, Allen & Unwin, pp.53-54
- ↑ T Bottoms (2013) Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland's frontier killing times, Allen & Unwin, p.54
- ↑ G. Reid, "From Hornet Bank to Cullin-La-Ringo", Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 18 May 1981, p.69
- ↑ R Evans, quoted in T Bottoms (2013) Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland's frontier killing times, Allen & Unwin, p.181
- ↑ Australian War Memorial website, sourced 12 December 2015: https://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1/
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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