Springsure is situated 68.3 kilometres (42.4 mi) by road south of Emerald, at the southern end of the Gregory Highway, and at the northern end of the Dawson Highway. Springsure is 764 kilometres (475 mi) northwest of Brisbane.
The terrain varies from 270 to 602 metres (886 to 1,975 ft) above sea level, with a number of named mountain features:
Springsure is the hub for several coal mines such as the Minerva Mine and the Rolleston Mine. Significant exploration is ongoing in the district.[citation needed]
Ludwig Leichhardt was the first European to explore the area, doing so between 1844 and 1845. His favourable reports encouraged settlers to move in and settle the land.[16]
In 1861, squatter Horatio Wills and a party of Victorian settlers arrived near modern-day Springsure in 1861. Two weeks later, 19 men women and children, including Wills, were killed by Aboriginal Australian people, the Kairi or Gayiri, in the Cullin-La-Ringo massacre, which was the largest massacre of European settlers by Aboriginal peoples in Australian history.[17] At least 15 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed by the Queensland Native Police and militias of local European colonists and their employees in a series of reprisals over the months that followed.[18] However, the massacre of the 19 European family members was itself a retaliatory response to an earlier shooting of fugitive murderer who was Gayiri tribesman by Jesse Gregson, manager of nearby Rainsworth Station, with Second Lieutenant Alfred March Patrick and Native Police Troops in his command.[19] Prior to the massacre of the 19 colonists, in early 1861 Second Lieutenant Patrick had complained to Charles Dutton, lessee of Bauhinia Downs pastoral lease 148 kilometres (92 mi) 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."[20] The Old Rainworth Fort was built in 1862 by the colonists of Springsure in order to defend themselves from future raids by Aboriginals. Horatio's son, star cricketer and Australian rules football pioneer Tom Wills, survived the massacre, and remained on site until 1864.[21]
The town takes its name from a pastoral run which was first named Springsure in 1861, after its permanent spring.[2][3]
The town was surveyed by Charles Frederick Gregory in August 1863.[2]
Springsure State School opened on 14 March 1870 under head teacher John Henry Nicholson, son of an eminent scholar, John Nicholson, a friend of Ludwig Leichhardt.[28][29]
The Springsure branch railway line opened on 15 August 1887.[30][31] The section beyond Wurba Junction to Springsure railway station was closed on 26 June 2013.[32]
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.[33][34]
In March 1925, the Rev. Father Thomas Andrew Sweeney arrived in Springsure to replace Rev. Father Jules Bucas as the Catholic priest for the parish.[35] Sweeney saw that there was a need for a Catholic school in Springsure and set about building a school and a convent for its teachers in August 1925.[36] The architect was Roy Chipps and the builder E.H. Fletcher, both of Rockhampton. In January 1926 the school and the convent opened in a ceremony led by Roman Catholic Bishop of RockhamptonJoseph Shiel. The convent and school were under the control of Sister Mary Bonaventure of the Sisters of Mercy.[37] The school opened on 2 February 1926 with 64 children.[38][39] It was originally known as The Convent of the Little Flower,[40] but the name was later changed to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.[41]
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, around 100 km south of Springsure.[42] All 19 people on board the aircraft perished in the crash.[42]
Minerva Hills National Park was gazetted in 1994.[7]
Demographics
In the 2006 census, the locality of Springsure had a population of 829 people.[43]
In the 2016 census, the locality of Springsure had a population of 1,103 people.[44]
In the 2021 census, the locality of Springsure had a population of 950 people.[1]
Heritage listings
Springsure has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
There is no secondary education for Years 11 and 12 in Springsure. The nearest school offering secondary education for these years is in Emerald, but it might be out of range for a daily commute in which case distance education and boarding school are alternatives.[39]
Other facilities in Springsure include the airport, a caravan park, motocross track, service station and showground.
Attractions
A cliff face in the mountains just to the north of the town is known as the Virgin Rock, so named because it looked like the Virgin Mary cradling the baby Jesus. Subsequent erosion led to the rock resembling the baby Jesus falling away, but the original resemblance to the Virgin Mary remains.[8][57]
Notable residents
Lucy Harriet Eatock, who was a political activist was born (and later married) here in 1974.[58]
^"ROCKHAMPTON". The Courier. Brisbane: National Library of Australia. 11 November 1861. p. 2. Archived from the original on 2 July 2021. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
^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
^"TELEGRAPHIC". The Brisbane Courier. Vol. XXI, no. 2, 895. Queensland, Australia. 6 May 1867. p. 2. Retrieved 14 January 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^"PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY". The Telegraph. No. 15, 435. Queensland, Australia. 18 May 1922. p. 2. Retrieved 14 January 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^"QUEENSLAND NEWS". Morning Bulletin. Vol. XXXIX, no. 6953. Queensland, Australia. 17 August 1887. p. 5. Retrieved 15 January 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
^"PERSONAL". The Brisbane Courier. No. 20, 958. Queensland, Australia. 26 March 1925. p. 10. Retrieved 10 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
^"SPRINGSURE CATHOLICITY". Morning Bulletin. No. 19171. Queensland, Australia. 26 January 1926. p. 11. Archived from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
^"NEW BUILDINGS AT SPRINGSURE". The Capricornian. Vol. LI, no. 7. Queensland, Australia. 13 February 1926. p. 8 (THE CAPRICORNIAN.). Archived from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
^"SPRINGSURE". The Catholic Press. No. 1571. New South Wales, Australia. 18 February 1926. p. 29. Archived from the original on 28 December 2021. Retrieved 10 June 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Our History". Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School. Archived from the original on 10 June 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
^Greenland, Hall, "Eatock, Lucy Harriet (1874–1950)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 8 October 2023, retrieved 21 September 2023
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Springsure.
"Springsure". Queensland Places. Centre for the Government of Queensland, University of Queensland.