Muttaburra, Kennedy District, Queensland, Australia

Notes:
Muttaburra is a town and locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Muttaburra had a population of 88 people. The undeveloped town of Scarrbury is within the locality.



Geography

Muttaburra is in the central west of Queensland. The town is located on the banks of the Thomson River, approximately 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of the town of Longreach and 84 kilometres (52 mi) north of Aramac.



The Great Dividing Range is the main feature to the east of Muttaburra. The region is a sub-basin of the Great Artesian Basin. The Great Artesian Basin supplies water from bores to the towns of Muttaburra and Aramac. The area is well known for its good quality land that is used for sheep and cattle grazing.



The main industry of the Muttaburra area is grazing.



Scarrbury is located on Aramac Creek along Vera Park Road.



History

Muttaburra lay on the traditional tribal lands of the Iningai. Iningai (also known as Yiningay, Muttaburra, Tateburra, Yinangay, Yinangi) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Iningai people. The Iningai language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Longreach Region and Barcaldine Region, particularly the towns of Longreach, Barcaldine, Muttaburra and Aramac as well as the properties of Bowen Downs and catchments of Cornish Creek and Alice River.



The name of the town derived from an Iningai clan name, the Muttaburra, who were the traditional owners of this area. According to some sources, muttaburra meant ?the meeting of waters? or "camping ground" or "meeting place". The area was once part of a vast inland sea.



Muttaburra developed as a town in the 1870s. In the Brisbane Courier of 10 October 1877, the local correspondent noted that,



"The Land Commissioner has been round this way lately, and surveyed the new township, one and a half mile from Mount Cornish; its name I do not know, and I don?t think anybody else does, as it is undecided. I hear there is a store open now, also a public house, and I suppose there will be other business places shortly."



The town was officially declared in 1878. Bruford Street, the main street, took its name from a saddler, Mr. Bruford, who established a saddlery repair shop there, in that same year. The need for other services, such as hotels, the Cobb & Co changing station, blacksmiths, banks and general stores were also soon accommodated. 50 allotments of Crown Land were made available to the public for sale by public auction at Aramac on the 18 June 1878, at which "Mr Sword, Land Commissioner, disposed of forty six town allotments situated at Muttaburra. They were one acre divisions, upset price ?10. Twenty three fetched the upset price, the remainder sold at a considerable advance, two of the lots realising ?50 each."



The first post office was built in 1887 and then replaced with a modern building in 1926.



In March 1881, the Queensland Government held a land sale, auctioning 60 town lots in the town of Scarrbury. The government had set aside 4 square miles (10 km2) of land for the town in November 1876.



Muttaburra was also the scene of one of the most daring acts of cattle duffing ever performed in Australia. Henry Radford stole cattle from Bowen Downs Station and drove them 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) through the mostly unexplored Central Australia region to the Blanche Water station in northern South Australia. He sold the livestock for ?5000, and was later charged with theft and tried at the Roma District Court. Despite overwhelming evidence from the prosecution and no witnesses put forward by the defence, a jury found him not guilty within an hour. He was greatly admired for crossing Central Australia unscathed. The transcript of the delivery of the verdict reads, "Judge: What is your verdict? Foreman of the Jury: We find the prisoner 'Not Guilty'. Judge: What? Foreman of the Jury: Not guilty. Judge: I thank God, gentlemen, that the verdict is yours, not mine!"



Family of George and Edwina Bunning, 1912, descendants of the Edkins family.

One of the prominent early settlers to establish themselves in Muttaburra was Edward Rowland (Rofley) Edkins, who was the first Manager of Mt. Cornish, the original outstation of Bowen Downs. He was also Chairman of the Aramac Divisional Board (1882, 1886 - 1888, 1891,and 1902); a member of the Muttaburra Hospital Committee (1885); Muttaburra Jockey Club President (1891); Muttaburra Hospital Committee President (1891); and Marathon Pastoral Society President (1891). He died at Drummoyne, Sydney, on 14 August 1905. Edkins married Edwina Marion Huey, daughter of Dr Walter Huey (1797-1843) of Launceston in Tasmania.[19] Edwina was well known in the district, and also a composer of a number of musical works, related to the area, including Malboona Gavotte,[21] Wee Bimba: waltz, The Women of the West[23] and the LC5 Waltz[24] She was remembered as "the most kindly of kind hostesses and the wife of one of the most outstanding men of the pastoral industry in Australia".



in 1884 a hospital was built with funds raised by the local community. The first doctor was Dr Overend from Melbourne and Mr Lawry was the first Wardsman. By 1901, the Muttaburra Hospital was equipped with one of the earliest x-ray units to be installed in any country hospital.



The town dam was built in 1885 by Mr Hudson. For some years this dam was the source of water for the town and water carted into town in casks. Residents paid 2/6 per cask although double this amount was not uncommon. Later the dam was also used as the town's swimming pool.



90 men and women from the Muttaburra district served in some capacity in the First World War. In 2015 a new memorial was designed and installed by J.H. Wagner & Sons. The front face of the memorial has three bronze sculpture badges for Australian Army, Australian Navy and Australian Air Force.



The Muttaburra branch of the Country Women's Association was formed in August 1927 with 34 financial members. The Ruby Bayliss QCWA Hostel opened in 1955 to provide accommodation for out-of-town expectant mothers.



The Muttaburra Public Library building was opened in 1961.



In 1963 Muttaburra was the discovery site of the Muttaburrasaurus, one of Australia's largest dinosaurs, by Doug Langdon. The dinosaur is believed to have been 12 metres (39 ft) long, 2 metres (6.6 ft) high from the hip and weighing 15 tonnes (17 short tons). It was a herbivore, with rows of grinding teeth, and probably ate plants such as ferns, cycads and conifers. It may have lived in herds. Muttaburrasaurus lived around 100 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. Several specimens of this dinosaur have been found in central and northern Queensland, and a few teeth have been found in New South Wales. There is a full size replica in the town.



At the 2006 census, Muttaburra and the surrounding area had a population of 106.



On 22 November 2019 the Queensland Government decided to amalgamate the localities in the Barcaldine Region, resulting in five expanded localities based on the larger towns: Alpha, Aramac, Barcaldine, Jericho and Muttaburra. Muttaburra was expanded to incorporate Bangall, Cornish Creek (western part), Sardine (western part), and Tablederry.

Residence

Matches 1 to 1 of 1

	Last Name, Given Name(s)	Residence		Person ID
1	Downey, May Isabella	1925	Muttaburra, Kennedy District, Queensland, Australia	I31966