The town of Chinchilla was established in 1877, in the Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia.
The name of the town comes from the Aboriginal word "tintinchilla" or "jinchilla" for cypress pine, which may have been recorded by explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt.
Chinchilla petrified wood
dates back to the Jurassic period.
The Baruŋgam People
Baruŋgam country is on the red soils south and west of the Dividing Range. Each group of Aboriginal peoples lived in a defined area.
The Baruŋgam People travelled every three years until 1876, to the Bunya Mountains for the ripening of the bunya nuts.
Dreaming knowledge is passed down by stories, songlines, dances and ceremonies. Songlines are the route travelled by creator beings.
Aboriginal burning
practice was used to facilitate hunting and to change the composition of plant and animal species in an area.
Marriage was central to traditional Aboriginal societies and there were consequences for not following the marriage rules. These rules were given by Dreamtime beings, who were law-givers and created the world.
The earliest wordlist of the Barunggam language was
compiled by Harriott Barlow, from Warkon Station on the Balonne River, published in 1873.
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| Aboriginal people spearing fish |
1820s
Allan Cunningham, botanist and explorer, explored the region in 1827.
1840s
Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt set out from Jimbour Station on his 1844-46 expedition to Port Essington. Leichhardt explored the Chinchilla district in 1844 and noted the cypress pine.
Passing through Chinchilla again in 1846, Leichhardt named Charley’s Creek in honour of his Aboriginal guide, Charley Fisher.
Leichhardt did not make many notes about Aboriginal people, but after his first expedition, he wrote that along the Condamine River:
"The well-known tracks of Blackfellows were everywhere visible: such as trees recently stripped of their bark, the swellings of the apple tree cut off to make vessels for carrying water, honey cut out and fresh steps cut in trees to climb for opossums."
A number of camps have been identified by historians from the Chinchilla area (Bell 2004), and trees marked with Ludwig Leichhardt’s initials "LL’" were found at a camp near Chinchilla.
Pastoralists arrived in the Western Downs Region in the 1840s, but Aboriginal resistance led to many
settlements being abandoned.
In October 1857, at Hornet Bank station near Eurombah, 11 settlers (seven members of the Fraser family, including a woman and five of her children) and one Aboriginal station-hand were murdered by a group of Aboriginal people. Reprisal massacres of Aboriginal people followed.
Chinchilla Station was established in 1848, when Matthew Goggs obtained the lease to the Chinchilla run of approximately 36,000 acres and the adjoining Wongongera station.
In 1848, in the Chinchilla area pastoralists sought "relief" claiming 6,000 sheep and eight settlers had been killed by Aboriginal people.
In 1849 Matthew Goggs reported that 10 people had been murdered and that he intended to take revenge. Further violence followed.
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| Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW : 1843 - 1893), Wednesday 9 August 1848 |
The Native Police arrived in the region in May 1849. These
mounted detachments of about six Aboriginal troopers were led by a European officer. The method used by the Native Police to suppress resistance to European colonisation was known as "dispersal".
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| Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wednesday 16 June 1852 |
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| 1st Lieutenant George Murray (back row 2nd left) and his detachment of Native Mounted Police taken 1 December 1864 at Rockhampton. George Murray became Brisbane's Chief Police magistrate after his service in the NMP. Back Row: Trooper Carbine, 1st lt George Murray, 2nd Lieutenant unknown, Camp Sgt unknown, Corporal Michael. Front Row: Trooper Barney, Hector, Goondallie, Balantyne and Patrick. Native Police, Rockhampton, 1864, Queensland Police Museum |
In the mid-1850s, some Chinese villagers escaped from famine in China to Australia and worked as shepherds in the region.
From the early days, Aboriginal people were
employed as station hands, stockmen, cooks and maids.
1870s
From the 1870s, Catholic Mass in Chinchilla was held at Conroy's Hotel, the Court House, and from 1899, the first church (in Bell Street).
Surveyor Woodhouse laid out the township of Chinchilla in 1877.
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| Express and Telegraph (Adelaide, SA : 1867 - 1922), Wednesday 21 November 1877 |
The first telegraph line from Dalby to Chinchilla was completed in late 1877.
Chinchilla railway station opened in 1878.
Chinchilla Post Office opened on 3 January 1878.
The Chinchilla region predominantly
experiences summer rainfall with high summer temperatures and long periods during winter with little or no rain.
1880s
One of the first slab huts to be built on Chinchilla Station in the 1880s, called Wongongerra Cottage (the home of Mr & Mrs Jas Rider from 1888-1889) was later dismantled and rebuilt in local museum grounds.
In 1881 the population was 97.
Chinchilla State School opened on 22 January 1883.
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Unidentified Chinchilla residence, QLD, ca. 1885, SLQLD
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Catholic, Methodist and Anglican churches were opened from 1899-1904.
1890s
With government support, three co-operative settlement scheme groups, Mizpah, Monmouth and Industrial, were established near Chinchilla. Located on the railway line, land was cleared, homes built, crops grown, and a school established. After the
settlements closed, many farmers stayed in the area.
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| Slab hut with corrugated iron roof at Chinchilla, QLD, in the late nineteenth century, SLQLD |
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| Bullock teams working along the railway line, Chinchilla, QLD, 1895, Picture QLD |
1900s
Many Chinchilla properties were affected by a cattle tick outbreak.
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| A WELCOME STAGE ON THE CHINCHILLA-HAWKWOOD ROAD. Ormond homestead and store is fifty miles from Chinchilla on the Hawkwood-road. The picture shows a survey party and some marsupial scalpers "pulled up" for rations. The mail coach stops here every Thursday night. Ormond reports stock passings to the "Queenslander" regularly, and is a welcome stage on the long road from Chinchilla to Hawkwood. Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 14 March 1903 |
Chinchilla’s first butter factory was built in 1910.
In 1911 the population was 1268.
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| Butter Factory at Chinchilla, Qld - very early 1900s, Aussie~mobs |
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| Railway yards in Chinchilla, Qld - early 1900s, Aussie Mobs |
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| Railway Station at Chinchilla, Qld - very early 1900s, Aussie Mobs |
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| Camboon and Chinchilla mail coach, Billy Stewart, driver. Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 18 January 1908 |
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| Bullock team in front of the Commercial Hotel, Chinchilla Street, Chinchilla, Queensland, 1909, SLQLD |
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| Busy street scene in Chinchilla Street Chinchilla, QLD, ca. 1909, SLQLD |
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| Chinchilla Club Hotel, Chinchilla QLD, early 1900s. Vintage QLD |
The Taroom Aboriginal Settlement, was established as a government-operated reserve, on a site on the Dawson River, east of the township of Taroom in 1911.
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| Presbyterian Church, Chinchilla, QLD, Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 6 May 1911 |
The Chinchilla Post Office was situated on the corner of Heeney and Bell Streets and was erected in 1912.
WWI
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| Recruiting rally at Chinchilla, QLD, railway station Men, women and children gather to hear the speakers on the recruiting rally, 1914, SLQLD |
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| Royal Hotel on Chinchilla Street in Chinchilla, ca.1914, SLQLD |
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| PRIVATE C. E. .SANDERSON, 25th Battalion, of Chinchilla ; ill, at Malta, Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Saturday 30 October 1915 |
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| Chinchilla News office in Mayne Street, Chinchilla, QLD, around 1915, SLQLD |
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| Chinchilla Branch of the Australian Bank of Commerce, QLD, around 1915 Staff of the Australian Bank of Commerce which was situated on Chinchilla Street |
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| Chinchilla, QLD, Streetscape during the First World War, 1916, SLQLD |
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| Chinchilla Street, Chinchilla, Queensland, ca. 1918, SLQLD |
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| Chinchilla, QLD, 1918, SLQLD |
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| Anzac Day in Chinchilla, QLD, 1919, SLQLD |
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| Darling Downs Gazette (Qld. : 1881 - 1922), Wednesday 26 November 1919 |
Dedication of the Soldiers' Memorial at Chinchilla, 1919.
1920s
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| Chinchilla Railway Station, QLD, 1920, Vintage QLD |
Chinchilla was known as the town at the heart of the eradication of the prickly pear. In the early 1920s, there was more than 25 million hectares of Australia
covered with prickly pear.
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| Chinchilla, QLD, about 1920 showing the infiltration of prickly pear and why properties were often abandoned. Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland |
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| Ambulance in Queensland country town of Chinchilla, QLD. circa 1920. Caption on reverse says The Flying Bedstead. Aussie Mobs |
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| Main Street, Chinchilla, Qld - circa 1920, Aussie Mobs |
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| Chinchilla District Hospital, QLD, around 1921, SLQLD |
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| Chinchilla Football Club, QLD, around 1921 Thirteen team members (probably rugby league), wearing football jerseys |
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| Australian Bank of Commerce in Chinchilla, QLD,1921 Bank staff stand outside the Chinchilla branch of the Australian Bank of Commerce. It is a brick building with its entrance on the corner of Bell and Heeney Streets in Chinchilla |
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| Construction of the Chinchilla War Memorial Park, QLD,ca. 1922 The War Memorial was designed by A. L. Petrie & Son of Toowong, Brisbane. It was unveiled in 1919. (Description supplied with photograph) Labourers, resting in the shade, stop shovelling to pose for a photograph. In the background are the premises of T. G. Selman. SLQLD |
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| Recent floods at Chinchilla, QLD, Week (Brisbane, Qld. : 1876 - 1934), Friday 13 January 1922 |
The Commercial Hotel and Tattersalls Hotel were burnt out August 1922. The Club Hotel, built in 1906, did not burn down in the fire. A Commercial Hotel has existed on the same
site at Chinchilla since 1877. There has been four Commercial Hotels.
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| Commerical Hotel, Chinchilla, QLD on fire 25 August 1922, Vintage QLD |
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| Daily Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1903; 1916 - 1926), Wednesday 6 September 1922 |
St Joseph's School Chinchilla began as a Parish School staffed by the sisters of St Joseph in 1923.
In 1925 the Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board introduced the cactoblastis moth and larva from South America. Chinchilla was sending out as many as 14 million cactoblastis moth eggs a day.
A hall located 10 km east of Chinchilla on the Warrego Highway, the Boonargo Cactoblastis Hall, was built by the local farmers and dedicated to the moth which had eaten its way through the jungles of prickly pear.
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| Opening of the Memorial Hall, Chinchilla, Queensland, 1925 Touring cars outside the Memorial Hall in Chinchilla in 1925. SLQLD |
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| Negative - Stockmen, Chinchilla, Queensland, circa 1925, Museums Victoria |
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| Chinchilla families outside the Soldiers' Memorial Hall, QLD, 1925 The hall is a large wooden building with an entrance porch on the eastern side of Heeney Street. Families, wearing formal clothes and hats, are gathered outside. |
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Driving through a prickly pear infestation near Chinchilla, QLD. First imported to create a cochineal dye industry in Australia, the cactus had infested over 58 million acres by the 1920s - brought under control by the introduction of the Cactoblastis Moth in 1926.
 | | The trackless train touring Australia. Almost every town from Brisbane to Rockhampton and back again to Chinchilla and , Toowoomba will be visited, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 16 May 1928 |
 | | Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette (Qld. : 1922 - 1933), Monday 3 December 1928 |
 | | Chinchilla Post Office on Heeney and Bell Streets, QLD, SLQLD |
1930s
Chinchilla's new dairy was erected in 1930. Prior to this structure being built, the dairy was closer to Charleys Creek.
 | | Land ballot for reclaimed prickly-pear blocks, Chinchilla, QLD, 1931, SLQLD |
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Unemployment in Australia reached 32 per cent in 1932, following the 1929 Wall Street crash and world economic depression.
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| Group of men who were clearing land in Chinchilla as part of a 'Work for the Dole' scheme, Chinchilla, 1932. Date Created June 1932, Ipswich Library |
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| Chinchilla Cooperative Dairy Association Ltd., 1938, QLD, (built 1930) SLQLD |
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| Memorial Park and Soldiers' Monument, Chinchilla, QLD, 1935. Chinchilla Memorial Park was a formal garden with palm trees and decorative borders. The park featured a soldiers' monument, a cannon and two shady arbours |
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| Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Wednesday 2 March 1938 |
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| Chinchilla Court House building, Queensland, 1938.jpg - Wikimedia Commons |
1940s and WWII
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| The 4000th man to be enlisted in the R.A.A.F. in Queensland, A. C. Steer, of Chinchilla (right), who will have the honour of leading the march this morning. He will be a flight commander for 45 minutes. He is being congratulated by Brigadier-General h. C. Wilson, chairman of the Recruiting Drive Committee (left), and Flight Lieutenant C. B. Ransom, State director of R.A.A.F. recruiting. Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954), Saturday 9 November 1940 |
The Chinchilla Monumental Cemetery opened in 194, situated on the north-eastern side of the town, adjacent to the more recent Tanderra Lawn Cemetery.
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| Chinchilla, QLD, 1941 |
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| Chinchilla Church of England, Queensland, 1941 The photograph shows the relocating of the Church of England from its original site of Helena and Middle Streets to Colamba Street. The move was done by Emmerson Brothers using a traction engine, SLQLD |
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| Receding flood waters after the 1942 flood in Chinchilla, QLD, SLQLD |
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| Coronation Day procession, Chinchilla, Queensland, (Heeney Street, Chinchilla) no date, Western Downs Regional Council |
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| Cattle sale, Chinchilla, QLD, Queensland Country Life (Qld. : 1900 - 1954), Thursday 12 February 1948 |
1950s
New cattle sale yards open 1952.
In 1954 the population was 2574.
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| Chinchilla Street, QLD, during the 1954 floods, SLQLD |
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| St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Chinchilla, QLD, dedicated March 18, 1956 |
1970s |
| The post office in the town of Chinchilla in Queensland, 1975.Wikimedia Commons (Chinchilla Post Office opened on 3 January 1878) |
1980s
A new species of prehistoric crocodile fossils were found in the 1980s near the town of Chinchilla. The University of Queensland researchers identified the five-metre-long giant croc called
Paludirex Vincenti, which lived a few million years ago and dubbed it the "swamp king". The fossilised skull was donated to the Chinchilla Museum in 2011.
1990s
The Chinchilla Cultural Centre opened in 1999.
2000s
2006: The Chinchilla Shire Council announced that the town's saleyards would close.
2011
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| Anti coal seam gas (CSG) protesters at Tara Estate, south of Chinchilla, QLD, 2011, Kate Ausburn |
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| Chinchilla, QLD, floods, 2011, SP |
2018 |
| The Big Melon was unveiled 2018, three-metres high and nine-metres wide, situated on the Warrego Highway, between the Chinchilla Visitor Information Centre and the railway crossing |
Chinchilla Botanic Parklands opened in 2019.
About a quarter of Australia’s watermelons, rockmelons and honeydew melons come from the Chinchilla region.
Around Chinchilla
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| Chinchilla, QLD |
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| Tattersalls Hotel, Chinchilla, QLD |
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| Bank of New South Wales in Chinchilla, QLD, built in 1934 |
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| The Dorney Buildings built in 1955 in Chinchilla in Queensland, Australia |
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| Chinchilla Club Hotel, QLD, built in 1906 |
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| Chinchilla Court House, QLD |
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| Chinchilla Post Office, QLD |
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| Country Women's Association Rest Home in Chinchilla, QLD, official opening by the Governer in October, 1938 |
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| Chinchilla public hospital was built in 1921, QLD |
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| Chinchilla heritage house, QLD |
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| The original Stationmaster’s house from Chinchilla Station, QLD,now at the local museum |
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| St Joseph's School Chinchilla, QLD, began as a Parish School staffed by the sisters of St Joseph in 1923 |
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| 10 km east of Chinchilla, QLD, on the Warrego Highway is the Boonargo Cactoblastis Hallwhich was built by the local farmers in 1936 and dedicated to the Cactoblastis Moth |
Things To Do and Places To Go
Footsteps Through Time: A History of Chinchilla Shire
Chinchilla Botanic Parklands -Canaga St, Chinchilla, QLD
The Barakula Forest, situated just 23km from Chinchilla, is the largest State Forest in the Southern Hemisphere.
