Barcaldine is a rural town and locality in the Barcaldine Region in Queensland, Australia.
Barcaldine is a rural town and locality in the Barcaldine Region in Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Barcaldine had a population of 1,422 people. This is the administrative centre of the Barcaldine Region. Barcaldine played a major role in the Australian labour movement.
History
Barcaldine 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 town takes its name from a sheep station called Barcaldine Downs, which was established in 1863 by Donald Charles Cameron, whose family property in Ayrshire, Scotland, which was named for Barcaldine, Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Cameron had been a slaveholder in British Guiana.The first lots were sold in 1885 and within a year several buildings were under construction. By the end of 1886 the town had been surveyed. The Central Western railway line to Barcaldine opened on 8 November 1886.Barcaldine Post Office opened on 13 November 1886.The artesian water at Barcaldine is full of minerals. A bore had been constructed in 1887, but was unsuitable for the water needs of the steam locomotives and so the water was let run to waste. By 1891, a local doctor observed that water contained soda and potash which he believed would have health benefits. In 1907, a swimming pool using the artesian water was built by the Barcaldine Shire Council, along with baths and showers for therapeutic use. Although Barcaldine was being promoted as a spa town into the mid 1930s, interest in "taking the waters" declined after that period as medical opinion became increasingly doubtful of the benefits of mineral waters, favouring drugs and physiotherapy as better treatments.In 1887 a Methodist Church was erected in Ash Street, Barcaldine, the first church in the town. The church building had previously been used at a number of railway camps involved in the construction the Central Western railway line. As each new segment of the line was completed, the camp and the church building were relocated to the new railhead. Barcaldine was its final location. In 1893 a new wooden church was erected in Maple Street. The foundation stone for the current brick church was laid on 1 July 1961 by Reverend Joseph Tainton, President of the Queensland Methodist Conference, with the former wooden church beside it becoming the church hall. In 1977 following the amalgamation that created the Uniting Church in Australia, the Barcaldine Methodist Church became the Barcaldine Uniting Church.
Barcaldine State School opened on 4 July 1887.In 1892, the local government area of Barcaldine Division was established, by separating it from the Kargoolnah Division which had its headquarters in Blackall. Since then, Barcaldine has been the headquarters of local government in the area, commencing with the Barcaldine Divisional Board, which became the Barcaldine Shire Council in 1903, and then the Barcaldine Regional Council in 2008. The initial local government meetings were held in a building in Oak Street, which burned down in 1896. A shire hall was then constructed in 1898 on the south-east corner of Ash and Beech Streets, which eventually became too small. In February 1912 a new larger shire hall was opened and that building (somewhat modified and extended) is still in use today and is heritage-listed.
St Joseph's Catholic Primary School was opened in 1896 by Sisters of Mercy, specifically Sister Mary Muredach McMullen (superior), Sister Mary Catherine Cleary, and Sister Mary Fayne, with the assistance of lay teacher Catherine Lobie. The original building had two storeys with the sisters living upstairs and the classrooms downstairs. In 1906 a new school building was erected to accommodate the school's 195 students. The current school building opened on 21 October 1962.The Barcaldine War Memorial was unveiled by Queensland Governor, Matthew Nathan, on 21 May 1924.In the 2011 census, the town of Barcaldine had a population of 1,316 people, while the locality had a population of 1,655 people.The current Barcaldine Public Library opened in 2016.At the 2016 census, Barcaldine had a population of 1,422.
On 26 May 2019, Barcaldine set a world record for a 9.5-kilometre (5.9 mi)line of 868 motorhomes, caravans, campervans and fifth wheelers outside the town, beating the previous record of 672 vehicles in Italy in 2003.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. Barcaldine was expanded to incorporate Barcaldine Downs, Evora, Grant (all except for the eastern corner), Home Creek, Ingberry (southern part), Moombria, Narbethong (all except for the north-eastern corner), Patrick, Saltern Creek, and Tara Station.
Weather
Barcaldine has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) characterized by sweltering summers and warm winters with cool mornings. Rainfall averages around 500 millimetres or 20 inches per year, with highest averages as with all of Queensland between December and March, although in some cases like the Mays of 1955, 1977 and 1983, or the Julys of 1950 and 1984, heavy rain has occurred in the “winter” months. Even in wet years rainfall is highly concentrated into a few days from tropical cyclones or monsoonal rain depressions. Rainfall is also like all of central Queensland extremely erratic due to the El Niño Southern Oscillation influence, with annual totals ranging from 146.0 millimetres or 5.75 inches in 1946 – and as a little as 96.7 millimetres or 3.81 inches between November 1901 and October 1902 – to 1,333.8 millimetres or 52.51 inches in 2010.
Things to do
The attractions in Barcaldine include:
the Tree of Knowledge
the Australian Workers Heritage Centre
the Barcaldine and District Historical Museum