Georgetown

Georgetown is a town and locality in the Shire of Etheridge, Queensland, Australia.

Georgetown is a town and locality in the Shire of Etheridge, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Georgetown had a population of 348 people.

Georgetown area may have been part of North America 1.7 billion years ago based on the characteristics of rocks found in Georgetown matching those of northern Canada rather than the rest of Australia. Researchers at Curtin University have postulated that 100 million years later, this landmass collided with what is now northern Australia, at the Mount Isa region, forming the Nuna supercontinent.Georgetown was on the northern border ofEwamin lands.

The Etheridge River was the site of a gold rush in the 1870s; the town of Georgetown was established on the site of the diggings. Originally known by the name Etheridge, the town's name was changed in 1871 to honour an early gold commissioner, Howard St George. Georgetown Post Office opened on 15 January 1872. Georgetown State School opened on 14 September 1874.By 1900 grazing had replaced gold mining as the region's primary source of income.

The Georgetown Public Library opened in 2003.At the 2006 census, Georgetown had a population of 254.In the 2011 census, Georgetown had a population of 243 people.

Georgetown has a borderline tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) bordering on a hot semi-arid climate (BSh). The wet season from mid-November to March is hot and humid with like all of tropical Queensland highly erratic rainfall. During the wet season, rainfall is highly concentrated into a few days from monsoonal depressions or remnant cyclones. Wet season weather can vary from daily thunderstorm rains in active monsoon months like January and February of 1974 when rain fell on fifty-five consecutive days and 2,072 millimetres (81.57 in) fell between December and March, to long sweltering and dry spells as in 1925/1926, when only 232.5 millimetres or 9.15 inches fell during those four months. The dry season from April to mid-November is very warm, becoming sweltering in the “build-up” to the wet season during October and November and almost completely dry. Nevertheless, the height of the dry season features cool to pleasant mornings more typical of the humid subtropical climate areas to the southeast, and Georgetown is amongst the most northerly locations in Australia to record frost, with the temperature falling as low as -3.0 °C (26.6 °F) on 9 July, 1974.