Harrisville

Harrisville is a rural town and locality in the Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia.

Harrisville is a rural town and locality in the Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census the locality of Harrisville had a population of 613 people.

In 1839, a survey baseline of 3 miles (4.8 km) was marked out on the floodplain, then known as Normanby Plains, which now forms part of Harrisville, together with Wilsons Plains and Radford to the south. It was supervised by the surveyor Robert Dixon as the basis of a trigonometrical survey starting with Flinders Peak to the east and Mount Walker (then Mount Forbes) to the west, which began the accurate interior mapping of Queensland. A monument to this work "In the Steps of Our Forefathers" is situated just west of the Harrisville township on the Warrill View Peak Crossing Road, along where the baseline passed (27.8142°S 152.6510°E? / -27.8142; 152.6510? (Trigonometrical Baseline Cairn)).

The area formed part of the old Mount Flinders sheep station established by William Wilson (and his brother Robert) around 1844, soon after the Moreton Bay penal colony closed. Some of the land from this station became available to selectors in December 1860 with provision of the Ipswich Agricultural Reserve. In 1863 Robert Dunn selected a portion from this Reserve, from which the Harris brothers purchased their land in 1870.The town is believed to be named after Harris brothers: John Harris (1819–1895) and George Harris (1831–1891) . They established a store and cotton ginnery in the area. Cotton was a valuable crop at that time as the American Civil War had created a worldwide shortage.

Ipswich Reserve State School opened in 1867. In 1887 it was renamed Harrisville State School. In 1891 it was renamed Hillgrove State School, enabling a new school to open on 19 January 1891 under the name Harrisville State School. The new school reduced attendance at the Hillgrove State School and it was demoted to become Hillgrove Provisional School, but returned to state school status in 1894. Hillgrove State School closed in 1932, but, as at 2019, the "new" Harrisville State School continues to operate.Harrisville Post Office opened on 1 August 1873 (a receiving office had been open from 1871).The Fassifern railway line (Queensland's first branch railway line) opened from Ipswich to Harrisville on 10 July 1882 with the town being served by Harrisville railway station in Queen Street (27.8110°S 152.6666°E? / -27.8110; 152.6666? (Harrisville railway station)), while Churchbank railway station was located in Webers Road (27.7891°S 152.6916°E? / -27.7891; 152.6916? (Churchbank railway station)) in the very north of the present day locality of Harrisville on the boundary with Mutdapilly. On 12 September 1887 the line was extended to Dugundan. The line closed in 1964.St John's Anglican Church was dedicated on Sunday 14 April 1878 by Bishop of Brisbane Matthew Hale. On 18 January 1985 the church was destroyed in a storm. The foundation stone for the new St John the Evangelist's Anglican Church was laid on 16 February 1986 by Archbishop John Grindrod. It was consecrated on 20 April 1986by Assistant Bishop Adrian Owen Charles.Harrisville Presbyterian Church was built in 1891.In November 1909, 17 farms of 131 to 336 acres in the Bald Ridges estate Normanby (near Harrisville) were advertised to be auctioned by Isles Love. A map advertising the auction states the Estate was 6 miles from the railway station being within three hours form Brisbane.A private hospital operated from 1911 until 1973.In 1926 the Harrisville Methodist Church was established by relocating a Methodist church building from near Peak Crossing, which was originally built in 1871 on land owned by William Bole and known as Woodchurch Wesleyan Church. In the 1970s as part of the amalgamation of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregation churches into the Uniting Church in Australia, the Harrisville Methodist Church building was relocated to the site of the Harrisville Presbyterian Church and the two buildings joined together in an L-shape to become the Harrisville Uniting Church.The centenary of Harrisville was celebrated in 1963 with a street parade and centenary ball organised by the Harrisville Centenary Celebrations Committee. In 2013 Harrisville commemorated 150 years with a street procession and unveiling of a plaque by Penelope Wensley, the Governor of Queensland.In the 2016 census the locality of Harrisville had a population of 613 people.

The Harrisville Historical Society maintains a museum in Queen Street which includes a rain-gun used during the 1902 drought.