Kynuna

Kynuna is an outback town in the Shire of McKinlay and a locality split between the Shire of McKinlay and the Shire of Winton in Queensland, Australia.

Kynuna is an outback town in the Shire of McKinlay and a locality split between the Shire of McKinlay and the Shire of Winton in Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census the locality of Kynuna had a population of 55 people.

The Wanamara lands ran from the north as far as Kynuna. Wanamarra (also known as Maykulan and Wunumura) is an Australian Aboriginal language in North West Queensland. The language region includes areas within the Shire of McKinlay, Shire of Cloncurry and Shire of Richmond, including the Flinders River area, and the towns of Kynuna and Richmond.The town was established as a shearer's union camp at a supply point for the nearby Kynuna pastoral station, at a place where five roads met the Diamantina River. The town was gazetted in 1894 and at one stage soon after had a population of around 700 people and was home to three pubs.Local legend claims that the suicide of a local shearer named Samuel Hoffmeister at Combo Waterhole near Kynuna in 1894 was the inspiration for the Banjo Paterson song "Waltzing Matilda". Paterson was at one time engaged to Sarah Riley, the daughter of a local squatter, and visited the area.Kynuna Post Office opened on 1 May 1883 (a receiving office had been open from 1882) and closed in 1990.Kynuna Provisional School opened on 12 June 1899. On 1 January 1909 it became Kynuna State School. It closed in 1992.At the 2006 census, Kynuna had a population of 95.In the 2016 census the locality of Kynuna had a population of 55 people.