Blackwater, Queensland

Blackwater is located close to the site of the infamous double murder of two police constables at the hands of gold commissioner Thomas Griffin.[14]

Griffin killed the two troopers, John Power and Patrick Cahill, on 6 November 1867 on the banks of the Mackenzie River near the present day site of Blackwater's Bedford Weir, which is located approximately 25 kilometres north of the town.[15]

The three men had been a part of a gold escort, escorting £4000 in cash from Rockhampton to the Clermont goldfields, which Griffin stole after he killed Power and Cahill.[14] Griffin was later convicted of the crime and hanged in Rockhampton.[14]

A memorial to Power and Cahill was erected at the Bedford Weir in 2013.[16] The 150th anniversary of their murders was commemorated in both Blackwater and Rockhampton in 2017.[14]

Blackwater attracted national media attention in 1980 when violent scenes occurred outside the Capricorn Hotel on 1 August 1980 when angry striking coal miners confronted Federal Treasurer, John Howard.[17][18]

Howard had arrived in Blackwater with Deputy Prime Minister, Doug Anthony, and Queensland Treasurer, Llewellyn Edwards, to negotiate with union officials in an attempt to end the protracted industrial action.[17] The strike by the miners was in protest against a government plan to make coal miners pay tax on housing subsidised by the mining companies.[17][18]

The miners, who had been supplied with free alcohol, confronted the politicians as they left the hotel after negotiations reached a stalemate.[17][18] As police officers attempted to hastily escort the politicians to the safety of waiting police vehicles, Howard was shoved, jostled, sworn at and grabbed in a headlock.[17][18] A police officer sustained a suspected broken nose, a camera operator was punched in the face and eggs were thrown.[17] A police vehicle was also damaged when its tail light was kicked in.[17]

The 10-week strike ended in September 1980 when the Federal Government eventually reached an agreement with the Combined Mining Unions, which ended the dispute.[19][20][21]

In 1999, a production crew from ABC Television's documentary series Australian Story arrived in Blackwater to film jazz musician Don Burrows' visit to the town.[22] Burrows had already visited Blackwater on two previous occasions. On this occasion Burrows performed a concert in the town with pianist Kevin Hunt and briefly spent time with members of Blackwater State High School's concert band.[23] The Australian Story program, entitled "Mr Burrows goes to Blackwater" aired on 29 July 1999, introduced by Julie Anthony.[24]

The Blackwater community's reception to the program was mostly negative.[25] Complaints ranged from the way Blackwater was portrayed in the program, to the way the program implied that Burrows was single-handedly responsible for the success of the high school band when it actuality he had only played a very minor role.[25] Principal of Blackwater State High School, Jim Reay, said he was disappointed with the program, particularly by the failure of the program to acknowledge the contribution of bandmaster and music teacher John Evenhuis.[25] It was also a sentiment shared by many local residents who felt that Evenhuis had achieved much more than Burrows regarding the success of the concert band and was more deserving of the praise which had been afforded to Burrows.[25][26][27][28]

The substantial negative reaction prompted Australian Story producer John Millard to write a lengthy open letter to the Blackwater community which was published in local newspaper, the Blackwater Herald, in an attempt to explain why the program was produced the way it was.[29]

On 23 November 2008, a fabridam barrier at the Bedford Weir on the Mackenzie River near Blackwater suddenly failed, causing 6,000 megalitres of water to surge downstream into a popular recreational area where people were swimming.[30] A four year old girl, Nelani Koefer, who had been paddling in shallow water was washed away and drowned.[30] Her body was recovered the following day.[30]

The Bedford Weir's operator SunWater Limited and the manufacturer of the fabridam wall, Trelleborg Engineered Systems, were held responsible for the failure.[31] In 2013, SunWater pleaded guilty to a breach of the Workplace Health & Safety Act in the Rockhampton Industrial Magistrates Court and was fined $80,000 but no conviction was recorded.[31] Trelleborg Engineered Systems was also fined $80,000.[31]

An coronial inquest was held in 2015, the findings of which were delivered on 17 March 2016.[32] The coroner found the collapse had been caused by a manufacturing fault in the wall, which had been designed by Trelleborg.[33] The coroner advised that the walls should be removed, never to be used again.[34]

In 2016, it was reported Nelani Koefer's mother had filed a claim in the Rockhampton Supreme Court suing SunWater and Trelleborg for $1.48 million.[35]

In 2020, it was feared that the Blackwater community was potentially exposed to COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia after it was confirmed on two separate occasions that there had been positive COVID-19 test results. On both occasions it was confirmed the initial test results had been false positives.

In the first incident, it was reported on 11 April 2020 that a Rockhampton-based worker employed at BHP's BMA coal mine at Blackwater had tested positive to COVID-19.[36] The positive result prompted BHP to contact people who may have been in contact with the employee who had not been on site since 1 April 2020.[37] However, several days later the Central Queensland Hospital and Health Service confirmed that the man had tested negative to COVID-19 following a secondary test and that the first test had been a false positive.[38][39]

In the second incident, it was confirmed on 27 May 2020 by the Queensland Government that 30-year-old mine worker Nathan Turner had died at his Blackwater home and had subsequently tested positive to COVID-19.[40] At the time, Turner was believed to have been the youngest person in Australia to have died from COVID-19, a fact that generated significant national media interest.[40][41][42]

Following the announcement, a special COVID-19 response team was dispatched to Blackwater and many of the town's residents came forward to be tested. Blackwater's sewerage was also tested in an attempt to determine whether the virus had spread through the community.[43] There were also fears that they may have been a link between Turner and a Rockhampton aged care nurse who had earlier travelled to Blackwater while infectious with COVID-19.[44]

Several days after they had confirmed Turner had died from COVID-19, the Queensland Government confirmed that the coroner had advised them that Turner did not have COVID-19 and that the initial test may have been a false positive.[45]

The revelation that Turner did not have COVID-19 sparked anger in the Blackwater community.[46] It also prompted almost 10,000 people to sign a petition on Change.org demanding Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young apologise to Turner's family.[47] Palaszczuk and Deputy Premier Steven Miles both publicly apologised to Turner's family while Young said she believed nothing could have been done differently and was confident the correct actions were taken to protect the Blackwater community following the initial positive test result.[48]

There was also criticism that news of Turner's false positive was first revealed on social media by his partner's workplace rather than Queensland Health, who only confirmed the news several hour afterwards.[49] The government's actions, however, received support from Turner's father who said although he didn't understand how a false positive had occurred, he understood that the potential risk required immediate action and that the public needed to be informed.[50]