Cunnamulla

Cunnamulla lies on the Warrego River in South West Queensland within the Murray-Darling drainage basin. It flows from the north (Coongoola) through the town, which is in the centre of the locality, and exits to the south (Tuen).[5]

The Mitchell Highway passes through the locality from north (Coongoola) to south (Tuen), while the Balonne Highway enters the location from the east (Linden). The two highways intersect in the town, which is located in the centre of the locality. The Bulloo Developmental Road starts in Cunnamulla and exists the locality to the west (Eulo).[5]

Cunnamulla is the administrative centre for the Paroo Shire, which also includes the townships of Wyandra, Yowah and Eulo, and covers an area of 47,617 square kilometres (18,385 sq mi).

Major industries of the area are wool, pig and kangaroo hunting, and the hospitality industry.

Gunya (also known as Kunya, Kunja, Kurnja) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by the Gunya people. The Gunya language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Paroo Shire Council, taking in Cunnamulla and extending north towards Augathella, east towards Bollon and west towards Thargomindah.[6]

The original Indigenous inhabitants of the area were the Kunja. The area's first European explorer was Thomas Mitchell who passed through the region in 1846.[7]

The town name Cunnamulla is named after a pastoral property established in 1867, which in turn is the Aboriginal name of a deep waterhole in the Warrego River.[3]

A settlement arose here because there was a reliable waterhole where two major stock routes intersected.[8] The town itself came into being in the late 19th century as a coach stop for Cobb and Co coaches.[7] A town survey was conducted in 1868, the same year a courthouse was built.[8] Cunnamulla Post Office opened on 1 March 1868.[9]

Cunnamulla Provisional School opened on 9 July 1877, becoming Cunnamulla State School in 1885.[10]

From 1885 when the railway was constructed to Bourke in New South Wales, farmers at Cunnamulla and other parts of south-western Queensland began to send their wool to markets via Bourke rather than the Charleville, then the terminus of the Western railway line in Queensland, as the New South Wales government offered more competitive rail freight rates than the Queensland Government. Queensland Railway Commissioner James Thallon responded by negotiating with the Carrier's Union which carried goods to the Charleville railhead to make the cost of transporting the goods via Charleville more attractive. However, strikes by the carriers in support of the 1891 Australian shearers' strike meant that goods continued to be travel via New South Wales, further encouraged by new lower freight rates in New South Wales announced in June 1893. The Queensland Government responded the following month by introducing the Railway Border Tax Act which taxed wool and sheepskins crossing the border into New South Wales to make it too expensive to freight the wool via New South Wales.[11] However, this could only be a temporary measure as the anticipated Federation of Australia would likely include free trade between the states of Australia removing the ability to tax goods at the border crossing. Therefore, on 3 December 1895, the Queensland Parliament approved the construction of the 121-mile (195 km) extension of the Western railway line from Charleville to Cunnamulla.[12][13]

During the construction of the railway line, there was a dispute over the location of the railway station at Cunnamulla. The original proposal was for the station to be to the north of the town to be above the flood level rather than within the town centre as was usual practice. However, the railway chief engineer Henry Charles Stanley visited Cunnamulla and decided it would be better to place the station in the centre of the town as it would be more convenient and better positioned for crossing the Warrego River when the railway line was further extended. However, the disadvantage of the town centre site was that it would encroach on the town's cricket ground. The townsfolk were divided on the issue and many sent petitions to the government to demand one location or the other.[14][15] The Queensland Parliament eventually decided to proceed with the original location north of the town.[16][13] The railway line to Cunnamulla was opened on 10 October 1898.[13] However, the hotel on the corner of John and Louise Streets in the centre of the town had already been named the Railway Hotel in anticipation of a town-centre station and retained that name until the 1970s, when it was renamed Trappers Inn.[17]

A Catholic church opened in Cunnamulla in May 1894.[18]

The Bush Brotherhood of St Paul has provided pastoral care to Cunnamulla since 1905.[19]

The Sacred Heart Primary School was opened in 1915 by the Sisters of Mercy.[10][20]

St Edmund's Anglican church was dedicated on 22 October 1960 by Archbishop Reginald Halse. Its closure on 28 May 2003 was approved by Venerable G. F. Harch, Archdeacon of the West.[21]

In 1999 the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and Development reported that Cunnamulla's indigenous community suffered from a high level of domestic violence stemming from an over reliance by the police and the courts on punishment and detention to deal with Indigenous offenders.[22]

The Cunnamulla library underwent a major refurbishment in 2013.[23]

Cunnamulla has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:

• John Street: Cunnamulla War Memorial Fountain[27]
• Civic Centre, Louise Street: Paroo Shire Honour Board[28]
• Stockyard Street: The Robbers Tree[29]

House in Emma Street, Cunnamulla, 2019

According to the 2016 census of Population, there were 1,140 people in Cunnamulla.

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 37.2% of the population.
• 88.7% of people were born in Australia and 91.5% of people spoke only English at home.
• The most common responses for religion were Catholic (34.5%), Anglican (27.8%), and No Religion (16.4%).[1]

Cunnamulla library, 2019

Cunnamulla has a magistrates court, public swimming pool, showground, racecourse, a primary health care facility and a fire station.[30] The Paroo Shire Council operates a public library in Cunnamulla at 16 John Street.[31]

St Albans Anglican Church is at 23 Emma Street.[32]

There are two museums and a tourist information centre. The town has two caravan parks, one at the Warrego Riverside and the other within the town boundaries.

Cunnamulla P-12 State School is a government primary and secondary (Early Childhood-12) school for boys and girls at 17 Francis Street (28.0711°S 145.6793°E / -28.0711; 145.6793 (Cunnamulla P-12 State School)).[33][34] In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 98 students with 17 teachers (16 full-time equivalent) and 20 non-teaching staff (14 full-time equivalent).[35]

Sacred Heart Primary School is a Catholic primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 46 John Street (28.0725°S 145.6832°E / -28.0725; 145.6832 (Sacred Heart Primary School)).[33][36] In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 84 students with 8 teachers (7 full-time equivalent) and 5 non-teaching staff (4 full-time equivalent).[35]

Cunnamulla was the subject of a 2000 documentary film of the same name by Dennis O'Rourke, in which he followed several members of the community as they went about their daily lives. The film earned $132,485 at the Australian box office.[37]

Cunnamulla is the main setting for Henry Lawson's short story "The Hypnotised Township" from his anthology The Rising of the Court, and Other Sketches in Prose and Verse. The song "The Cunnamulla Fella", written by Stan Coster and sung by Slim Dusty, is commemorated by a statue in the town centre.[38]

• Cunnamulla Airport

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cunnamulla, Queensland.

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Hypnotised Township

• University of Queensland: Queensland Places: Cunnamulla