Beaudesert, Queensland


Beaudesert is a rural town and locality in the Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia. In the, Beaudesert had a population of 6,395 people.

Geography

Beaudesert is south of Brisbane and west of Gold Coast.
Beaudesert is located on the Mount Lindesay Highway, some south of Brisbane. The area sources its income predominantly from rural activities such as cropping, grazing and equine activities, as well as tourism. It has a racecourse, 50-metre swimming pool, public library, two gyms and mountain scenery.
, 2012
In the Logan River and Albert River valleys, Beaudesert is a regional hub serving surrounding communities such as Rathdowney, Kooralbyn, Canungra, Tamborine Mountain and Jimboomba. It is approximately 91 kilometres from Brisbane and connected by the Mount Lindesay Highway.
The town of Beaudesert is located 46 m above sea level and has an average annual rainfall of around 916 mm per year. The temperature is around 30 °C in summer and falls to around 3 °C in winter. Generally the weather is mild, but some severe storms can arrive each summer.
In the east of the locality is the decommissioned Nindooinbah Dam. The much larger Wyaralong Dam is situated roughly 14 km to the north west of the town and was completed in 2011.

History

Yugembah is one of the Australian Aboriginal languages in areas that include the Beaudesert, Gold Coast, Logan, Scenic Rim, Albert River, Beenleigh, Coolangatta, Coomera, Logan River, Pimpama, Tamborine and Tweed River Valley, within the local government boundaries of the City of Gold Coast, City of Logan, Scenic Rim Regional Council and the Tweed River Valley.
Mununjali is a dialect of the Yugambeh language. The Mununjali language area includes landscape within the local government boundaries of the Scenic Rim and Beaudesert Shire Councils.
The town is possibly named after Beau Desert Park, the property of Charles Henry Alexander Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey in Staffordshire, England. Yet it is certain that Queensland's Beaudesert was named in about 1841 or 1842 by 'Ned Hawkins', or Edward Brace Hawkins, who was claiming the area as a sheep station on behalf of his employer William Henry Suttor senior at Bathurst. It is not known why Hawkins picked the name Beaudesert. He was himself born in Newark-Upon-Trent in Nottinghamshire, the son of Thomas Fitzherbert Hawkins and wife Elizabeth of Bathurst fame, and it does not seem that he or his family had any personal connections to Beaudesert in England. Ned Hawkins moved on, not long after taking up Beaudesert station, to take up Boonara Station in the South Burnett.
In 1842 Nindooinbah pastoral run was established. In 1850 the Nindooinbah Homestead was built.
The town was settled in 1847, on Yugambeh lands, and has grown to a small, bustling centre.
The town was originally set out in a grid pattern; however, several of the streets followed cart tracks. The area was originally settled for growing cotton and sheep. However, the area is also notoriously short of water and the cotton was not a successful crop. Hoop pine was very successfully collected from the area. In 1863 the cotton workers were indentured labourers from the South Sea Islands, the first such use in Queensland. In the 1880s, the Cobb & Co stagecoaches ran between Beaudesert and Jimboomba.
Upper Beaudesert Provisional School opened circa 1882 and closed circa 1885.
Beaudesert Provisional School opened on 26 March 1882 but closed on 9 September 1886. On 13 September 1887 it reopened as Beaudesert State School.
On 15 August 1885 at Stretton's Hotel at Beaudesert, auctioner C.J. Warner offered 125 town lots in the Beaudesert Township Extension estate. The lots were mostly and were on Brisbane Street, Tubber Street, Gordon Street, Birman Street, James Street, Edward Street and Alice Street. The advertising noted that the Queensland Government had voted the funds to extend the railway line from Logan Village to Beaudesert.
The Beaudesert railway line from Bethania to Beaudesert opened on 16 May 1888. Beaudesert railway station served the town. Use of the passenger services declined with the increasing ownership of cars following World War II, leading to the termination of the passenger services in 1961. However the Beaudesert abattoir and the dairy farmers continued to use the freight services on the line until freight services terminated on 20 May 1996.
Timber, cattle and dairying were the main industries in the area.
On 3 February 1889 Roman Catholic Archbishop Robert Dunne blessed the foundation stone for the first Catholic church in Beaudesert. The event raised £74 with a further £7 pledged. As 2 February was the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was decided to call the church Our Lady of the Purification, but it was commonly known as St Mary's. Dunne returned on 2 June 1889 to open the new church. Internally the church was with ceilings. It was built by James Madden of Ipswich, who design the church for free. It was fitted with an altar, altar rails and 20 pews. On Sunday 15 September 1907 the second St Mary's was opened, with the original church dismantled and re-assembled at Kerry where it was named St John's Catholic Church.
On 14 April 1901 the foundation stone was laid for St Mary's Convent School. The school opened on 19 August 1901 with an initial enrolment of 101 students and was operated by the Sisters of Mercy. The original timber building remained in use until 1939 when its condition was becoming dangerous. The school operated temporarily from the church until a new brick building was erected. The brick building was blessed and opened by Archbishop Duhig on 3 September 1939. The timber building remains on the site as Mercy Hall. Further buildings were added over the years. On 19 August 2013, the 1939 brick building was badly damaged by a fire. However, the exterior and stained glass windows survived and the building was rebuilt, re-opening on 20 February 2015; it is now used for school administration.
On 17 December 1901 auctioneers M. Selwyn Smith offered nine grazing and agricultural lots surrounding the town of the Beaudesert ranging in size from, totalling. The land was being sold following the death of its owner Ernest White.
The Beaudesert Shire Tramway to Christmas Creek, Lamington and Rathdowney, operated by the Beaudesert Shire, opened in 1903 and closed in 1944.
A local newspaper, the Beaudesert Times was established in 1908.
From the nineteenth century through to the 1980s, it was a thriving centre with a shoe factory and meat works as well as markets, a hospital and an ambulance service. The Enright family managed a major department store. The Blunck family managed an electrical store and a car servicing and sales business. As in many areas, globalisation has seen local factories and family-owned business taken over and closed with profits leaving the town where once they would have been reinvested.
From 1954 to 1962 the Beaudesert State School also provided a secondary school program, which ceased when a separate Beaudesert State High Schoool was opened in January 1963.St Thomas' Anglican Church was consecrated on Sunday 4 July 1965 by Archbishop Philip Strong. It replaced an 1889 church which was then used as a church hall.
Even though the area was known as Beau-desert, the droughts and the floods were continuous problems in the area. In times of flood, houses, animals and people were washed away. The damage caused by floods is often recounted in historical documentation.
The Biddaddaba History Group brought together the history of the area from the earliest settlement of white people up to 1990 in a comprehensive book available from libraries.
Located in the Beaudesert Historical Museum is the Milbanks Pioneer Cottage. This cottage was originally built in 1875 by Patrick Milbanks on his Kerry property, out of local hand-hewn timbers, slats and shingle roof. It has four-poster bed, large cedar sideboard and numerous articles that portray the life of the early pioneers. It was donated to the museum by Patrick Milbanks's grandchildren and relocated to its present site in 1979.
The Beaudesert War Museum was unveiled on 28 September 1921 by Queensland Governor Matthew Nathan.
In the, Beaudesert had a population of 6,395 people.

Timeline

Heritage listings

Beaudesert has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
The Tabragalba Divisional Board was incorporated on 11 November 1879 under the Divisional Boards Act 1879, centred on Beaudesert. With the passage of the Local Authorities Act 1902, Tabragalba became a shire council on 31 March 1903, and on 8 August 1903 was renamed Beaudesert by an Order in Council. Between 23 November 1912 and 14 September 1929, a separate Beaudesert Town Council managed the town itself.
On 9 December 1948, an Order in Council abolished the Shires of Nerang, Tamborine and Waterford and included the latter two and part of Nerang into a new Shire of Beaudesert. Waterford had existed largely unaltered since being created as a Divisional Board in 1879, while Tamborine had split away from Tabragalba on 4 October 1890. The Shire of Beaudesert was split into four divisions with a total of eight councillors-Division 2 with four, Division 4 with two and the others with one each. The chairman was to be chosen from amongst the councillors. The new council was formally established at elections on 31 May 1949 and a Special Meeting was held on 7 June. It had grown 40% in population and gained 1,045 km2 in the process.
On 8 June 1978, the Shire of Logan was created out of parts of Beaudesert and the Shire of Albert. The council lost 146.1 km2 of its area and 11,550 people to Logan. At the 1979 council elections, Beaudesert was resubdivided into eight divisions each electing one councillor.
On 15 March 2008, under the Local Government Act 2007 passed by the Parliament of Queensland on 10 August 2007, Beaudesert was abolished and became one of only three Queensland councils, alongside Taroom and Tiaro, to be split in two. The Scenic Rim Regional Council was born. The northern area, which while still largely rural was part of Brisbane's growth corridor, became part of Logan City, while the southern rural section became part of the Scenic Rim Region alongside the Shire of Boonah.
Beaudesert Shire Council building now houses the Scenic Rim Region Council. There are 6 Councillors and a Mayor for an area of 4,238sq km and a regional population of 38,000.

Bromelton State Development Area

Bromelton SDA was declared in 2008, and covers 15,000 hectares of land approximately six kilometres west of Beaudesert. About 1,800 hectares has been earmarked for industrial development. It will accommodate industrial activities of regional, state and national significance, maximising the use of the areas existing standard gauge rail. The railline connects Bromelton to the Port of Brisbane, to other parts of Queensland, and to other States.
Mirvac has commenced work on a site bordered by Sandy Creek Road and Beaudesert Boonah Road. The Bromelton SDA applications will be reviewed by the Co-ordinator General for approval. The Scenic Rim Regional Council will be responsible for operational works, clearing of vegetation, plumbing and Reconfiguration of Lots applications after the MCUs have been approved by the State Government.

Schools

There are a number of schools in Beaudesert including:
as well as pre-schools and childcare centres.
McAuley College is a Catholic secondary school.

Amenities

The Scenic Rim Regional Council operates a public library at 58 Brisbane Street.
The Beaudesert branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association meets at 86 Brisbane Street.

Population

According to the 2016 census of Population, there were 6,395 people in Beaudesert.

Bus

A bus runs from Beaudesert to Browns Plains and Brisbane on weekdays. Centacare St Mary's Community Services and the Beaudesert RSL provide transport for aged, disabled, veterans and hospital/respite requirements.

Rail

The standard gauge Brisbane-Sydney railway line runs through Bromelton, a few kilometres west of Beaudesert. This line is used by NSW TrainLink Sydney to Brisbane XPT passenger services and Aurizon, Pacific National and SCT Logistics freight services to Sydney, Melbourne, Wollongong and Adelaide. Services ceased calling at Bromelton station in 1994.
The Beaudesert railway line ran from the outer Brisbane suburb of Bethania to Beaudesert and was in regular use from 1886 to 1996. Until 1991 it had served the meat-packing plant on the outskirts of the town.
A petition from railway enthusiasts, and considerable grants of government money, resulted in its re-opening in 1999. Beaudesert Rail operated steam-driven tourist trains on the line for a short while thereafter. The company ceased operating in August 2004 after a series of fires, allegedly lit by sparks from the train, were set along the train line. The company was in debt and has ceased to exist, with the rolling stock liquidated and physical infrastructure demolished. Beaudesert Rail had also been trading while insolvent, resulting in the closure of several local business who had extended them credit.

Community Groups

The Arts Centre hosts a number of community groups and there is a wide range of community activity including a very active Bush Bards group.

Sport and recreation

A number of well-known sporting teams represent the local area, including the Beaudesert Kingfishers who play home games at R.S. Willis Park, Beaudesert Rangers soccer club who play home games at Selwyn Park, Beaudesert and District junior and senior cricket club who play home games at Everdell Park, Beaudesert Warriors rugby union Club who play home games at Everdell Park.
There is a rifle range and pistol club in Sprengler Road, Tabragalba.

Notable residents