The town is north of the state capital Brisbane and north west of the regional centre of Bundaberg. The town is on the North Coast railway line. Most of the locality is in the Gladstone Region but a small southern part on the shores of Lake Monduran is in the Bundaberg Region. Despite the town itself being in the Gladstone Region local government area, Rosedale is closer to Bundaberg than Gladstone. There has been some interest in the Rosedale community regarding breaking away from the Gladstone Region. In the east of the locality are the Littabella Conservation Park and the Littabella National Park. In the south-east of the locality is the Monduran State Forest which extends into neighbouring Monduran.
History
In July 1853, John Little and his family made camp with their large herd of sheep overlanded from New South Wales and selected a site overlooking a large creek. John Little's wife, Catherine, suggested the name "Rosedale" for the property and a vertical slab house "with barricades against the blacks" was constructed in 1854. The local Indigenous people resisted this occupation of their lands which resulted in several clashes. Lieutenant John Murray of the Native Police was called in on at least one occasion to forcibly remove Aboriginals from the area. This officer later married John Little's daughter, Rachel. These punitive missions resulted in numerous Aboriginal fatalities, in particular one now known as the Littabella massacre. After one raid, the Murray family adopted an Aboriginal child who was found in a hollow log. On another occasion, the Littles themselves indiscriminately shot down "a large tribe of blacks..surprising them by discharging our firearms in the midst of them". On 29 August 1863 John Little was struck by a falling limb from a burning tree and died the next day. A headstone marks the grave sites on the property. Rosedale Station remained in the Little family until approximately 1979. From the late 19th century, closer settlement of Rosedale began with selectors taking up subdivisions of land. The first school in Rosedale was built in 1895. The Rosedale and Tottenham war memorial commemorating the fallen in World War I and World War II is located in James Street, beside the Memorial Hall. In 2004, a north-bound tilt train derailed injuring 120 passengers. At the, Rosedale and the surrounding area had a population of 448.
