The locality of Camooweal is in north-western in the Gulf Region bounded by the west by the Northern Territory. The town of Camooweal is located in the south-west corner of the locality.[4] The town is 169 kilometres (105 mi) north-west of the city of Mount Isa and 12 km (7.5 mi) east of the Northern Territory border.
The Barkly Highway enters the locality from the south (Barkly), passes from east to west through the town centre (where it is known as Barkly Street) and then exits to the west (Northern Territory).[4]
Crossing the bridge over the waterless Georgina River on the Barkly High heading west out of Camooweal, 2019
The locality is a drainage divide running from the north-west to the south-east of the locality. The watercourses in the north and east of the locality are tributaries of the Nicholson River which flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria to the north. Gulf drainage Whereas the watercourses in the south and west of the locality are tributaries of the Georgina River which is part of the Lake Eyre drainage basin.[4]
William Landsborough in 1861 named the Barkly Tablelands after the Governor of Victoria, His Excellency, Sir Henry Barkly. He also named Lake Francis after his niece Frances Landsborough.[5] The first Britisher to attempt to colonise the area was George Sutherland, who took up the Rocklands lease in 1865. Sutherland arrived at Lake Mary on the Georgina River with 8,000 sheep, which caused the Aboriginal people, who were sleeping at time, to run. Sutherland was attacked by them on several occasions in the following months. When fellow colonists William Lyne and Henry Steiglitz arrived on the river, Sutherland "deemed it fully time to make a raid and drive them [the Aboriginal people] back." One of the group fired a shot, hitting a group of boomerangs which scared the Aboriginal people into fleeing.[16] Stock losses to the local dingos and wedge-tailed eagles; lack of water and isolation soon forced him to abandon his lease. The Englishmen Benjamin Crosthwaite and William Tetley, who were marginally more successful, took up the lease again in 1876.
The origin of the town's name is uncertain. One theory is that it take its name from surveyor George Telford Weale, who surveyed the area using camels in the early 1880s.[17][18][19] Another theory is that it is an Aboriginal word meaning strong wind.[2]
The initial town was gazetted in 1884 to be built on a 4-square-mile (10 km2) plot by Lake Francis. A year later the present site was re-gazetted. The Rocklands Post Office was removed and Camooweal Post Office opened on 27 April 1885.[20][21] A police station opened in 1886.
Camooweal Provisional School opened on 5 June 1893. On 1 Jan 1909 it became Camooweal State School.[22]
On 2 January 1931, a Qantas Air Ambulance from the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia flown by E.G. Donaldson rescued a man in Camooweal and delivered him to Brisbane.
Convoys of Australian Army vehicles at Camooweal, travelling along the Barkly Highway, 2019
The road through Camooweal to the Northern Territory (now the Barkly Highway) was the inland defence route for World War II. This road was built by army engineers and carried over 1000 vehicles a day and there are numerous historical sites marked along the road.
The town had electricity from 1952.
Plaque commemorating the opening of St Therese's Catholic Church on 30 April 1961
The Camooweal Caves National Park was gazetted on 16 December 1994.[11]
Driving across the Georgina River Bridge from Camooweal looking south towards the old bridge below, 2019
Given the economic importance of transport on the Barkly Highway (the only sealed road between Queensland and the Northern Territory), a longstanding problem was the flooding of the Georgina River at Camooweal. During floods, the Barkly Highway bridge over the Georgina River was often unusable for many days, with road trains and other heavy vehicles having to wait weeks before it was safe to cross. To alleviate these problems, the new Georgina River Bridge was officially opened on 20 December 2002 by Senator Ron Boswell and Steve Breadhauer, Minister for Transport in the Queensland Government. It replaced the previous bridge which was approximately 50 metres (160 ft) south and was both higher and longer so traffic on the highway could continue to cross during floods. The bridge is 417 metres (1,368 ft) long and is accompanied by a 5.6-kilometre (3.5 mi) highway deviation west from Camooweal. The bridge uses an unusual arch design to avoid placing pylons into the river bed which is culturally significant to the local Dugalunji people, who call the new bridge Ilaga Thuwani meaning The Camping Ground of the Rainbow Serpent.[24][25][26][27]
In 2005 the Mount Isa City Council erected a war memorial outside the community hall (former shire hall of the Shire of Barkly Tableland).[28]
At the 2011 census, the locality of Camooweal had a population of 187.[29] At the 2016 census, it had a population of 208, [30] and at the 2021 census, it had a population of 236.[1]
There are no secondary schools within reach of the locality (the nearest is Spinifex State College in Mount Isa). The options are distance education and boarding school. Spinifex State College has boarding facilities.[4][38]
Economy
There are a number of homesteads in the locality, including:[39]
Australian country musician Slim Dusty recorded a song written by David Kirkpatrick and Alex "Mack" Cormack entitled simply Camooweal which features this town.[53]
Climate
Climate data for Camooweal (Camooweal Township 1891-2016)
^Barry, Derek (19 June 2019). "The story of Camooweal". The North West Star. Archived from the original on 20 December 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
^Premier Postal History. "Post Office List". Premier Postal Auctions. Archived from the original on 15 May 2014. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
^"The Brisbane Courier". The Brisbane Courier. Vol. XXXIX, no. 8, 511. Queensland, Australia. 21 April 1885. p. 5. Retrieved 5 February 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
^Memmott, Paul. "On Generating Culturally Sustainable Enterprises and Demand-Responsive Services in Remote Aboriginal Settings: A case study from north-west Queensland". Indigenous Participation in Australian Economies II. Archived from the original on 21 December 2020. Retrieved 21 December 2020. ((cite book)): |website= ignored (help)
^"Camooweal War Memorial". Queensland War Memorials Register. 23 June 2014. Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
Miller, Lilian Ada (1999), The border and beyond : Camooweal, 1884-1984 (2nd ed, 1 May 1999 ed.), Lilian Ada Miller (published 1984), ISBN978-0-646-37443-7
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