Cambooya, Queensland

Geography

Cambooya is on the Darling Downs region, 148 kilometres (92 mi) west of the state capital, Brisbane.

History

European settlement of the area dates from 1840, when Arthur Hodgson chose 65,000 acres (26,305 ha) of prime land, which he named Eton Vale. In 1843 the New South Wales Commissioner of Crown Lands, Christopher Rolleston, carried out a survey and reserved a site on Eton Vale for a township. He named it Cambooya, a rendering of the Aboriginal word 'yambuya', thought to refer to tubers growing in a water hole. Cambooya was, in its early years, the railway, postal, and general centre of two properties named after two public schools of England, Eton and Harrow. Hodgson had attended Eton Vale, and Ramsay had attended Harrow. Hodgson resisted the formation of a township, and no development occurred until 1868, when a railway station was built at Cambooya as the railway line was extended from Toowoomba to Warwick.

Cambooya Post Office opened on 12 March 1869. It was co-located with the railway station. The post office, railway station building and goods shed were destroyed in a fire in the early hours of the morning on 7 July 1908. A new post office was built in 1909 at an estimated cost of £1050. The current post office is located at 53 Eton Street, Cambooya.

The first public school in Cambooya opened in 1882, with 12 students from four local families. Due to growing attendance and an increased population caused by the railway, the school was moved and a building was erected in 1899 at the current school site; this building became a school residence in 1910 when a new state school was built. The nearby Nunkulla School was closed on 6 December 1959 and the building was transported to Cambooya to became an additional classroom. It was officially opened in December 1960. A new building was constructed in 1985 and officially opened on 3 August 1985 by J. A. Elliot, Member for Cunningham. In 1985 the school was officially given six allotments of land, now called Johnson Oval. This oval is used today for cricket, soccer, and athletics. By 1990 there were 104 students and 25 pre-school students enrolled, plus a teaching staff of six teachers and three teacher-aides. Early in 2005 there was an officially opened covered area. Stuart Copeland, Member of Parliament (MP) congratulated the school community for constructing a useful covered area for eating lunches and undercover activities. The school celebrated its centenary in 1982 and 125 years of education at Cambooya State School in 2007.

Eton Vale school was originally a private school on Eton Vale Station, three and a half miles from the Cambooya Railway Station. Most children who attended the school in 1890 were girls and infants, as they could not travel to Cambooya School with any regularity and the black soil was impassable in wet weather. Eton Vale became a half-time school with Preston in 1925; Preston School closed shortly after and Eton Vale school closed in 1929.

In February 1923 a branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association was formed in Cambooya. More than 50 women attended the meeting. Mrs. J.H. Fairfax (Queensland president and founder) referred to the "good work than the association could accomplish among country women, emphasis being laid "on what could be done in Cambooya and district. The newly formed branch agreed to devote its energies to assisting the Bush Nursing Association. Mrs. J. H. Fairfax was elected president, and Miss Middleton secretary and treasurer." There is no longer a branch in Cambooya, although there are a number of branches in the surrounding area, including Toowoomba and Middle Ridge.

The Cambooya Catholic Church was officially opened on 9 November. 1914 by Archbishop Duhig, before a crowd of about 600. At the centenary celebrations in 2014, descendants of the men who helped build the church were among the crowd for the celebration.

In April 1914, the Anglican Church at Cambooya was destroyed by cyclonic winds. As reported in the Darling Downs Gazette, "the church was built by the residents some years ago, and was one of the centres of religious life in that small community. A stained glass window in the church was the gift of Sir Arthur Hodgson in memory of the Hodgson family who did much for the Downs and for Queensland; the walls of the little church were beautifully decorated. The seats were tastefully decorated, and the organ, recently paid for, was a very fine instrument. All have been destroyed." The church was rebuilt with funds raised by the community. The foundation stone of the new building was laid a week before the opening of the new Catholic church.

The Darling Downs, including Cambooya, was well known for the production of cheese and other dairy products in the first half of the 20th century. For example, the Ramsay Cheese Factory, during the fourteen months prior to the end of 1906, made 248,686 lb or 111 tons of cheese from 273,003 gallons of milk. By 1912 there were butter an/or cheese factories at Allora, Cambooya, Clifton, Crows Nest, Dalby, Goombungee, Greenmount, Inglewood, Jandowae, Leyburn, Oakey, Pittsworth, Tannymorel, Toowoomba and Warwick. In the late 1930s the Downs' dairy industry peaked at 6500 farms and over 200,000 milking cows.

Australian author Arthur Hoey Davis, who wrote under the pen name 'Steele Rudd', spent much of his childhood on his family's small block at Emu Creek near East Greenmount in the Cambooya district. He is best known for creating the Australian characters Dad 'n' Dave.

A suburban rail motor service from Toowoomba along the Southern railway line commenced in May 1917, running to Wyreema, 10 miles away. It was extended to Cambooya and to Willowburn in 1918. They ceased around 1923.

Heritage listings

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

Education

Cambooya has only one school, Cambooya State School. In 2016 the school had over 100 students enrolled, from prep to grade 6.

Facilities

Library services in Cambooya are provided by the Toowoomba Regional Council's mobile library service. The van visits Cambooya State School every Friday.

Landmarks

Cambooya has an historic pub called the Bull and Barley. It has been featured on the television show Getaway. Originally opened in 1902 as the Cambooya Railway Hotel, it was one of three pubs in the town. but is now it is the only hotel in Cambooya. The name was changed to the Bull and Barley Inn in 1978.

Notable people