Population 95 (2006 census) LGA(s) Shire of McKinlay Postal code 4823 Federal division Division of Kennedy | Postcode(s) 4823 State electorate(s) Mount Isa Local time Monday 12:55 AM | |
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Location 1,521 km (945 mi) NW of Brisbane
303 km (188 mi) SE of Mount Isa
164 km (102 mi) NW of Winton Weather 26°C, Wind NW at 6 km/h, 69% Humidity | ||
Kynuna is a town in north-west Queensland, Australia, on the banks of the Diamantina River. The town is located on the Landsborough Highway, in the Shire of McKinlay local government area, 1,521 kilometres (945 mi) north west of the state capital, Brisbane and 303 kilometres (188 mi) south east of the regional centre of Mount Isa. At the 2006 census, Kynuna had a population of 95.
Map of Kynuna QLD 4823, Australia
Kynuna lies at the northern rim of a roughly circular zone measuring some 130 km across that has been identified by Geoscience Australia as a crustal anomaly. Proof is currently lacking as to the cause, but it is believed likely that the anomaly was caused by an asteroid strike that happened about 300,000,000 years ago.
The town was established as a shearer's union camp at a supply point for the nearby Kynuna pastoral station, at a place where five roads met the Diamantina River. The town was gazetted in 1894 and at one stage soon after had a population of around 700 people and was home to three pubs. Local legend claims that the suicide of a local shearer named Samuel Hoffmeister at Combo Waterhole near Kynuna in 1894 was the inspiration for the Banjo Paterson song "Waltzing Matilda". Paterson was at one time engaged to Sarah Riley, the daughter of a local squatter, and visited the area.
Kynuna Post Office opened on 1 May 1883 (a receiving office had been open from 1882) and closed in 1990.
Today, the town has one pub, the Blue Heeler Hotel. The pub was built as the Kynuna Hotel in 1889.