The region has developed a strong and diverse agricultural industry largely due to the extensive areas of vertosols (cracking clay soils), particularly black vertosols, of moderate to high fertility and available water capacity.[4] Manufacturing and mining, particularly coal mining are also important, and coal seam gas extraction experienced significant growth in the decade up to 2016.
The landscape is dominated by rolling hills covered by pastures of many different species, vegetables, legumes such as soy beans and chick peas, and other crops including cotton, wheat, barley and sorghum. Between the farmlands there are long stretches of crisscrossing roads, bushy ridges, winding creeks and herds of cattle. There are farms with beef and dairy cattle, pigs, sheep and lamb stock. Other typical sights include irrigation systems, windmills serving as water well pumps to get water from the Great Artesian Basin, light planes crop-dusting, rusty old woolsheds and other scattered remnants from a bygone era of early exploration and settlement.
The region is recognised as a cultural icon on the list of Queensland's Q150 icons.[5]
Geography
The central business district of the region's largest city, Toowoomba
The majority of the Darling Downs has a humid subtropical climate although some areas experience a semi-arid or subtropical highland climate. Summer maximum temperatures range from 28 to 34°C (82 to 93°F), while winter maximums range from 13 to 19°C (55 to 66°F). The annual rainfall ranges from 600mm (24in) in the far west of the region, to 1,000mm (39in) in the east. In the south-east of the Darling Downs winter temperatures can drop below −5°C (23°F) with heavy frost and occasional snow, while in the north-west summer temperatures can surpass 45°C (113°F). Severe thunderstorms and damaging floods are a threat at times, as are bushfires in dry years.
Southern Downs
Part of the Darling Downs, which includes the towns of Allora, Clifton, Warwick, Killarney and the rocky district in the south known as the Granite Belt, is known as the Southern Downs. The phrase is also used to define political boundaries and in the promotion of tourism in the area. The Dumaresq and the MacIntyre are found in this part of the region. (This is different to the IBRA subregion also known as The Southern Downs Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, which is further west, around the towns of Roma, Mitchell and Injune).
History
Jimbour House, 2011Squatting map of the Darling Downs district, 1864
Originally, the Darling Downs was covered with a wealth of indigenous grasses which created an ideal verdure for stock eight months of the year. The Darling Downs Aboriginals had an annual burning season at the time when the indigenous grasses were ripe and dry. The annual fires gave the local Aboriginals of the Darling Downs the name "Goonneeburra" or "Fire Blacks" – "goonnee" being a name for fire and "burra" a generic word for the whole race. This is what the Downs tribes were known as to the coastal Aborigines who inhabited the Moreton Bay area. Murri is a wider-spread generic word meaning the whole race but in the Kamabroi dialect.[citation needed] The Downs tribes spoke one common dialect, called Waccah and so to all other surrounding tribes were known as the Wacca-burra. The Goonnee-burra were once situated where Warwick stands today. Goonnee meant "the ones who hunt with fire".[9]
Windmill on the Darling Downs, Queensland1883 map of the Darling Downs showing pastoral runs
Allan Cunningham set out to explore the area to the west of Moreton Bay in 1827, crossing to the west of the Great Dividing Range from the Hunter Region and travelling north. In June 1827, Cunningham climbed to the top of Mount Dumaresque[10] (near what is now Clintonvale close to Maryvale) and after wrote in his diary that this lush area was ideal for settlement. Exploring around Mount Dumaresque, Cunningham found a pass, now known as Cunninghams Gap. Cunningham returned to Moreton Bay in 1828 and with Charles Fraser charted the route through the pass to the Darling Downs.[11]Ludwig Leichhardt in 1844 saw the remains of a camp showing the signs of white men through ridge poles and steel axes.
News of the lush pastures quickly spread resulting in a land grab that authorities in the distant New South Wales colony found difficult to stop.[12]Patrick Leslie was the first European person to settle on the Darling Downs in 1840, establishing a sheep property at Canning Downs on the Condamine River in 1846. Other well-established residences on the southern downs include Glengallan Homestead, Talgai Homestead, Pringle Cottage and Rosenthal Homestead. One of the first stations to be established was Jimbour House. It was also the point where Leichhardt launched his expedition to the Northern Territory in 1844.[13]
By 1844 there 26 properties including a number of sheep stations with more than 150,000 head.[14] Local aboriginals and European squatters co-settled the area from the late 1840s onwards.[15] Darling Downs then became known as the 'jewel in the diadem of squatterdom' with an elite 'pure merino' class living in comfortable houses.[16]
In 1854, Charles Douglas Eastaughffe settled in the area. Spicers Gap Road opened up the area in the 1850s. Later the expansion of Queensland Rail's train networks and Cobb and Co's stagecoach transport greatly assisted access to the region. Gold was found in the district around this time, however it was agricultural activity that provided for the boom times ahead.
During the early 20th century dairy was a significant industry for Queensland. The 1930s saw the peaking of the dairy industry on the Downs with 6,500 farms and over 200,000 milking cows.[7] The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association expanded, constructed or purchased at least 10 butter and cheese factories across the Darling Downs.[18]The Downs Co-operative Dairy Association Limited Factory in Toowoomba closed in 2006.[19]
In 2010, the population of the Darling Downs was estimated to be 241,537 people.[20]
In 2022, the Wieambilla police shootings took place, marking the first fundamentalist Christian terrorist attack in Australia.
After agriculture and mining and manufacturing are the next most important sectors. Manufacturing focuses on food and beverages but also the production of machinery, equipment and metal products.[24]
Agriculture
The region produces around one quarter of the state's agricultural output.[25] Water for irrigation is mostly sourced from groundwater from alluvial aquifers. Water is also extracted from streams, off-stream reservoirs and on-farm dams.[26] The lower temperatures of the milder summers in the Stanthorpe and Killarney regions allows farmers to grow lettuce, celery, brassicas and potato.[26]
The Darling Downs contains the largest deposit of rich black agricultural soils in Australia.[22] A commonly grown grass species Panicum coloratum, also known as Bambatsi, is well-suited for pastures used for grazing because it is suitable to the heavy-cracking clay soils found in the area.[27] The eastern Downs feature a wide range of soil types.[26]
The area is home to Australia's largest concentration of feedlots.[29] In 2010, two abattoirs at Pittsworth and Killarney owned by Dudley Leitch were closed.[30] Several other plants in the area were also closed leaving the remaining meat processor at Yangan in high demand. By late 2012, the industry was recovering with smaller processing facilities at Crows Nest and Inglewood opening.[31] In 2014, the Oakey Abattoir which is the fourth largest meat processing plant in Australia,[32] launched an environmental initiative to extract green energybiogas from its waste water streams.[33] It was the first ever use of a covered lagoon to treat effluent.[33]
Wine
In the Southern Downs region surrounding Stanthorpe in an area called the Granite Belt there are now over sixty cellar doors, wineries, and vineyards. The industry first began as a table grape growing region that by the mid-1960s was starting to plant wine grape cultivars. This region has a subtropical highland climate atypical to the rest of Queensland due to its elevation. Altitudes from 680m to over 1200m above sea level make it ideally suited to premium wine production.
The town of Jandowae gained fame after offering vacant blocks of land for just $1. This was done to encourage residents to settle in the small town which had less than 1,000 people in 2001.
The Cobb & Co Museum has displays of horse-drawn vehicles and material on the history of the Darling Downs. The Jondaryan Woolshed is a heritage-listed shearing shed situated at a site where a tourist operator has collected numerous related structures. The region has also a small zoo, Darling Downs Zoo near Clifton.
The region has uncovered important megafauna fossil finds.[34] The rich discoveries have lent weight to the theory that humans were not a factor in the extinction of the ancient megafauna species.[35] Many of the fossils in the region date to the Pleistocene[36] and include species such as Diprotodon optatum, the largest-ever marsupial. In 2021, examination of a partial skull revealed a site on the Darling Downs was the location for a new species of Tomistominae crocodile, representing the largest extinct crocodile species ever discovered in Australia.[37]
Before European settlement many areas on the Darling Downs were fertile wilderness. For example, around Ma Ma Creek, rich swampy wetlands provided a haven for many animal species not currently found on the downs. The Darling Downs hopping mouse and paradise parrot have both become extinct since cattle farming began.
The New Acland Mine expansion, north of Oakey, has been delayed by the largest environmental public interest court cases in Australian history.[38]
Awards
In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Darling Downs was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "location".[39]
In fiction
Steele Rudd (Arthur Davis) wrote a series of comic novels on rural life, starting with On Our Selection (1899), about Dad, Mother and Dave Rudd of Snake Gully. The Rudds had four (or six) acres adjoining a sheep run in the Darling Downs. The stories were made into films and a radio series.
The Condamine River, part of the Balonne catchment that is part of the Murray-Darling Basin, drains the northern portion of the Darling Downs, an area of sub-coastal southern Queensland, Australia. The river is approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) long and rises on Mount Superbus, South East Queensland's highest peak, on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the east coast of Queensland, and then flows north west across the Darling Downs, then west. The Condamine River is a tributary of the Darling River.
Toowoomba is a city in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia. It is 132 km (82 mi) west of Queensland's capital, Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 census was 142,163, having grown at an average annual rate of 1.45% over the previous two decades. Toowoomba is the second-most-populous inland city in the country after the nation's capital, Canberra. It is also the second-largest regional centre in Queensland, and is often referred to as the capital of the Darling Downs. It is the council seat of the eponymously named Toowoomba Region.
Dalby is a rural town and locality in the Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Dalby had a population of 12,758 people.
Oakey is a rural town and locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. The Museum of Army Aviation is located at Oakey Airport.
The Shire of Jondaryan was a local government area located in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia, immediately west of the regional city of Toowoomba. The shire, administered from the town of Oakey, covered an area of 1,910.0 square kilometres (737.5 sq mi), and existed as a local government entity from 1890 until 2008, when it amalgamated with several other councils in the Toowoomba area to form the Toowoomba Region. Its growth in later years has been fuelled by the expansion of Toowoomba and suburbs such as Glenvale and Westbrook.
Killarney is a rural town and locality in the Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It borders New South Wales. In the 2021 census, the locality of Killarney had a population of 918 people.
Cunningham was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland from 1888 to 2009.
Condamine is a rural town and locality in the Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Condamine had a population of 294 people.
The Cooby Dam is a rock–fill embankment dam with an un–gated spillway across the Cooby Creek, a tributary of Condamine River, at Groomsville in the Toowoomba Region on the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. The main purpose of the dam is for potable water supply of the Toowoomba region. The impounded reservoir is called the Cooby Creek Reservoir.
Darling Downs was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland. It was named for the Darling Downs region.
Condamine is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Queensland.
The Cooyar railway line was a branch line in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia. The small town of Cooyar is about halfway to Kingaroy in the South Burnett Region. A plan to connect Kingaroy to the south via Cooyar did not eventuate and left Cooyar at the terminus of a branch line running from Oakey west of Toowoomba.
The Killarney railway line was a branch railway in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia. It travelled from Warwick to Killarney and operated from 1884 to 1964.
Acland is a rural town and locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Acland had a population of 3 people.
Purrawunda is a rural locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Purrawunda had a population of 12 people.
Boodua is a rural locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Boodua had a population of 95 people.
Kings Siding is a rural locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Kings Siding had a population of 15 people.
Oakey–Cooyar Road is a continuous 58.8 kilometres (36.5 mi) road route in the Darling Downs and Toowoomba regions of Queensland, Australia. The entire route is signed as State Route 68. It is a state-controlled part regional and part district road. It provides an alternate route between the Warrego Highway and the New England Highway, bypassing Toowoomba.
Toowoomba–Cecil Plains Road is a continuous 78.6 kilometres (48.8 mi) road route in the Toowoomba region of Queensland, Australia. Most of the road is not signed with any route number, but a short section near Cecil Plains is part of State Route 82. Toowoomba–Cecil Plains Road is a state-controlled district road, part of which is rated as a local road of regional significance (LRRS).
The roads that join the towns of Dalby, Toowoomba and Cooyar form a triangle that encloses some of the most fertile land on the Darling Downs in Queensland, Australia. These roads are the Warrego Highway, New England Highway and Dalby–Cooyar Road. Pechey–Maclagan Road forms a large part of a group of roads that bisect the triangle from east to west, and is also part of one of the groups of roads that bisect from south to north.
↑ "Q150 icons list". The Brisbane Times. 10 June 2009. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
↑ "Darling Downs". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 27 March 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
1 2 "Darling Downs". Queensland Places. Centre for the Government of Queensland. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
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