Chinchilla, Queensland
Encyclopedia
Chinchilla is a town in the Darling Downs region of Queensland
, Australia
. At the 2006 census
, Chinchilla had a population of 3,681.
The town (approximately 300 kilometres west-northwest of Brisbane
) was established in 1877. As the railway pushed west across the Darling Downs
from Toowoomba and Dalby
, the banks of Charley's Creek seemed an ideal place for a town.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the community, with beef and pork production, wool growing, and horticulture traditionally underwriting the local economy. However, with the recent resources boom, the Kogan Creek Power Station (and other coal and gas projects) have begun to inject welcome cash into the town and Chinchilla is experiencing mass growth and development. House prices in Chinchilla have boomed as a result of the need to house new workers.
Chinchilla is known as the 'Melon Capital of Australia', and plays host to a Melon
Festival every second year in February – the next is to be held in 2013.
Leichhardt House http://www.chinchilshs.eq.edu.au/Hostel/StudentHostel.htm/ is a hostel
that provides accommodation for students from homes in remote areas.
Chinchilla has two childcare facilities, and other home care facilities, that care for children from 6 weeks to 16 years old.
May Day Festival is held on May Day long weekend, and showcases the town’s rural background, with events such as a tug of war
, bag-a-sheep, Minties
drop out of a plane, a rodeo
, fireworks and Woodchip finals. The Chinchilla Grandfather Clock Campdraft is a major event held every October, where entrants compete for the Grandfather Clock prize. Chinchilla also hosts horse races four times a year.
s (including watermelon
, rockmelon and honeydew
), the first Chinchilla Melon Festival http://www.melonfest.com.au was held in 1994 by local producers and businessmen, to lift the town’s spirits after the severe drought
experienced in the early 1990s. Estimated numbers at the first Festival were approximately 2,500, and it has been estimated that there were 10,000 visitors on the main day of the last Festival (which was held in February 2011).
In 2009, the Melon Festival won the Queensland Regional Achievement and Community Award for Tourism Event.
The Festival features extremely interactive and unique events, such as Melon Skiing, Melon Bungee, Melon Bullseye, Melon Ironman, Melon Chariot, a pip spitting competition, and melon eating races. A special event held in 2009 saw John Allwood secure the Guinness World Record of Melon Head Smashing - cracking open as many watermelons as possible using only the head. Currently his record is 47 melons in a minute.
The Cultural Center also houses a cinema
http://www.chinchilla.org.au/index-tess1.php?ItemNo=1013, which differs from normal rural cinemas in that it shows movies that are not delayed, but rather currently showing.
Chinchilla White Gums Art Gallery houses a new display every month.
, which is a main highway leading out west to Charleville, and a popular tourist route. The mainstays of Chinchilla's tourism industry are the Historical Museum, fishing and fossicking
for petrified wood
. 'Chinchilla Red' petrified wood is unique to the area, and known for its colour and quality. The Chinchilla White Gum (Eucalyptus argophloia) is also unique to the area, and can be seen on some of the tourist drives which are marked around the region.
An accredited Visitor Information Center is located on the Highway.
, rugby league
, cricket
, tennis
http://www.chintennis.chinchilla.org.au, squash
, motocross
, gymnastics
, indoor netball
, taekwondo
, soccer and lawn bowls. A fishing club, Pony Club
, and shooting range
also operate in the area. In addition, there are Polocrosse
grounds, a race track
, and 9 hole golf course
. A Multipurpose Sports Centre Stadium is currently being developed.
Chinchilla News is the local newspaper, published every Thursday. All major television channels are available, including WIN Television
, Seven Network
, Network Ten
, ABC Television
and SBS
, along with the HDTV versions of these channels, and Austar
is also available. ABC Triple J is on 104.1.
, maternity ward and operating theatre
. It can also care for long stay patients, and has other services such as social work
, child health, physiotherapy, dietician, speech therapy, occupational therapy
, mental health
, community health services, a women’s clinic and an x-ray
facility.
In town, there is also a private dental practice, along with the public dental hospital. Five general practitioners operate in the area, along with an occupational therapist
, optometrist, podiatrist, physiotherapists and chiropractor
s.
, Toowoomba and Roma
by the Warrego Highway
. Greyhound Australia
operates 2-3 daily bus services between Brisbane and Mount Isa via Longreach and Charleville
, and three buses a week between Toowoomba and Rockhampton
, along the Dawson Highway. The Westlander train also comes through Chinchilla twice a week, on its way between Brisbane and Charleville. As it is a small town, there is no public transport (besides a taxi), although many coal and gas companies run private buses out to their sites.
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. At the 2006 census
Census in Australia
The Australian census is administered once every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The most recent census was conducted on 9 August 2011; the next will be conducted in 2016. Prior to the introduction of regular censuses in 1961, they had also been run in 1901, 1911, 1921, 1933,...
, Chinchilla had a population of 3,681.
The town (approximately 300 kilometres west-northwest of Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
) was established in 1877. As the railway pushed west across the Darling Downs
Darling Downs, Queensland
The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of eleven major regions of Queensland....
from Toowoomba and Dalby
Dalby, Queensland
Dalby is a town in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia, and is located approximately west of the state capital, Brisbane, at the junction of the Warrego, Moonie and Bunya Highways. Dalby is the administrative centre of the Western Downs Region and the centre of Australia's richest...
, the banks of Charley's Creek seemed an ideal place for a town.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the community, with beef and pork production, wool growing, and horticulture traditionally underwriting the local economy. However, with the recent resources boom, the Kogan Creek Power Station (and other coal and gas projects) have begun to inject welcome cash into the town and Chinchilla is experiencing mass growth and development. House prices in Chinchilla have boomed as a result of the need to house new workers.
Chinchilla is known as the 'Melon Capital of Australia', and plays host to a Melon
Melon
thumb|200px|Various types of melonsThis list of melons includes members of the plant family Cucurbitaceae with edible, fleshy fruit e.g. gourds or cucurbits. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit...
Festival every second year in February – the next is to be held in 2013.
Education
Chinchilla has four schools (one state high school, one state primary school, and two private primary schools) that cater from prep to year 12:- Chinchilla State School (450 students)http://chinchilss.eq.edu.au
- The Christian School (130 students)http://www.chinchillacs.qld.edu.au
- St Joseph’s School (170 students)
- Chinchilla State High School (500 students)http://chinchilshs.eq.edu.au/wcmss. The Southern Queensland Institute of TAFESouthern Queensland Institute of TAFESouthern Queensland Institute of TAFE Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE (SQIT]] is an Australian vocational college for teaching Tertiary and Further Education. It covers a wide area, with campuses in Toowoomba, Roma, Warwick, Kingaroy, Dalby, Chinchilla,...
annex is located in the high school grounds and works closely with local business and industries.
Leichhardt House http://www.chinchilshs.eq.edu.au/Hostel/StudentHostel.htm/ is a hostel
Hostel
Hostels provide budget oriented, sociable accommodation where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed, in a dormitory and share a bathroom, lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex, although private rooms may also be available...
that provides accommodation for students from homes in remote areas.
Chinchilla has two childcare facilities, and other home care facilities, that care for children from 6 weeks to 16 years old.
Annual events
For a small town, Chinchilla has a large variety of events that happen yearly. The RotaryRotary International
Rotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
May Day Festival is held on May Day long weekend, and showcases the town’s rural background, with events such as a tug of war
Tug of war
Tug of war, also known as tug o' war, tug war, rope war or rope pulling, is a sport that directly pits two teams against each other in a test of strength. The term may also be used as a metaphor to describe a demonstration of brute strength by two opposing groups, such as a rivalry between two...
, bag-a-sheep, Minties
Minties
Minties™ is a brand of confectionery originating in Australia. They are a hard, white and chewy, square mint-flavoured lolly. They were originally packaged in 5lb bulk tins or 3oz cardboard boxes, but now come in packs ranging from 150g - 1 kg...
drop out of a plane, a rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
, fireworks and Woodchip finals. The Chinchilla Grandfather Clock Campdraft is a major event held every October, where entrants compete for the Grandfather Clock prize. Chinchilla also hosts horse races four times a year.
Chinchilla Melon Festival
As Chinchilla produces 25% of Australia’s melonMelon
thumb|200px|Various types of melonsThis list of melons includes members of the plant family Cucurbitaceae with edible, fleshy fruit e.g. gourds or cucurbits. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit...
s (including watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon is a vine-like flowering plant originally from southern Africa. Its fruit, which is also called watermelon, is a special kind referred to by botanists as a pepo, a berry which has a thick rind and fleshy center...
, rockmelon and honeydew
Honeydew (melon)
Honeydew is a cultivar group of the muskmelon, Cucumis melo Inodorus group, which includes crenshaw, casaba, Persian, winter, and other mixed melons.-Characteristics:...
), the first Chinchilla Melon Festival http://www.melonfest.com.au was held in 1994 by local producers and businessmen, to lift the town’s spirits after the severe drought
Drought in Australia
Drought in Australia is defined as rainfall over a three month period being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that region in the past. This definition takes into account that drought is a relative term and rainfall deficiencies need to be compared to typical rainfall patterns...
experienced in the early 1990s. Estimated numbers at the first Festival were approximately 2,500, and it has been estimated that there were 10,000 visitors on the main day of the last Festival (which was held in February 2011).
In 2009, the Melon Festival won the Queensland Regional Achievement and Community Award for Tourism Event.
The Festival features extremely interactive and unique events, such as Melon Skiing, Melon Bungee, Melon Bullseye, Melon Ironman, Melon Chariot, a pip spitting competition, and melon eating races. A special event held in 2009 saw John Allwood secure the Guinness World Record of Melon Head Smashing - cracking open as many watermelons as possible using only the head. Currently his record is 47 melons in a minute.
Arts and entertainment
Chinchilla has a Cultural Centre, which includes a 700-seat auditorium, cinema and function room, outdoor patio, theatrette, plus bar and kitchen facilities. Also included in the complex are the White Gums Art Gallery and the Cypress Pines Library.The Cultural Center also houses a cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
http://www.chinchilla.org.au/index-tess1.php?ItemNo=1013, which differs from normal rural cinemas in that it shows movies that are not delayed, but rather currently showing.
Chinchilla White Gums Art Gallery houses a new display every month.
Tourism and recreation
Chinchilla is one of the towns located on the Warrego HighwayWarrego Highway
The Warrego Highway is located in southern Queensland, Australia. It connects coastal centres to the south western areas of the state, and is approximately 750 km in length. It takes its name from the Warrego River, which is the endpoint of the highway...
, which is a main highway leading out west to Charleville, and a popular tourist route. The mainstays of Chinchilla's tourism industry are the Historical Museum, fishing and fossicking
Fossicking
Fossicking is a term found in Cornwall, Australia and New Zealand referring to prospecting, especially in more recent times, when carried out as a recreational activity. This can be for gold, precious stones, fossils, etc. by sifting through a prospective area. In Australian English and New...
for petrified wood
Petrified wood
Petrified wood is the name given to a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. It is the result of a tree having turned completely into stone by the process of permineralization...
. 'Chinchilla Red' petrified wood is unique to the area, and known for its colour and quality. The Chinchilla White Gum (Eucalyptus argophloia) is also unique to the area, and can be seen on some of the tourist drives which are marked around the region.
An accredited Visitor Information Center is located on the Highway.
Sport
Chinchilla has a range of sports facilities and a variety of sports clubs. Chinchilla Aquatic Centre houses an indoor 25m heated pool, an outdoor 50m pool and a gymnasium. The Chinchilla Family Sports Centre provides facilities for many sports and clubs. There are also clubs and facilities for touch footballTouch Aussie Rules
Touch Aussie Rules is a non-contact version of Australian rules football that is currently played in London, UK and organised by Aussie Rules UK.All skills are used in Touch Aussie Rules, including kicking, marking, handballing and bouncing....
, rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
, cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
http://www.chintennis.chinchilla.org.au, squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
, motocross
Motocross
Motocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. It evolved from trials, and was called scrambles, and later motocross, combining the French moto with cross-country...
, gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
, indoor netball
Indoor Netball
Indoor netball is a variation of netball, played exclusively indoors, in which the playing court is surrounded on each side and overhead by a net. The net prevents the ball from leaving the court, reducing the number of playing stoppages. This gives indoor netball a faster pace than netball.There...
, taekwondo
Taekwondo
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...
, soccer and lawn bowls. A fishing club, Pony Club
Pony Club
Pony Club is an international youth organization devoted to the educating youths about horses and riding. Pony Club organizations exist in over 30 countries worldwide...
, and shooting range
Shooting range
A shooting range or firing range is a specialized facility designed for firearms practice. Each facility is typically overseen by one or more supervisory personnel, called variously a range master or "RSO – Range Safety Officer" in the United States or a range conducting officer or "RCO" in the UK...
also operate in the area. In addition, there are Polocrosse
Polocrosse
Polocrosse it is a team sport that is played all over the world. It is a combination of polo and lacrosse. It is played outside, on a field , on horseback. Each rider uses a cane stick to which is attached a racquet head with a loose, thread net, in which the ball is carried. The ball is made of...
grounds, a race track
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
, and 9 hole golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
. A Multipurpose Sports Centre Stadium is currently being developed.
Media
Rebel FM 97.1 (MHz) was Chinchilla's first commercial FM radio station. Rebel FM has a new rock & classic rock music format. The Breeze broadcasts on 95.5 FM (MHz) with an easy adult contemporary & classics hits format. Both stations are Chinchilla's only commercial radio stations and are part of the Rebel Media group.Chinchilla News is the local newspaper, published every Thursday. All major television channels are available, including WIN Television
WIN Television
WIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions covering a...
, Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
, Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
, ABC Television
ABC Television
ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....
and SBS
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...
, along with the HDTV versions of these channels, and Austar
Austar
Austar is an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity is Subscription Television but it is also involved with internet access and mobile phones...
is also available. ABC Triple J is on 104.1.
Health
Chinchilla has its own hospital, with an emergency wardEmergency department
An emergency department , also known as accident & emergency , emergency room , emergency ward , or casualty department is a medical treatment facility specialising in acute care of patients who present without prior appointment, either by their own means or by ambulance...
, maternity ward and operating theatre
Operating theatre
An operating theater was a non-sterile, tiered theater or amphitheater in which students and other spectators could watch surgeons perform surgery...
. It can also care for long stay patients, and has other services such as social work
Social work
Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...
, child health, physiotherapy, dietician, speech therapy, occupational therapy
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments...
, mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
, community health services, a women’s clinic and an x-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
facility.
In town, there is also a private dental practice, along with the public dental hospital. Five general practitioners operate in the area, along with an occupational therapist
Occupational therapist
An occupational therapist is trained in the practice of occupational therapy. The role of an occupational therapist is to work with a client to help them achieve a fulfilled and satisfied state in life through the use of "purposeful activity or interventions designed to achieve functional...
, optometrist, podiatrist, physiotherapists and chiropractor
Chiropractor
A Chiropractor, according to the Association of Chiropractic Colleges , "focuses on the relationship between the body's main structures – the skeleton, the muscles and the nerves – and the patient's health. Chiropractors believe that health can be improved and preserved by making adjustments to...
s.
Transport
Chinchilla is connected to BrisbaneBrisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Toowoomba and Roma
Roma, Queensland
Roma is a town in the western Darling Downs area of Queensland, Australia, by rail WNW of Brisbane. It is situated at the junction of the Warrego and Carnarvon highways...
by the Warrego Highway
Warrego Highway
The Warrego Highway is located in southern Queensland, Australia. It connects coastal centres to the south western areas of the state, and is approximately 750 km in length. It takes its name from the Warrego River, which is the endpoint of the highway...
. Greyhound Australia
Greyhound Australia
Greyhound Australia is the largest long distance bus operator in Australia, operating in all mainland states and territories. It is owned by the Chapman Group and ANZ....
operates 2-3 daily bus services between Brisbane and Mount Isa via Longreach and Charleville
Charleville, Queensland
Charleville is a town in south western Queensland, Australia, 758 kilometres by road west of Brisbane . It is the largest town and administrative centre of the Murweh Shire, which covers an area of 43,905 square kilometres...
, and three buses a week between Toowoomba and Rockhampton
Rockhampton
Rockhampton can refer to:* Rockhampton, Queensland is a city in Queensland, Australia* Rockhampton City, Queensland, a suburb of Rockhampton, Queensland* Electoral district of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia...
, along the Dawson Highway. The Westlander train also comes through Chinchilla twice a week, on its way between Brisbane and Charleville. As it is a small town, there is no public transport (besides a taxi), although many coal and gas companies run private buses out to their sites.
Notable locals
- Film producer George MillerGeorge Miller (producer)George Miller is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is most well known for his work on the Mad Max movies, but has been involved in a wide range of projects, including the Oscar-winning Happy Feet and "Babe" family films.Miller is the older brother...
. - Australian folk/country singer Pete Murray grew up in Chinchilla.
- Australian painter Hugh SawreyHugh SawreyHugh Sawrey CBE was an Australian artist and founder of the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame, Longreach...
spent many years in the Kogan area. - Primary educator Jim Alexander (1930–1997) was born in the Kogan district, and he spent his last years as a teacher in Chinchilla (1985–1988). One of Alexander's students is the 2004 Queenslander of the Year, Chris SarraChris SarraChris Sarra is an Australian educationalist. Hailing from Bundaberg in Queensland and the youngest of ten children, Sarra experienced first-hand many of the issues faced by indigenous students....
. - Rugby League player Ben RossBen RossBen Ross is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for the South Sydney Rabbitohs of the National Rugby League . A Queensland State of Origin representative forward, he has previously played club football for St...
.