Harlaxton, Queensland
Encyclopedia
Harlaxton is a suburb of Toowoomba, Queensland
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...

, located 4 kilometres (2 mi) north of the city centre.

The name originates from Harlaxton House, probably named for Harlaxton
Harlaxton
Harlaxton is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the edge of the Vale of Belvoir and just off the A607, south-east from Grantham and north-east from Melton Mowbray.-History:...

 in Lincolnshire, England, and built in 1869 in what is now Munro Street as the residence of Francis Thomas Gregory
Francis Thomas Gregory
Francis Thomas Gregory was an English-born Australian explorer and politician.-Biography:Gregory was born at Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire, England, and was the younger brother of the explorer Augustus Gregory...

. Gregory was an explorer in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

, before moving to Queensland in 1862, serving as Commissioner of Crown Lands and an appointed Member of the Legislative Council
Queensland Legislative Council
The Queensland Legislative Council was the upper house of the parliament in the Australian state of Queensland. It was a fully nominated body which first took office on 1 May 1860. It was abolished by the Constitution Amendment Act 1921, which took effect on 23 March 1922.Consequently, the...

 from 1874 until his death in 1888. The home was later used as the summer residence for Lord Lamington
Charles Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington
Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Cochrane-Baillie, 2nd Baron Lamington, GCMG, GCIE was a British politician and colonial administrator who was Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901, and Governor of Bombay from 1903 to 1907....

 who served as Governor of Queensland from 1896 until 1901. A railway station was built for his use at the site. The house is in a deteriorating condition, partly due to blasts from the neighbouring quarries.

Education

Harlaxton is home to Downlands College
Downlands College
Downlands College, officially Downlands Sacred Heart College, is a private, secondary, coeducational, day and boarding school in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. Founded by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1931, the College began as a boarding school for boys with a total enrolment of...

, a Catholic co-educational boarding school established in 1931, and Harlaxton State School, opened in 1901.

Features and facilities

Harlaxton has a history as an industrial centre. Apart from the quarries, the suburb is home to the Willowburn railway marshalling yard and the original Darling Downs Bacon Company established as a co-operative in 1911 (later KR Castlemaine
George Weston Foods
George Weston Foods is one of the largest consumer products companies in Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Associated British Foods Plc. Its brands include Tip Top and Top Taste....

).

Harlaxton is also home to the Toowoomba Cricket Club and the Townsville Bears rugby union club, as well as the Willowburn Sports Club (soccer).

Demographics

Harlaxton is the least socio-economically advantaged suburb in Toowoomba; at the 2006 census, residents had a median individual income of $366, compared with $448 for the Toowoomba statistical district, and a median family income of $881 compared to $1,116. The suburb had a SEIFA
SEIFA
Socio-Economics Indexes for Areas is a product of the Australia's national statistical agency, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which measures and ranks areas according to socio-economic and positional disadvantage based on information derived from the five-yearly Census of Population and...

 score of 903, placing it below all other suburbs in the district.

Politics

In the 2004 federal election and again in the 2010 election, the booth at Harlaxton North was the only booth in the Division of Groom
Division of Groom
The Division of Groom is anAustralian Electoral Division in Queensland.The division was created in 1984, when the old Division of Darling Downs was abolished, and is named in honour of Sir Littleton Groom, a long-serving member for Darling Downs....

 to record a Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

two-party preferred majority.

External links

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