Miriam Vale: Stop-in on your way South

Miriam Vale is one of the gems of the region - a great place to visit for Gladstone residents, and, increasingly, an attractive town in which to live while working with the infrastructure, manufacture and mining projects. Our front cover shows the tree at the Miriam Vale Station under which 'many residents have sheltered from the sun while waiting for a train'. In the photo below is the cenotaph commemorating the town's First World War and Second World War sacrifices.

"Erected by the residents in memory of those brave boys of this district who gave their all in the cause of freedom 1914-1919 - A L C MacDonald, C Van der Wolf, L Lindley, F Emery, W Gorton, T MacNamara, P Dingle, E Dingle, J T Howard, Sam Streeter, V Fitzgerald, J A Launchbury, C Roe - their name liveth for evermore."

"To the memory of those brave boys of this district who gave their all in the cause for freedom 1939-1945 - Ben Cameron, Charlie Roe, Syd Roe, Leslie Petty, D J Lester, W A Clifford, T Freeman, F R Jackman - their name liveth forever more."

The Miriam Vale Hotel is perched on solid tree-thickness stumps.

Miriam Vale's main commercial and retail centre is on Bloomfield St, with the photo framed by the town's entrance trees.

Tranquility Walk is a delightful environmental walk starting at the northern end of Bloomfield St. (See Map 104 E3 & F4.)

The Information Centre is on Roe St which is the town part of the Bruce Hy. Frank Holzl (front), Pauline Dahl (seated at the computer), Greg Realf (rear left), Doug MacDougall (rear right).

In April 1853 Arthur Chauvel discovered the district and named it after his sister, Miriam. Arthur and Lancelot Westwod Tolson occupied Miriam Vale from the middle of 1856 with 20,000 sheep. The Miriam Vale Shire was gazetted in 1902 with outer boundaries at Lady Elliot Island in the East, Many Peaks Range in the West, Rodd's Bay to the North and Rosedale to the South.

Earlier in 1854, Port Curtis had been proclaimed a District, including the area of Miriam Vale. On 20th December 1859, Queensland was divided into sixteen electoral districts. Port Curtis, with 980 voters, elected Mr Charles Fitzsimmons as its first member of parliament. Sales of freehold land started with the 1868 Land Act.

The area was first explored by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770 in the Endeavour Bark on his first voyage to the Pacific. The district he named Bustard Bay was inhabited by the Meerooni tribe of Aboriginees. Cook and Sir Joesph Banks alighted onto the shore at Bustard Bay at 10am on Thursday 24th May 1770. Cook wrote in his diary: "These people may truly be said to be in the pure state of nature." At Seventy Seventy, the Roundhill headland memorial to James Cook was unveiled in 1926. Cook was promoted to Captain for his later voyages.

Arthur Jeffrey, born 2nd April 1980, on his father's selection of Bellvue which he had taken up in 1902, wrote the book: "A short history of Miriam Vale Shire, the birthplace of Qld." Arthur was Miriam Vale Citizen of the Year during the Australian bicentennary year of 1988. He died in May 1994. Arthur's book mentions that Capt Mathew Flinders visited the area in the Investigator on Tues 3rd August 1802.

Landsborough was an early settler of Westholme, near Rosedale. Moogul, a sacred mountain, became known as Colosseum. Gooroonung became known as Miriam Vale. John Little occupied Rosedale in March 1854. Mr Boyle Martin with his wife and eleven children became the first permanent settlers of Bororen at Woodside homestead on 23rd May 1890.

My thanks to the staff at the Miriam Vale Information centre for their help in researching this article. And my thanks especially to Arthur Jeffrey for his fine historical book on Miriam Vale, ISBN 0 646 269666, printed by R & J McTaggart & Co of Hervey Bay.