Kynuna
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.[1]
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.[2] 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.[3]
Kynuna Post Office opened on 1 May 1883 (a receiving office had been open from 1882) and closed in 1990.[4]
Today, the town has one pub, the Blue Heeler Hotel. The pub was built as the Kynuna Hotel in 1889.[2]
References
- 1 2 Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Kynuna (McKinlay Shire) (State Suburb)". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
- 1 2 "Kynuna History". McKinlay Shire Council. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
- ↑ "Kynuna". Queensland's Outback. Tourism Queensland. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
- ↑ Premier Postal History. "Post Office List". Premier Postal Auctions. Retrieved 10 May 2014.