Pittsworth, Queensland

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The town of Pittsworth (27°43′S 151°38′E) is a rural Shire of 1,087 square kilometers located on the rich agricultural area of the Darling Downs in southern Queensland, Australia.

Located 169 km south-west of Brisbane via the Warrego Highway, 41 km south-west of Toowoomba and 518 m above sea-level, Pittsworth presents itself to the world as a town with lots of interesting buildings and places of historical importance.

Pittsworth is approximately 40 kilometres south west of the regional city of Toowoomba, is a service centre for the surrounding agricultural area. The population of the Pittsworth township is 2,500 whilst the three villages of Southbrook, Mount Tyson and Brookstead also within the Shire have a population of around 150 each.

The town was originally known as Beauaraba but the name was changed in 1915 in honour of a prominent local family who took up land at Goombungee in 1854.

Pittsworth grew up around a hotel which attracted itinerant rural workers and local landholders. The town's centenary was celebrated in 1976. The European settlement of the area was greatly aided by the arrival of the railway in 1887 and the transition from large to smaller holdings and from sheep to dairy farming. The Co-operative Dairy Company opened in 1896. By 1914 Pittsworth had a number of dairy factories which were producing about 80 per cent of all the cheese being manufactured on the Darling Downs. This cheese making reached some kind of dubious nadir in 1915 when the town made a single block of cheddar cheese weighing 1.5 tonnes. It was duly shipped off to the World Dairy Show in London.

Pittsworth Township is situated on the basalt upland section of the Shire which is undulating in nature and hosts most of the mixed farming and intensive animal industries of the Shire. The remaining part of the Shire is made up of alluvial flood plain, mostly leading directly to the North Branch of the Condamine River. This flood plain provides some of the best quality grains and cotton in Australia and utilises overland flood flows for irrigation purposes. Climate of the Pittsworth district is temperate with large variations between summer and winter due to it being some 150 kilometres inland and 520 metres above sea level. Average rainfall for Pittsworth is 695 mm per annum, with the higher falls occurring in the summer months.

Situated on the Darling Downs, Pittsworth owes its existence to that great explorer and botanist Allan Cunningham who in early June 1827 discovered and named the area around Warwick and to the north, the Darling Downs.

It was not until 1840 that the Leslie Brothers arrived on the Darling Downs with stock for pastoral settlement and on the second arrival camped on the banks of the Condamine River close to which is now Leslie Crossing in the Pittsworth Shire.

After a number of years of pastoral settlement, the Town of Pittsworth (originally named Beauaraba) was established and slowly grew to offer services for the surrounding agricultural industries.

Pittsworth today remains as a service centre to local agricultural enterprises and has a small manufacturing base. It boasts two primary schools and a state high school Pittsworth State High School.

[edit] Things to see in Pittsworth

An important attraction in the town is the Pittsworth & District Historical Society Folk Museum. This interesting and well-presented complex is on the outskirts of town and is signposted at the first street off the bypass.

Like many of the folk museums on the Darling Downs the Pittsworth Museum combines a fine collection of old buildings - schools, the former post office, an 1895 cottage - with some fascinating memorabilia. Items include a chantilly lace wrap which once belonged to Florence Nightingale, a love letter written by Governor Bligh's mother, an outdoor display of carts and farm equipment and memorabilia connected with Arthur Postle who, in 1906, was proclaimed 'the fastest man in the world' when he won the 220 yards World Championship Cup.

In the main street the ANZ Bank (1905) and adjacent buildings are of interest. One block away is the gracious St Stephens Catholic Church (1908).

The annual Pittsworth Sprints is two days of car sprints against the clock on a set course around the Pittsworth Industrial Estate. The event attracts racers from all around Australia.