| Kilcoy Queensland |
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Main Street, Kilcoy |
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Kilcoy
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| Population: | 1,500[1] |
| Postcode: | 4515 |
| Location: |
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| LGA: | Somerset Region |
| State District: | Nanango |
| Federal Division: | Fisher |
Kilcoy is a small farming town and part of the Somerset Region Local Government Area in South East Queensland, Australia. The township lies on the D'Aguilar Highway, 94 km north west of the state capital, Brisbane, and just to the north of Lake Somerset. The topography directly north of the town is dominated by the mountains of the Conondale Range and covered by forests, some of which are protected in state forests and the Conondale National Park.
Kilcoy Shire covers an area of over 1442 square kilometres. Most residents of Kilcoy are employed servicing the surrounding pastoral area. At the 2006 census, Kilcoy had a population of 1,500.[1]
Kilcoy was joined by a railway to Woodford and on to the main line at Caboolture from 1913 until 1964.[2]
A sandmining operation has been proposed for the town in 2011.[3]
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Scottish migrants opened up the area in the early 1840s and cleared land to run beef and dairy cattle. The first settler was Sir Evan Mackenzie, who named his landholding 'Kilcoy' after his family estate in Scotland. Timber felling and milling was also important in the early development of Kilcoy, which was founded in the 1890s.
The town itself was originally named 'Hopetown' or 'Hopetoun' but renamed 'Kilcoy' after mail for the town continuously became misplaced.
In 1842 on the outskirts of Kilcoy Station owned by MacKenzie, 30–60 Native Aborigines of the Gubbi Gubbi tribe (also known as Kabi Kabi) died from eating flour laced with strychnine or arsenic.[4] The Mackenzies were admonished for this mass killing by attorney-General John Hubert Plunkett (1802–1869), who threatened prosecution if an official complaint was lodged. Up until the early 1990s Evan Mackenzie, the station owner, was a prime suspect but recent research suggests that he himself was probably not responsible for the massacre, since he was in Sydney at the time. Though MacKenzie's involvement was never verified, this incident was mentioned in a select committee in 1861 and repeated by W. Coote in 1867. The English overseer disappeared upon Mackenzie returning. Mackenzie organised the conspiracy of silence to protect the Englishman. This is one of many massacres that were perpetrated by the white settlers of the area.
Kilcoy claims to be the home of the mythical Yowie, Australia's equivalent of Bigfoot or the Yeti, which is said to live in the hills around Kilcoy. There is a large wooden statue of the creature in town.
The book "Moreton Bay Scots 1841–59" by John MacKenzie-Smith, published by Church Activists Press in Virginia, Queensland, Australia in 2000 provides some more detail around the founding of Kilcoy and the people involved.
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