page_title: Kingaroy
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Kingaroy / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Kingaroy, Queensland
context_page_description: Kingaroy is an agricultural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. It is approximately 210 kilometres or about 2½ hours drive north-west of the state capital Brisbane. The town is situated on the junction of the D'Aguilar and the Bunya Highways. As at June 2018, Kingaroy had a population of 10,398 with the 2016 census showing a median age of 37.
  It is known as the "Peanut Capital of Australia" because Australia's largest peanut processing plant is located in the town and peanut silos dominate the skyline. Kingaroy is also well known as the home town of former Premier of Queensland, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
context_section_description: Wakka Wakka (Waka Waka, Wocca Wocca, Wakawaka) is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in the Burnett River catchment. The Wakka Wakka language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the North and South Burnett Regional Council, particularly the towns of Cherbourg, Murgon, Kingaroy, Gayndah, Eidsvold and Mundubbera.
  Rural settlement of the area dates back to 1843 when one of the first selections was made at Burrandowan (west of Kingaroy) by squatter and explorer Henry Stuart Russell. Even through Russell was reputedly the first European to realise the potential of the South Burnett, it was Simon Scott of Taromeo (now Blackbutt) and the Haly brothers of Taabinga who brought the first flocks of sheep to the area in the late 1850s.
  In 1878 the district where Kingaroy now stands was settled by the Markwell brothers. When the first resumptions were made from the enormous Taabinga holding, the brothers selected two adjoining areas and in 1883 these leases were converted to freehold and became known as the 'Kingaroy Paddock'. The corner of this paddock was located on what is now known as Haly Street, named after the brothers who settled at Taabinga Station about 12 kilometres (7 mi) south-west of present-day Kingaroy.
  A small, prosperous village grew up around Taabinga in the 1890s but the arrival of the railway in 1904 led to a land explosion around Kingaroy and the development of Kingaroy as it now exists. Taabinga quickly declined into a ghost town by the end of World War I and today the original Taabinga Homestead and a few outbuildings are all that remain of it. The area opposite Kingaroy Airport is today known as "Taabinga Village" but is really only a suburb of Kingaroy.
  The first Kingaroy Post Office opened by 1902 (a receiving office had been open from 1895) and was renamed Taabinga Village in 1905, when Kingaroy Railway Station office opened. This was renamed Kingaroy in 1907. The Taabinga Village office closed in 1929.
  The foundation stone of the Kingaroy Soldiers' Memorial Rotunda was laid on 25 April 1922 (ANZAC Day) by the RSL president Sergeant Norman Booth. It was dedicated on 29 June 1932 by Mayor-General Sir Thomas William Glasgow.
  The Kingaroy Branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association was established 22 August 1922 with Florence Daphne Youngman of Taabinga Homestead as the first president. In 1926 her husband Arthur Youngman donated land at 122 Kingaroy Street and Charlie Gills built the first rooms. On 24 November 1956 a hall was built  at the rear of the rooms to allow for catering of weddings and functions.
  The Royal Australian Air Force had a significant operational and training presence in the region during the Second World War, the first squadrons deploying to the town's airport about mid-1942. At least eight squadrons were based at RAAF Kingaroy then (viz. Nos. 1, 4, 5, 6, 15, 75, 92 and 93 Squadrons), together with No. 3 Initial Training School. Aircraft operated there by the RAAF included Avro Ansons, CAC Wirraways, DAP Beauforts, DH Mosquitos, Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawks and Bristol Beaufighters. Kingaroy R.A.A.F. Post Office was open from 7 August 1942 until 28 February 1946.
  Kingaroy celebrated its Centenary in 2004.
  Kingaroy is also noted for being the first region in Australia to be placed on Level 7 Water Restrictions, which occurred on 1 October 2007.
  The Kingaroy Public Library opened in 1945 and had a major refurbishment in 2011.
  Kingaroy has experienced growth in population peaking in 2013 at 10,588 and then having decreased since at an annual average rate of -0.36% year-on-year for the five years to 2018.
caption: A wheat field in the Kingaroy region.
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