page_title: Cloncurry, Queensland
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cloncurry, Queensland / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Front page of the Cloncurry Advocate Saturday January 17, 1931
context_page_description: Cloncurry is a town and locality in the Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the shire. At the 2016 census, Cloncurry recorded a population of 2,719 people.
  Cloncurry is known as the Friendly Heart of the Great North West and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2017.
  Cloncurry was recognised for its liveability, winning the Queensland's Friendliest Town award twice by environmental movement Keep Queensland Beautiful, first in 2013 and again in 2018.
context_section_description: Kalkatunga (also known as Kalkadoon, Kalkadunga, Kalkatungu) is an Australian Aboriginal language. The Kalkatunga language region is North-West Queensland including the local government areas of the City of Mount Isa.
  The first Europeans to traverse these tribal lands of peoples such as the Maithakari and the Wanamara, were Burke and Wills on their epic, and ultimately fatal, transcontinental expedition. The Cloncurry River was named by Burke after Lady Elizabeth Cloncurry, his cousin, with the town eventually taking its name from the river.
  Ernest Henry discovered copper in the area in 1867,  and the town sprang up to service the Great Australia Mine to the south. Roger Sheaffe established the first pastoral run in the Cloncurry district - "Fort Constantine".  Gold was discovered at Top Camp.  The town was surveyed in 1876. Cloncurry was proclaimed a town in 1884.
  The Cloncurry Advocate was a newspaper published in Cloncurry between 1889 and 1953.
  Queensland's Northern Line railway reached Cloncurry in December 1907 and was officially opened the next year.
  St Joseph's School opened on 29 October 1909.
  In 1914 a fire broke out in the town resulting in the destruction of the Post Office, the hotel, eleven shops, two store-rooms and a cottage. The telegraph office was saved by employees who kept the office damp and protected with wet blankets. One man died in the blaze which cost an estimated £15,000.
  The discovery of uranium at Mary Kathleen brought wealth to the community in the 1950s. Until the development of Mount Isa in the 1960s, Cloncurry was the administrative centre of the region.
  The first-ever flight of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia took place from Cloncurry on 15 May 1928, using a de Havilland DH.50 aircraft hired from the then small airline, Qantas. A Royal Flying Doctor Service museum is situated in the town.
  The population in Cloncurry decreased from 3,898 in 1996 to 2,900 in 2002. It declined further to 2,719 by 2016.
  The Cloncurry Bob McDonald Library opened in 2012.
caption: Front page of the Cloncurry Advocate Saturday 17 January 1931
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