page_title: Cambooya, Queensland
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cambooya, Queensland / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Harrow homestead outside Toowoomba, Darling Downs, Queensland.
context_page_description: Cambooya is a town and locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. At the 2016 Australian census the town recorded a population of 1,584.
context_section_description: European settlement of the area dates from 1840, when Arthur Hodgson chose 65,000 acres (26,305 ha) of prime land, which he named Eton Vale. In 1843 the New South Wales Commissioner of Crown Lands, Christopher Rolleston, carried out a survey and reserved a site on Eton Vale for a township. He named it Cambooya, a rendering of the Aboriginal word 'yambuya', thought to refer to tubers growing in a water hole. Cambooya was, in its early years, the railway, postal, and general centre of two properties named after two public schools of England, Eton and Harrow. Hodgson had attended Eton, and Ramsay had attended Harrow.  Hodgson resisted the formation of a township, and no development occurred until 1868, when a railway station was built at Cambooya as the railway line was extended from Toowoomba to Warwick.
  Cambooya Post Office opened on 12 March 1869. It was co-located with the railway station.
  In 1877, 6,500 acres (2,600 ha) of land was resumed from the Eton Vale pastoral run to establish smaller farms. The land was offered for selection on 17 April 1877.
  The post office, railway station building and goods shed were destroyed in a fire in the early hours of the morning on 7 July 1908. A new post office was built in 1909 at an estimated cost of £1050. The current post office is located at 53 Eton Street, Cambooya.
  The first public school in Cambooya opened in 1882, with 12 students from four local families. Due to growing attendance and an increased population caused by the railway, the school was moved and a building was erected in 1899 at the current school site; this building became a school residence in 1910 when a new state school was built. The nearby Nunkulla School was closed on 6 December 1959 and the building was transported to Cambooya to become an additional classroom. It was officially opened in December 1960. A new building was constructed in 1985 and officially opened on 3 August 1985 by Tony Elliott, Member for Cunningham. In 1985 the school was officially given six allotments of land, now called Johnson Oval. This oval is used today for cricket, soccer, and athletics. By 1990 there were 104 students and 25 pre-school students enrolled, plus a teaching staff of six teachers and three teacher-aides. Early in 2005 there was an officially opened covered area. Stuart Copeland, Member of Parliament (MP) congratulated the school community for constructing a useful covered area for eating lunches and undercover activities. The school celebrated its centenary in 1982 and 125 years of education at Cambooya State School in 2007.
  Eton Vale school was originally a private school on Eton Vale Station, three and a half miles from the Cambooya railway station. Most children who attended the school in 1890 were girls and infants, as they could not travel to Cambooya School with any regularity and the black soil was impassable in wet weather. Eton Vale became a half-time school with Preston in 1925; Preston School closed shortly after and Eton Vale school closed in 1929.
  In February 1923 a branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association was formed in Cambooya. More than 50 women attended the meeting. Ruth Fairfax (Queensland president and founder) referred to the "good work than the association could accomplish among country women, emphasis being laid "on what could be done in Cambooya and district. The newly formed branch agreed to devote its energies to assisting the Bush Nursing Association. Ruth Fairfax was elected president, and Miss Middleton secretary and treasurer." There is no longer a branch in Cambooya, although there are a number of branches in the surrounding area, including Toowoomba and Middle Ridge.
  The Cambooya Catholic Church was officially opened on 9 November. 1914 by Archbishop James Duhig, before a crowd of about 600. At the centenary celebrations in 2014, descendants of the men who helped build the church were among the crowd for the celebration.
  In April 1914, the Anglican Church at Cambooya was destroyed by cyclonic winds.  As reported in the Darling Downs Gazette, "the church was built by the re
caption: Harrow homestead
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