page_title: Beaudesert, Queensland
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Beaudesert, Queensland / History
caption_attribution_description: English: St Thomas' Anglican Church, Beaudesert, 2020
context_page_description: Beaudesert is a rural town and locality in the Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Beaudesert had a population of 6,395 people.
context_section_description: Yugembah (also known as Yugumbir, Jugambel, Jugambeir, Jugumbir, Jukam, Jukamba) is one of the Australian Aboriginal languages in areas that include the Beaudesert, Gold Coast, Logan, Scenic Rim, Albert River, Beenleigh, Coolangatta, Coomera, Logan River, Pimpama, Tamborine and Tweed River Valley, within the local government boundaries of the City of Gold Coast, City of Logan, Scenic Rim Regional Council and the Tweed River Valley.
  Mununjali (also known as Mananjahli, Manaldjahli and Manandjali) is a dialect of the Yugambeh language. The Mununjali language area includes landscape within the local government boundaries of the Scenic Rim and Beaudesert Shire Councils.
  The town is possibly named after Beau Desert Park, the property of Charles Henry Alexander Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey in Staffordshire, England. Yet it is certain that Queensland's Beaudesert was named in about 1841 or 1842 by 'Ned Hawkins', or Edward Brace Hawkins (1821–1849), who was claiming the area as a sheep station on behalf of his employer William Henry Suttor senior (1805–1877) at Bathurst. It is not known why Hawkins picked the name Beaudesert. He was himself born in Newark-Upon-Trent in Nottinghamshire, the son of Thomas Fitzherbert Hawkins and wife Elizabeth of Bathurst fame, and it does not seem that he or his family had any personal connections to Beaudesert in England. Ned Hawkins moved on, not long after taking up Beaudesert station, to take up Boonara Station in the South Burnett.
  In 1842 Nindooinbah pastoral run was established. In 1850 the Nindooinbah Homestead was built.
  The town was settled in 1847, on Yugambeh lands, and has grown to a small, bustling centre.
  The town was originally set out in a grid pattern; however, several of the streets followed cart tracks. The area was originally settled for growing cotton and sheep. However, the area is also notoriously short of water and the cotton was not a successful crop. Hoop pine was very successfully collected from the area. In 1863 the cotton workers were indentured labourers from the South Sea Islands, the first such use in Queensland. In the 1880s, the Cobb & Co stagecoaches ran between Beaudesert and Jimboomba.
  Upper Beaudesert Provisional School opened circa 1882 and closed circa 1885.
  Beaudesert Provisional School opened on 26 March 1882 but closed on 9 September 1886. On 13 September 1887 it reopened as  Beaudesert State School.
  On 15 August 1885 at Stretton's Hotel at Beaudesert, auctioner C.J. Warner offered 125 town lots in the Beaudesert Township Extension estate. The lots were mostly 2 roods (0.50 acres; 2,000 m²) and were on Brisbane Street, Tubber Street, Gordon Street, Birman Street, James Street, Edward Street and Alice Street. The advertising noted that the Queensland Government had voted the funds to extend the railway line from Logan Village to Beaudesert.
  The Beaudesert railway line from Bethania to Beaudesert opened on 16 May 1888. Beaudesert railway station (27.9853°S 152.9950°E) served the town. Use of the passenger services declined with the increasing ownership of cars following World War II, leading to the termination of the passenger services in 1961. However the Beaudesert abattoir and the dairy farmers continued to use the freight services on the line until freight services terminated on 20 May 1996.
  Timber, cattle and dairying were the main industries in the area.
  On 3 February 1889 Roman Catholic Archbishop Robert Dunne blessed the foundation stone for the first Catholic church in Beaudesert. The event raised £74 with a further £7 pledged. As 2 February was the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it was decided to call the church Our Lady of the Purification, but it was commonly known as St Mary's. Dunne returned on 2 June 1889 to open the new church. Internally the church was 50 by 28 feet (15.2 m × 8.5 m) with 14-foot (4.3 m) ceilings. It was built by James Madden of Ipswich, who design the church for free. It was fitted with an altar, altar rails and 20 pews. On Sunday 15 September 1907 the second St Mary's was opened, with the origin
caption: St Thomas' Anglican Church, with the former church (now hall) to the right and rear, 2020
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