page_title: Boulia, Queensland
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Boulia, Queensland / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Post Office at Boulia, Queensland, ca. 1948.
context_page_description: Boulia is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Boulia, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Boulia had a population of 301 people.
  Boulia is the administrative centre of the Boulia Shire, population approximately 600, which covers an area of 61,176 square kilometres.
  The area is best known for sightings of the Min Min lights, mysterious shimmering lights that appear at night. The lights are said to be caused by atmospheric refraction that occurs when cold air is trapped below warmer air, a phenomenon known as Fata Morgana.
context_section_description: The town was named by surveyor Frederick Arthur Hartnell in 1882 and was derived from the name of the waterhole near the township called "bool-yo" in the Pitta Pitta language.
  The township was gazetted in 1879. Boulia Post Office opened on 1 July 1879.
  Boulia Provisional School opened on 7 October 1889. It became Boulia State School on 1 January 1909.
  At the 2011 census, Boulia had a population of 230, up from 205 in 2006.
caption: Boulia Post Office, circa 1948
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