page_title: Broadmount, Queensland
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Broadmount, Queensland / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Broadmount Railway Station, circa 1910
context_page_description: Broadmount is an abandoned rural town in the Livingstone Shire, Queensland, Australia. It is within the locality of Thompson Point. From 1899 to 1929 it operated as a port serving Central Queensland.
context_section_description: The town was officially called Herbert until 1923. The name Herbert presumably derives from the parish name, which in turn was presumed to be named after Robert Herbert, the first Premier of Queensland. However, the local name of Broadmount was in use since the 1880s. The name Broadmount comes from the mountain Broadmount, which in turn was named by Matthew Flinders of HMS Investigator on 10 August 1802.
  On 30 January 1866 the Queensland Government offered 44 town lots of 2 roods (22,000 sq ft; 2,000 m²) each in the town of Herbert (as it was then called) at £8 per acre (2 roods being half an acre). All of the lots were sold. On 8 May 1868 a further 149 town lots were offered in Herbert ranging from 1 to 2.9 roods (11,000 to 32,000 sq ft; 1,000 to 2,900 m²) in area. However, none of these lots were sold. In 1874 it was noted that none of the land sold at Herbert had been developed due to its inaccessibility overland to Rockhampton.
  Meanwhile  Rockhampton (further upstream on the Fitzroy River) was an important port in Queensland with significant exports rising to approximately £1 million of exports each year by the 1880s and 1890s. However the Fitzroy River up to Rockhampton was not consistently deep enough with calls to the Queensland Government to dredge the river from at least 1862. As a consequence larger ships increasingly preferred to remain in Keppel Bay and use lighters to transfer their passengers and cargo up the Fitzroy River. In 1865 depth soundings at Broadmount established that there was 4 fathoms (24 ft; 7.3 m) of water even at low tide, sufficient for even the largest ships of that time. From 1872 there were calls for Herbert/Broadmount  to be established as a port connected to Rockhampton by either rail or road. In 1874 it was suggested that coastal vessels heading north to Cooktown were no longer interested to service Rockhampton and calls made for a wharf to be established at Broadmount. However, people with vested interests in the success of the town of Rockhampton were concerned that the establishment of a port at Broadmount would create a rival to Rockhampton and in 1877 there was a counter-proposal to establish port facilities at Central Island (probably the now unnamed island at 23.5101°S 150.6491°E) 12 miles (19 km) downstream of Rockhampton which could easily be linked by road or rail over flat land to Rockhampton. Others favoured deeping the river so that the port could remain in Rockhampton. The merits of the various port proposals and others include ports at Emu Park and a Port Alma scheme on the southern bank of the mouth of the river continued to be debated for some years without any decision being taken. In December 1893 a committee established by the Rockhampton Chamber of Commerce investigated the matter thoroughly and dismissed all but two proposals, Broadmount and Port Alma, ultimately favouring Port Alma. However, the construction of North Rockhampton to Emu Park railway line had considerably reduced the distance (and hence the coast) for a railway link to Broadmount compared to Port Alma and the construction of the meatworks at Lakes Creek had created another significant exporter on the northern side of the river.
  On 26 September 1895 the Queensland Government announced that it would build a railway line to Herbert/Broadmount. A Queensland Railways Department report released in October 1895 revealed their concerns about building a railway line to Port Alma over large areas of flood-prone land. Although the debate continued within the Queensland Parliament, work was already underway on the boring for the wharf at Broadmount by November 1895 and on the detailed survey of the railway route. In December 1895, the Minister for Railways announced that the cost of construction of the railway line and wharf was estimated at £5,000.  In January 1896 a provisional hotel licence was issued to Joseph Cunningham who was constructing a hotel on the corner of Wharf and Carl Streets in Broadmount.
  Contrary to the estimates, in July 1896, the Queensland Government awarded the tender for the construct
caption: Broadmount Railway Station, circa 1910
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