Brigalow, Queensland
Brigalow is a rural town and locality in the Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. In the the locality of Brigalow had a population of 170 people. Geography. Brigalow is on the Darling Downs. The town is in the north of the locality. The Warrego Highway enters the locality from the east (Warra), then proceeds north-west passing through the town, and then exits to the north-west (Boonarga). The Western railway line runs immediately north and parallel to the highway with two railway stations within the locality: Apart from the power station and mines in the south-west  of the locality, the predominant surface land use is a mixture of crop growing in the north of the locality and grazing on native vegetation in the south of the locality. History. Brigalow Post Office opened by November 1912 (a receiving office, originally named "Mulga", had been open from 1895) and closed around 1993. Brigalow Provisional School opened on 24 February 1908. In 1910 it became Brigalow State School. The first wedding in the Brigalow Methodist Church was celebrated on 28 February 1923. Blackwood Provisional School opened on 19 July 1915 and closed on 27 October 1932. On 12 November  1932 the school reopened and renamed Belah State School. It closed in 1962. It was located near Brigalow railway siding. Noola State School opened on 5 April 1923. Circa 1957 it renamed Noola Plains State School. It closed circa 1961. Its location was "via Brigalow". The Kogan Creek Power Station opened in 2006. At the , Brigalow and the surrounding area had a population of 457. In the the locality of Brigalow had a population of 170 people. Economy. The Kogan Creek Power Station is a coal-fired power station in the south-west of the locality (). At 750 MW, it  is the largest single unit in Australia. Construction by a consortium led by Siemens commenced in 2004 and was completed in 2007. It was opened by the Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Minister for Mines and Energy Geoff Wilson on 27 November 2007. The Kogan Creek coal mine is located to the south-east of the power station. It is an open-cut mine which supplies the power station with approximately 2.5Mt of coal each year. From the town to the south of locality is within petroleum leases held by Arrow CSG (Australia) and Australian CBM to extract coal seam  gas. The extraction of coal seam gas within farming districts is controversial in Australia due to concerns that groundwater under prime grazing and cropping land could be contaminated. In April 2018 one operator in Hopeland (to the immediate west of Brigalow), Linc Energy, was fined $4.5 million in May 2019 for causing environmental harm through its underground coal gasification plant. In the agricultural economy, there are a number of homesteads in the locality, including: Education. Brigalow State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at Warrego Highway (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of  52 students with 5 teachers (4 full-time equivalent) and 7 non-teaching staff (3 full-time equivalent). There is no secondary school in Brigalow. The nearest government secondary schools are Chinchilla State High School (to Year 12) in Chinchilla to the north-west and Jandowae State School (to Year 10) in Jandowae to the north-east. Amenities. Brigalow Public Hall is at 47-49 Warrego Highway (). Brigalow had three churches but all have now closed. The Brigalow Uniting Church (the last to close) was at 68 Mulga Street () and is now privately owned.