Collinsville - Culture and History

The first European in the area was Ludwig Leichhardt who reached the Suttor and Burdekin Rivers (well to the west of the present townsite) in April 1845. Leichhardt was followed by a number of explorers of whom the most important was George Elphinstone Dalrymple, who explored the area in 1859-1860. His forays happened to coincide with the establishment of the separate colony of Queensland (December 1859) which led to the official opening up of the district in early 1861. Between 1861 and1863 the entire area was taken up by pastoralists.

The European settlement of the area led to the discovery of significant deposits of gold, silver, lead, bismuth, gemstones and, in 1866, coal. The discovery of the latter generated interest but it wasn't until 1912 that any serious attempt to mine coal was undertaken. In 1917 construction of a railway from the coast to the coalfields started and by 1919 coal was being extracted from an area which, at the time, was known as 'Moongunya' - thought to be the local Aboriginal word for coal.

By 1921 a town was starting to develop around the coalmine. The area was renamed Collinsville after the local MLA Charles Collins who represented the Bowen electorate from 1915-1936. The railway finally reached the town in 1922. At this time over 200 men were employed in the local coalmines and the town's population had reached nearly 700.

Being a mining town Collinsville inevitably had strong and powerful trade unions. In 1960 the Queensland government closed down the State-run mine in the area, claiming that it had experienced 'a long period of friction with militant trade unions'. The mine was subsequently sold to private enterprise who managed to win a large contract with Japan, thus keeping the town economically viable.

Today the area around Collinsville (including Scottville and Newlands) produces over one million tonnes of coal per annum which is shipped to the new deepwater coal-loading facilities at Abbot Point near Bowen. The railway was modernised in 1985.