The area was first settled in the 1840s but it only came to prominence in December 1961 when it became Australia's first commercial oil field. In reality it is only a small oil field accounting for less than one per cent of Australia's oil and gas reserves but the excitement which was associated with its success led to the establishment, in 1969, of a pipeline which joined the fields to refineries in Brisbane. The area around Moonie is known as the Surat-Bowen Basin.
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