Moura - Culture and History

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Moura was laid out in 1936 on a typical grid pattern. At the time it was literally a farming service centre imposed on to the existing Moura station.

The nature of the town changed dramatically with the development of the Kianga - Moura coalfield in the early 1960s. Moura became the camp for the miners although, even today, there is a temporary campsite near one of the mines on the road between Moura and Banana.

In 1967 the open-cut coal operation was using the largest operating dragline in the world - a huge piece of equipment capable of moving 200 tonnes of coal at a time. By 1968 the coalfields were the largest in Queensland and coal was being railed out to Gladstone on the coast.

Although Moura gives the appearance of a typical Central West rural settlement it is easy to find evidence of its involvement with coal. The playground which lies on the northern outskirts of the town features a giant cog and a huge shovel (which would be twice the size of the average child) as part of its play equipment.

At the southern end of the town is a brass statue of a miner commemorating the Moura Underground No 4 Disaster in which 12 miners lost their lives on 16 July 1986. The youngest of the miners was only 18 years old. It is appropriately located outside the Ambulance Station.

This was the second major mining accident to hit the area. On 20 September 1975 13 miners were killed in an explosion in a mineshaft near the town. Unbelievably, this tragically accident-prone town endured a third disaster on 7th August 1994 when 11 miners were killed in an explosion at the main BHP mine.