History
Calliope’s History
Aboriginal people called the Gureng Gureng originally occupied Calliope’s area before the Europeans discovered and began to settle in the area.
In 1853, an area called Port Curtis got surveyed. Today the Port Curtis area is called Gold coast. Governor Charles Augustus Fitzroy was sailing the HMS Calliope on the Calliope River in 1854. He went on to name the river after the HMS Calliope vessel. The town was later named after the river.
Settlers began to move into the Calliope area around that time. In the early 1860s, gold was discovered in Calliope. The town was surveyed, and they found alluvial gold in the land. The discovery was made in 1862. The discovery of gold led to a boom in mining activities in the area. The population began to increase. By 1864, the population of the area was 800.
The area began to experience a lot of development. In 1864, the local Calliope post office got opened for business. In 1868, a private school got opened in Calliope town. By 1871, another survey of the town was carried out. A primary school opened by the State was established a year after in 1872. The State opened a local division with its offices in Gladstone in the year 1879.
However, by the mid-1970s, the gold was gone. People had mined most of the gold in the Calliope district. With no work left to do, the miners began to leave. By the year 1885, only twenty miners were left in the Calliope district. Local beef production continued in the area, and Calliope continued to serve as a centre for the industry.
The discovery of copper was made in Many Peaks in 1896. Many Peaks is merely 60 kilometres to the South of Calliope. Subsequently, in 1910, a railway was constructed through Calliope, leading to Many Peaks from Port Curtis. Another railway was built about fifty-eight years later, in 1968. It led through Calliope to Gladstone from Moura.
With these developments, the town began to pick up again as a great transportation link. By the early parts of the 1990s, the population of the town had increased to 1,000 people. As a result of cheap land availability and an increase in mining activities around the area that required passing through Calliope, there was a boom of land around 2007. By the year 2011, the population of the land had increased to over 4,000. By 2016, a census carried out revealed the population to be at 3 438.
In 2013, an attempt was made by the Queensland government to sell the land which had previously been earmarked for the establishment of a High School in Calliope. Today, Calliope attracts fossickers’ activities in their search for gold, chalcedony, and petrified wood.
All the major services are offered and available in Calliope. The services include childcare, primary school, shops, hotels, golf course, golf club, parkland, post office, council chambers, bowls, service stations, equestrian, and sporting grounds.