station

Jimbour is one of the oldest stations on the Darling Downs and the heritage-listed Jimbour Homestead is perhaps the grandest country home ever constructed in Queensland. The name Jimbour, originally spelled Gimba or Jimba is from an unidentified aboriginal language apparently referring to good grass or sheep. Thomas Bell came to Queensland from Northern Ireland in charge of convicts in around 1829 bringing his family. Thomas initially left the management of Jimbour to Henry Dennis but when Dennis was drowned in a shipwreck in 1847, he took up the management himself. The Bell family ran the property until 1892 and were responsible for the construction of the homestead and other important buildings on the property. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/jimbour-station-history-pictures#...

A Brief History of Widgee For thousands of years, the Widgee area was home to the Kabi Kabi aboriginals of the Wide Bay region, with one tribal group, the Kaiabara, particularly associated with Widgee. Unfortunately, the advent of European settlement resulted in much friction between the local aborigines and the settlers early on, finally resulting in the local tribes being driven from the area. Their former presence is marked today by a number of bora rings and by many of the local place names. The first European settlers arrived in Widgee in the late 1840s following William Tooth and Company's successful tender for two runs in the area. Tooth and Company's Widgee Station was renowned in its early days for the quality and quantity of beasts fattened in the area, and for the exploits of the local horsemen. The tradition of horsemanship lives on today in the annual Bushman's Carnival held each May. Source: www.widgee.info/widgee_history.htm

The date is closer to June/July 1930. The electrical switchgear "Switch Room" is near completion. Construction started around September 1929. It was commissioned on 6th December 1930 with one unit. This was the first power station in Australia to use a pulverised coal fuel system and it is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.

Mount Isa Mine Power Station (1931) From mid-1927 the technical management of Mount Isa Mine was in the hands of the Urquhart group (formerly known as the Russo-Asiatic Consolidated). With their increased capital they set about developing the "most modern mine of the age." The initial powerhouse of Corbould's company was replaced by the steel-framed power station consisting of a coal-fired boiler house and a generator house, designed by JM Callow in 1928 and located at the base of the Mount Isa Mine ridge overlooking the new tent settlement on the bank of the West Leichhardt River. The power station was operational by 1931 and a photograph of it appeared in the Queensland Government Mining Journal on 15 July 1931, which described the Ministerial opening of the new mining plant. It was described as having "twin chimneys rising like black cigars above a roof of dazzling iron".[1] The powerhouse supplied electricity to the town and its houses as well as to the mine until the opening of the Mica Creek power station. In 1951 the powerhouse was extended to supply the new copper smelter. When the Mica Creek power station came into operation supplying electricity, the mine's power station was adapted to supply compressed air for the entire mine operation. It continues to fulfill this function. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Isa_Mine_Early_Infrastructure