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This iconic outback town played an important part in the history of the Quilpie Shire, as it was once the central business center. The town is named after Ada Constance Stevens (wife of Ernest James Stevens). The Stevens family had the Tintinchilla (later Milo) pastoral run in the area. There is a story that the origin of the name is that Ada lost her hat veil (Ada-veil) when the Milo road crosses Blackwater Creek. Town and suburban lots in the town of Adavale were sold on 9 February 1881 at Charleville The town was a thriving center but, in 1917, the Western railway line did not come to the town as expected but passed further to the south where the new town of Quilpie was created along the railway line, and soon became the major town in the region while Adavale diminished. In 1930, it was decided that the seat of local government should move from Adavale to Quilpie and the Shire of Adavale was renamed the Shire of Quilpie. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adavale

This cyclone was widely regarded as the worst to hit a populated area of Qld. The towns of Babinda, Innisfail, Cairns, Ingham & Cardwell were destroyed. The cyclone swept inland over the Bellenden-Ker Range & the Atherton Tableland. Contemporary reports list 37 dead at Innisfail, and 40-60 aborigines killed nearby. Innisfail (population 3,500) had only 12 houses left intact. At Bingil Bay a surge wave took the creek from the bridge 400 m upstream, and at the Bingil Bay Mission Beach area all structures were destroyed and debris reached a height of 7metres in the trees. It was reported that the cyclone continued for 4 days. Source: www.babindainfocentre.com.au/more-info/cyclones/1918-cycl...

In the early hours of Monday morning on January 21, 1918, a category 4 cyclone launched into Mackay carrying violent winds and a 3.6 meter storm surge. There were reports of 2 to 3-metre waves breaking in the main street of the town. Damage was widespread. Of the 1400 houses in Mackay at the time, 1300 were destroyed or significantly damaged. Thirty people lost their lives as a result of the cyclone, most of them in Mackay township. The massive cyclone that all but destroyed Innisfail a couple of months later is considered the worst cyclone ever to hit a populated area in Queensland. The category 5 storm crossed the coast on Sunday evening the 10th of March. Such was the devastation, that only 12 buildings are reported to have remained standing after the cyclone. In the nearby settlements of Mission Beach and Bingil Bay, every single structure was destroyed and massive storm surges and tidal waves were reported. The town of Babinda was also almost completely destroyed. At least 100 people were killed as a result of the cyclone, many of them Aboriginal residents at the Hull River Mission. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/deadly-cyclone-season-1918

Gowrie Shire Gowrie Shire (1879-1913) was immediately north-west of Toowoomba. It was named after the Gowrie pastoral station (1847). The name is thought to have derived from an Aboriginal expression referring to Gowrie Creek or indicating freshwater mussels. The creek's headwaters are in Toowoomba's northern suburbs and it flows westwards through Gowrie Junction to the Oakey Creek. When the Gowrie local government division was formed in 1879 it had an area of 67 sq miles. The 1881 census recorded 2038 residents. Although reduced to 24 sq miles in 1887, the division's population surpassed its original figure by 1901 as Toowoomba expanded beyond its borough-size 6 sq miles. The Gowrie Council's offices were in Toowoomba. Gowrie Junction was in the division's rural part, and was the intersection of the Western and Wallangarra railway lines until 1915 when the more direct Drayton deviation line was opened. In 1913 Gowrie Shire (it had been a shire since 1902) was abolished. Its rural part was added to Jondaryan Shire and the urban part placed in the newly created Town of Newtown (1913-17). Newtown is now an older suburb of Toowoomba. Source: queenslandplaces.com.au/gowrie-shire