Situated some 70 km southeast of Springsure in the Central Highlands of Queensland, Rolleston has a population of some 217 souls and is at the northern turn-off for Carnarvon National Park.
 | Rolleston - Aboriginal History |
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The traditional owners of the area surrounding Rolleston are the Karingal Aboriginal people who lived in the Arcadia Valley. A story from the dreaming of the Karingal mob tells of Lake Nuga Nuga, the home of Mundagarri, the Rainbow Serpents who live under the two dominating peaks of the northern shoreline of the Lake. The story tells that if the Rainbow Serpents are disturbed in their homes, they will leave and the lakes will dry up. The traditional owners were some of the fiercest freedom fighters of all Aboriginals and strongly opposed the European land grab and the atrocities being committed: In1861 a group of warriors killed nineteen people, north west of Springsure, in one of the largest recorded outcomes of freedom fighting in Australian history.
Ludwig Leichhardt first explored the area in 1844 and the township of Springsure became a town 1864 when surveyed by AC Gregory. Rolleston was originally named Brown Town when it was first surveyed but was later renamed Rolleston after one of the original settlers, in the area, Christopher Rolleston. The township of Rolleston was famous for the notorious Kenniff Brothers, the last of the legendary Queensland bushrangers.
Today Rolleston is part of the newly formed Central Highlands Regional Council, along with its sister towns: Springsure, named for its reliable water supply; Blackwater, the coal queen of Queensland, which services the area's six coalmines; Bluff, the major rail interchange in central Queensland; Dingo, the town famed for the World Dingo Trap Throwing Championship and for its Outback Picnic Races; Comet, the town named when Haley's Comet lighted up the skies in the late 1880's and Emerald, which suffered devastating fires in 1936, 1940, 1954, and 1968 and then became home to the Fairbairn Dam and Emerald Irrigation Scheme in 1972. The wider area has economic interests in beef, sheep, cereals, coal mining, natural gas and gem fossicking, with the richest sapphire fields in the world supplying the world market.
The spectacular Carnarvon Gorge and Carnarvon National Park are in the middle of the Great Dividing Range and close to Rolleston. Carnarvon National Park is famed for lush tropical ferns and palms with dramatic sandstone cliffs and gorges numerous Aboriginal rock paintings and carvings. The boundary rider's hut from 'Purbook' has been resited and restored at Beazley Park as a memorial to the area's pioneers.
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