Hungerford, Queensland

Hungerford
A truck passes the passage of the Rabbit-Proof Fence (1935)
State :  Australia State : Queensland Founded : 1878
Coordinates : 29 ° 0 ′  S , 144 ° 24 ′  E Coordinates: 29 ° 0 ′  S , 144 ° 24 ′  E Area : 6,145.7  km²
Residents : 23 (2016) Population density : 0.004 inhabitants per km²
Time zone : AWST (UTC + 8) Postal code : 4493 LGA : Bulloo Shire , Paroo Shire
Hungerford

Hungerford is an outback settlement in southwest Queensland , Australia , 214 kilometers from Bourke and 202 kilometers from Cunnamulla . In the early years of the settlement, the site was believed to be in New South Wales and after accurate measurement it was found to be in Queensland.

The small town is located north of the New South Wales border on the Rabbit-Proof Fence and can only be reached on dirt roads from Bourke or Thargomindah . In 2016, 23 people were counted in the village and its surroundings. Hungerford is surrounded by Currawinya National Park.

The place was named after the Irish dairy farmer Thomas Hungerford, who camped there, and it was a customs post on a cattle driver route between two Australian states along the Paroo River . The first hotel was opened in 1874 and the settlement was named a town the following year.

In the years 1892/1893 Henry Lawson visited the city and wrote about it:

The town is right on the Queensland border, and an inter-provincial Rabbit-Proof Fence - with rabbits on both sides of it - runs across the main street. [...]
Hungerford consists of two houses and a humpy in New South Wales, and five houses in Queensland. Characteristically enough, both the pubs are in Queensland. We got a glass of sour yeast at one and paid six pence for it - we had asked for English ale.

The Royal Mail Hotel was built in 1873 and the transport company Cobb & Co served the place from 1873 to 1904.

Today there is the Royal Mail Hotel and a campsite there.

Web links

• pbase.com : Pictures from Hungerford

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Australian Bureau of Statistics : Hungerford (Qld) ( English ) In: 2016 Census QuickStats . June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Environmental Protection Agency (Queensland) : Heritage Trails of the Queensland Outback . State of Queensland, 2002, ISBN 0-7345-1040-3 , p. 114.
3. ↑ ^{a b} queenslandholidays.com.au : Hungerford , in English, accessed February 18, 2012
4. ↑ Peter Pierce (Ed.): The Oxford Literary Guide to Australia . Oxford University Press, Melbourne 1987, page 47.