Acland, Queensland
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Acland Queensland |
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Acland No. 2 Colliery, 2006
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 Acland
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| Coordinates | 27°18′13″S 151°41′27″E / 27.30361°S 151.69083°ECoordinates: 27°18′13″S 151°41′27″E / 27.30361°S 151.69083°E |
| Population | 208 (2011 census) |
| Established | 1912 |
| Postcode(s) | 4401 |
| Location | 160 km (99 mi) W of Brisbane |
| LGA(s) | Toowoomba Regional Council |
| State electorate(s) | Condamine |
| Federal Division(s) | Groom |
Acland is a small town north of Oakey, on the Darling Downs, 160 kilometres (100 mi) west of Queensland's state capital, Brisbane. It is within the local government area of Toowoomba Region. At the 2011 census, Acland had a population of 208.
Originally built to support what would become Queensland's oldest continuously worked coal mine, the town had a population of between 200 and 400 prior to the mine being shut down in 1984. In 2008 almost all properties comprising the town were purchased by the new mine operators with the intention that they be demolished as the open cut mine expands into the town site. By 2009 there was only one remaining resident, Glenn Beutel, who had refused the company's offer to purchase his property.
The town is Acland is believed to be named by then Commission of Railways, Charles Barnard Evans, whose mother's maiden was Acland.
Acland town developed following the mining of coal in the area by the Acland Coal Company. The town had a police officer by 1913, at which time there was also a primary school nearby, known as Lagoon Creek. Acland Railway Station Post Office opened on 1 May 1913. It was replaced by Acland Post Office in 1969, which closed October 1998.
The Acland number two colliery opened in 1929, and in the 1940s and 1950s it employed 52 people. In 1952, several buildings in the town were damaged by a tornado; radio broadcaster Alan Jones described it as "Australia's only inland tornado" and that it "flattened" the town, with sufficient strength to lift a farm water tank off its stand.
By 1971, with demand for coal for transport in decline, Acland was home to the only remaining coalmine on the Darling Downs. The mine was Queensland's "oldest and smallest continuously worked coal mine" at the time of its closure in 1984. The old colliery is state heritage-listed, being "the most intact mine site of its age and type in Queensland". From the mine's closure in 1984, to the sale of the site to the Shire of Rosalie in 2000, the workings were operated as a mining museum by Kath and John Greenhalgh, the owners of the farm on which the mine was located. In September 2006 Kath & John Greenhalgh sold the land to New Acland Pastoral Company.
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