Burketown, Queensland

Burketown Queensland
Burketown pub (since destroyed)
Burketown
Coordinates	17°44′25″S 139°32′50″E / 17.74028°S 139.54722°E / -17.74028; 139.54722Coordinates: 17°44′25″S 139°32′50″E / 17.74028°S 139.54722°E / -17.74028; 139.54722
Population	201 (2011 census)
Established	1865
Postcode(s)	4830
Elevation	6 m (20 ft)
Location	2,115 km (1,314 mi) NW of Brisbane 898 km (558 mi) W of Cairns 492 km (306 mi) E of Borroloola (NT) 425 km (264 mi) N of Mount Isa 227 km (141 mi) W of Normanton
LGA(s)	Shire of Burke
State electorate(s)	Mount Isa
Federal Division(s)	Kennedy
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall 32.2 °C 90 °F 20.0 °C 68 °F 788.0 mm 31 in
Localities around Burketown: Nicholson Gulf of Carpentaria Gulf of Carpentaria Nicholson Burketown Carpentaria Gregory Gregory Carpentaria

Burketown is an isolated town and locality in the far north-western Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. It is located 898km west of Cairns on the Albert River and Savannah Way in the area known as the Gulf Savannah. The town is the administrative centre of the vast Burke Shire Council. In the 2011 census, Burketown had a population of 201 people.

Burketown is located 2,115 kilometres (1,314 mi) to the north west of the state capital, Brisbane, with the nearest larger town being Normanton, 227 kilometres (141 mi) to the east, and the nearest city being Mount Isa, 425 kilometres (264 mi) to the south. The town is roughly 30 kilometres (19 mi) inland from the Gulf of Carpentaria.

On 2 August 1841, Captain J. Lort Stokes discovered the mouth of a river he named the "Albert" after Prince Albert, the Queens consort. Stokes' party ascended the river for a distance of 50 river miles in a long boat in a search for fresh water. Having followed a bumper wet season Stokes was greeted by endless grassy plains, which he named "The Plains of Promise" after a day of exploration. The area was originally named for the 'Plains of Promise' or 'Province of Albert' after Prince Albert, the Queen's Consort in 1841.

Burketown was named in honour of explorer Robert O'Hara Burke, who died shortly after making the first recorded successful south-north crossing of the continent in 1860-1. The first European settlers arrived in the local region not long after Burke and partner William John Wills' expedition. By the mid-1860s, several cattle stations - including Gregory Downs, Floraville, and Donors Hill - had been founded inland from the present site of Burketown. Burketown was formally established in 1865 by Robert Towns, chiefly to serve as a port and supply centre for his extensive properties in the Gulf country. Towns chartered a small vessel the Jacmel Packet and on 12 June 1865 it arrived off the mouth of the Albert River. The goods were eventually landed on the present site of Burketown. Towns, a prominent Sydney pastoralist and financier, also established Townsville in the same year.