Cactoblastis Memorial Hall
| Cactoblastis Memorial Hall | |
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Cactoblastis Memorial Hall, 2006
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| Location | Warrego Highway, Boonarga, Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 26°47′43″S 150°42′55″E / 26.7953°S 150.7154°ECoordinates: 26°47′43″S 150°42′55″E / 26.7953°S 150.7154°E |
| Design period | 1919 – 1930s (interwar period) |
| Built | 1936 |
| Official name: Cactoblastis Memorial Hall | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 21 September 1993 |
| Reference no. | 601273 |
| Significant period | 1936, 1963 (historical, fabric) 1936– (social) |
| Significant components | memorial – hall |
| Builders | Jack Schloss |
 Location of Cactoblastis Memorial Hall in Queensland
Location of Cactoblastis Memorial Hall in Queensland
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Cactoblastis Memorial Hall is a heritage-listed memorial at Warrego Highway, Boonarga, Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1936 by Jack Schloss. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 September 1993.
This timber hall was completed in 1936 at Boonarga, a small settlement approximately 12 kilometres southeast of Chinchilla. The hall was erected as a monument to the cactoblastis moth which overcame prickly pear in Queensland and New South Wales during the late 1920s and early 1930s.
The appearance of prickly pear in Queensland has been attributed to a small number of prickly pear plants brought to Queensland c. 1843 as garden plants. By 1862 prickly pear was growing in the Chinchilla district and spread rapidly in areas where land holdings were extensive and population relatively low.
Prickly pear was declared a noxious weed in Queensland in 1893. By 1900 approximately 10,000,000 acres were affected by prickly pear; an area which had extended to an estimated 58,000,000 acres by 1920. About half of this area was so densely covered by prickly pear that the land was useless for production. The costs of mechanical and chemical methods of eradication exceeded the value of the land and therefore did not prove economically viable for controlling the spread of prickly pear.
In 1912 the Queensland government established an experimental station in the heart of prickly pear country at Dulacca under the direction of a full-time scientist. The biologist chosen to establish and run this experimental station was Dr. Jean White-Haney. These investigations were regarded as "a great experiment in scientific research"; an experiment which was considered almost unique at this time. The progress of these investigations was followed by the international scientific community.
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