Boulia

Boulia is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Boulia, Queensland, Australia.

Boulia is an outback town and locality in the Shire of Boulia, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Boulia had a population of 301 people.Boulia is the administrative centre of the Boulia Shire, population approximately 600, which covers an area of 61,176 square kilometres (23,620 sq mi).

The area is best known for sightings of the Min Min lights, mysterious shimmering lights that appear at night. The lights are said to be caused by atmospheric refraction that occurs when cold air is trapped below warmer air, a phenomenon known as Fata Morgana.

The town was named by surveyor Frederick Arthur Hartnell in 1882 and was derived from the name of the waterhole near the township called "bool-yo" in the Pitta Pitta language.The township was gazetted in 1879. Boulia Post Office opened on 1 July 1879.Boulia Provisional School opened on 7 October 1889. It became Boulia State School on 1 January 1909.The Good Shepherd Catholic Church was built in 1955.At the 2011 census, Boulia had a population of 230, up from 205 in 2006.In 2019 the Boulia Outback Chapel was established in the former Anglican church building. It is part of the Baptist Church.

The climate is very hot and dry, with on average over 200 afternoons per year over 30 °C (86 °F). Although even in June and July the average maximum is a very warm 24 °C (75.2 °F), frosts are not unknown in the morning during these months. Annual rainfall is extraordinarily erratic: it has been as low as 24 millimetres (0.94 in) in 1905 and 51 millimetres (2.01 in) in 1963. However, when the monsoon is strong rainfall can be heavy: in January 1974 Boulia received 465 millimetres (18.31 in) of rain and in March 1950 346 millimetres (13.62 in). Maximum annual rainfall totals are 799 millimetres (31.46 in) in 1950 and 774 millimetres (30.47 in) in 1974, but the median annual rainfall is only 216 millimetres (8.50 in).