Walkerston

Walkerston is a town and locality in Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia.

Walkerston is a town and locality in Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is situated on the Peak Downs Highway 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) south-west of Mackay. In the 2016 census, Walkerston had a population of 3,403 people.

In May 1860, Scots-born John Mackay was only 21 years old when he left Armidale, New South Wales in January 1860 with men, horses and provisions in search of land for cattle runs in north Queensland. They travelled up the east coast, taking a mainly inland route until they came to the junction of Cattle Creek and the Pioneer River, in an area about 15 miles west of present-day Walkerston. They then followed the river, firstly named by Mackay’s companions as the Mackay River but now known as the Pioneer River.This town was commonly known as Scrubby Creek from as early as 1866, and sometimes as Baker’s Creek; later these two names were interchangeable with Walkerston and, to a lesser degree, Alsatia. Scrubby Creek was definitely not a nickname for Walkerston; there were no inverted commas included when the words were printed in newspapers or almanacs. The name was well deserved, for the wild bush scrub grew luxuriantly on the banks of Baker’s Creek.Walkerston Provisional School opened on November 1874 butclosed soon after due to low student numbers. It reopened but then closed on 31 March 1880 with the students transferred to the Alsatia State School which opened on 21 April 1880. About 1891 the school was renamed Walkerston State School.When the Queensland Surveyor-General combined the two former townships ofWalkerston and Alsaia in 1881, he chose to name the combined town Walkerston. John Walker was the lessee of the Homebush pastoral run since 31 May 1866.The Pioneer Valley railway reachedWalkerston from Paget on 10 August 1885. Whilst there was a station building, there was no passenger platform, passengers accessing the trains from the ground.St John's Catholic Primary School was established on 29 January 1924 by the Sisters of Mercy to provide Catholic education to both children of the town and the largely Maltese farming community. A boarding school was introduced to cater for students further along the Pioneer Valley, an arrangement that continued until 1976. The first lay principal was appointed in 1982 but the Sisters continued to be associated with the school until 1996.The Polynesian Provisional Schoolopened on 1933but closed that same year.The Walkerston public library opened in 1977.At the 2006 census, Walkerston had a population of 2,563.In the 2011 census, Walkerston had a population of 3,089 people.In the 2016 census, Walkerston had a population of 3,403 people.