The small settlement of Kynuna is at the heart of Waltzing Matilda Country. It was in the Kynuna region, just over a century ago that Banjo Paterson wrote the words to Australia’s most famous and well-loved folk song.
Kynuna was first established on the Diamantina River at the junction of five roads as a teamsters camp and supply point for Kynuna Station and other properties on the western routes. It was gazetted as a town in 1894 and within a few years had a substantial population of up to 700 people and several hotels.
Today only one hotel remains, the Blue Heeler Hotel and it is the last remaining building with any association with the first days of the song Waltzing Matilda. Built in 1889 as the Kynuna Hotel, it is believed that the squatter, Bob MacPherson and the swagman, Samuel Hoffmeister, drank their last drinks at the bar of the Blue Heeler Hotel. Banjo Paterson also drank at the hotel and it was where the song Waltzing Matilda was first performed.
The Blue Heeler Hotel truly sits at the heart of Australian folklore. It was here that Banjo Paterson, a Sydney Lawyer, brokered a truce with the shearers who had burnt the Dagworth woolshed and 143 jumbucks. The battle of Dagworth was to be the last armed conflict between Australians. It was here that they decided that rather than shoot each other in civil war, they would have a drink together. They sang a song they all understood and they went back to work. Both ‘swagman’ and ‘squatter’ sank their last drinks at the bar. Stranger, go in peace from here as a friend – ‘Waltzing Matilda’.
Source: Outback Queensland (www.outbackqueensland.com.au/town/kynuna/), McKinlay Shire Council (www.mckinlay.qld.gov.au/visitors/our-towns/kynuna)
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The Richmond Stores were established in 1881 on the corner of Goldring and Harris Streets, where the RSL Hall stands now. Early stationery shows that not only were they suppliers of groceries, hardware, and the drapery, but were also the only fuel agent in town as well as being the local agent for Dodge Trucks. In 1954, the business moved to the current location. The original Richmond Stores building was renovated into three different shops, which burnt down in 1977. The current building had been one of AJ Smith and Sons chain and had been originally built in Normanton in the late 1920s. In the early 1930s it was dismantled, shipped to Townsville, and railed to Richmond where it was reassembled by Bert and Fred Hickmott, two bush carpenters.
Source: Richmond Cultural Association.
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Hughenden Post Office opened on the 1st of July 1878 (a receiving office had been open from 1874).
Officials confirmed on the 27th of March 1900, a robbery took place at the Hughenden Post Office. The items taken from the post office safe included a large quantity of jewellery, a fixed deposit receipt for £500, and cash amounting to £338. Also twenty registered letters.
In connection with the robbery, the police had later discovered two cheques buried near the Flinders River. The cashbox of Mr Storey, the postmaster, had also been discovered but the contents were missing. Some postal notes were unearthed near the river, and several other boxes were also found, one of which contained four watches and several cheques, including one for £686. A couple of other small cheques had also been recovered. The amount that was stolen from the safe totalled to £329.
By April that year, an arrest had been made over the post office robbery. John Sweeney, a labourer, was charged on suspicion - - only with preliminary formal evidence.
Source: Trove.
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