Emu Park, Queensland
Emu Park is a coastal town and locality on the Capricorn Coast located south of Yeppoon in Queensland, Australia. It is within the local government area of Shire of Livingstone. In the, the locality of Emu Park had a population of 2,281 people.
The Emu Park land area was explored by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770; it is commemorated by the Singing Ship Monument. Emu Park overlooks the islands of Keppel Bay, including Great Keppel Island. Emu Park is a popular tourist spot, and has won several tourism awards, and features fishing, surfing, boating, and unspoiled beaches.
Geography
Emu Park is part of the Capricorn Coast in Central Queensland.Off-shore to the north is Shoal Bay.
Emu Park has the following coast features :
- Tanby Point
- Fishermans Beach
- Emu Point
Emu Park Airstrip is at the northern end of Henry Street.
History
Early settlement
The Keppel Bay area was explored by Lieutenant James Cook on the HM Bark Endeavour in May 1770. He named the bay after Admiral Augustus Keppel of the Royal Navy.British settlement began in the 1860s when John Jardine established a cattle grazing property south of the current town, at Zilzie, an anagram of Lizzie, the eldest of John Jardine's daughters.
Emu Park township was established in the 1870s when several Rockhampton families built seaside holiday houses on the hills overlooking the two beaches that are a feature of the town – Fisherman's Beach and Pine Beach.
Hewittville Post Office opened on 12 November 1883 and was renamed Emu Park in 1890.
Emu Park State School opened on 3 February 1890. The school was burned down on 26 July 1946 and all early records of the school were lost in the blaze. The hall was used as a temporary school. The new school building was designed with 2 classrooms for a total 60 students at a cost of £2315.
Central business district
Soon after the town was settled, a commercial area was established in and around Hill Street. Some of the early stores included a general store, a grocery store, butcher shop, bakery, and a combined sweet and haberdashery store.By the 1920s the town had two large hotels, a cinema, court house, public library, shops and many guest houses for visitors. A small pier was opened by Ethel Bruce, wife of the Prime Minister, Stanley Bruce, in 1926 and Bell Park, a shady park on the shores of Fisherman's Beach was established in the 1930s.
The town's general store was owned by several families over the years including the Ryan, Mills and Bundesen families.
A haberdashery and sweet shop was owned by well known community stalwart Henny Power.
A grocery shop was owned by several families before being bought by the Notaras family who converted the shop into Seagulls Cafe. It was then bought by the Stouraitis family who ran a fish and chip shop from the building before it was destroyed in a fire in 1961.
The Large family leased the Central Cafe in 1934 where they established the Britanic Cafe selling meals while also offering a range of groceries. The shop remained in the family until 1982. It was later bought by the Charlesworth family who ran it as a local grocery store "Charlie's Corner" until 2012 when it closed after the opening of the town's first supermarket the previous year. In 2018, the Emu Park Post Office was relocated to the building.
A general merchant's shop was located in Archer Street next to the Catholic Church from the 1890s until its closure in 1940. Known as "The Village Store" when it was run by the Ryan family, it sold a large variety of grocery items including local produce traded with South Sea Islanders. The building was demolished in the 1980s.
The original butcher shop was built on the corner of Hill and Archer Street in 1912 and closed in 1996 before a new butcher shop was established. The first newsagency opened in a shop beside the Grand Central Hotel in 1938, beside a bakery.
In 2011, the town's first supermarket was opened when the Emu Park Village Centre, anchored by a Super IGA-branded supermarket, was opened. The popularity of the new supermarket contributed to the closure of the town's firmly established general store, Charlie's Corner, which ceased trading on 30 November 2012. A compliance issue regarding Sunday trading forced Supa IGA to temporarily cease trading on Sundays in 2014, leaving the town without a grocery store for one day of the week which caused much angst and frustration in the community. The issue was resolved soon after. In line with the other 21 Drakes-owned stores in Queensland, the Supa IGA branding was completely dropped and the Emu Park supermarket was solely rebranded as a Drakes Supermarkets store in 2017.
As of 2022, a large variety of small businesses continue to trade in town's central business district, including two bakeries, several cafes and takeaway outlets, a newsagency, the post office, a chemist, a butcher shop, a petrol station, real estate agencies, a charity shop, a tobacco shop, a discount store, hair and beauty outlets and a community bank.
Railway
From 1888 to 1964, Emu Park was serviced by the North Rockhampton to Emu Park railway line. A branch to Yeppoon, further to the north was opened in 1910.The railway officially opened on 22 December 1888. The original trains that serviced Emu Park from Rockhampton ran from North Rockhampton railway station prior to the Alexandra Railway Bridge across the Fitzroy River being opened in 1899 connecting the line with the stations on the southern side of Rockhampton including Archer Park and the main Stanley Street station.
The original railway line was surveyed as a more direct route to Emu Park with the line coming into the town from the western side of Emu Park instead of the more indirect route which was eventually chosen through Tanby and into the town from the north which increased the length of the line to 29 miles from the original 20 mile line originally surveyed.
The commuter trains were established in 1914, which took workers and school students to Rockhampton each morning.
The Emu Park railway station and engine sheds received considerable damage from the 1949 Central Queensland cyclone. The carriage shed was completely destroyed while the other shed was demolished. The railway station was repaired.
Until a high school was built in Yeppoon, local secondary students used the train to travel to Rockhampton, departing at 6:55am each morning.
The Emu Park station master lived in a residence with a detached kitchen in Hill Street. After the line was closed, the house was demolished and the Emu Park Cultural Centre was built on the site.
There was a turntable for locomotives to be turned around installed in 1905, remnants of which are still visible outside the Don Ireland Swimming Complex. Before the line closed, an overhead bridge was built across the railway line near Albermarle Street.
The railway closed on 30 June 1964.
The railway goods shed built in 1888 remained in the railway precinct until 1992 when the Emu Park Lions Club successfully applied to have the building relocated with the intention for it to be used as a youth clubhouse. "The Shack" opened in 1994. It was extended in 2016 and continues to be used by the Lions Club as their clubhouse and for organised youth activities.
The former railway precinct is now the site of the Emu Park bus interchange and the Emu Park Community Arts Centre which was opened in 2020.
The railway line from North Rockhampton was officially opened on Saturday 22 December 1888 by Archibald Archer, the local Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Rockhampton. Emu Park railway station was on the northern corner of Hill Street and Pattison Street.
Churches
In November 1893, Emu Park's first church was the Christ Church, a timber building constructed on the corner of Fountain Street and Hill Street opposite Emu Park State School. After access to the site proved difficult during wet weather, the church was relocated to its existing location on the corner of Archer Street and Hunter Street. The church was extended in 1919 to provide more comfort for the vicars who would travel down by buggy from Rockhampton. The church was restored in 1984 and continues to hold services.The second church to be built in Emu Park was the original Mary Immaculate Catholic Church which was opened in Archer Street on 25 September 1904. A school room was opened under the presbytery at the back of the building in 1917. The school was moved into a neighbouring property in 1920 and became known as St Agnes' Convent School. The church was enlarged with two wings and a sacristy added to the building. The renovated church opened on 23 December 1923. The school was renovated in 1959 and remained in use until 1965. The original church was demolished in 1974 when it became unsafe. The vacant school building was transformed into a church and opened on 26 May 1974. By 1984, the former school building was struggling to accommodate the large congregation and funds were raised to build a brand new church building which was opened on 8 December 1984, close to where the original 1904 building once stood. The Mary Immaculate Catholic continues to hold services. The church's centenary was celebrated on 25 November 2004.
The existing Uniting Church building in Archer Street was originally built as a billiard saloon which was opened in December 1916 by Thomas Charles Lachlan. The saloon was forced to close when most of the young men who used the venue enlisted in the armed services during World War I. The Methodist Church purchased the building in November 1919. Following the amalgamation of the Methodist Church into the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977, it became the Emu Park Uniting Church. Although the building needed repairs after sustaining damage during Tropical Cyclone Marcia in 2015, weekly church services continue to be held from the building.