The official beginning of
Boulia is a proclamation signed by Cr. Kennedy on 31st July 1879 and gazetted on the 2nd August setting aside a reserve for township purpose on the
Boulia waterhole, in the
Burke river,
Gregory North district, under the name of "Boulia".
Camel team resting in front of the general store in Boulia,1900
Boulia Divisional Board Hall, ca. 1900
Royal Hotel at Boulia, 1930
The reserve was 1 280 acres resumed from the Bulla-Bulla No. 2 and Bulla-Bulla No. 4 runs, which at that time, was held by W.L.
Reid, R.T.
Reid and W. Paterson having been originally taken up by
John Farrar on 20th December 1876 and transferred to Messes
Reid and Paterson the following year. It was surveyed by F.A. Hartnell in October 1882 and March 1883. The first land sale being set down for Tuesday 13th February 1883.
The name is derived from the name of the
waterhole, which was so called by the Pitta Pitta tribe, according to the survey office. Another source gives the aboriginals the original name for the
waterhole as Bulzoo Bulzoo. However the map shows a Bullu Bullu
waterhole quite far from the
Boulia waterhole.
Cobb and Co. coach on Winton to Boulia Mail run with driver Steve Wall, approx' 1910
Winton to Boulia mail coach run
John Bates with a laden truck, Boulia, Queensland, 1940
The mail service (from
Cloncurry) by horse was inaugurated on 1 St July 1879. The telegraph line was completed in July and the telegraph station opened in
Boulia on 11th August 1884.
The book "Taming the North" by H. Fysh, which is a biography of Kennedy and Pioneer of "Noranside" and "Buckingham Downs" and "Devoncourt", says of Mrs Kennedy's journey west in 1877.
A portrait of Wilmot Hudson Fysh ca. 1935
Taming the North
Mrs Kennedy is quoted saying "when I first passed through the site of
Boulia 1877, Paterson with cattle from the Darling, had just arrived to stock Goodwood station. Ernest Henry arrived about that time with two wagon loads of station supplies, with which he started a store.
Vallis, Donaldson and a few others were also there, camped on the
Boulia waterhole. Later on Paterson built a hut, on the west side of the river and Ernest Henry erected a canvas store where the town now is. Later on Harry Westerfelt built a pub, and although both pub and store should have done
well, both were failures. However this was the foundation of
Boulia, the centre of a prosperous pastoral area, despite the challenges of frequent low rainfall.
Boulia Post Office, 1948
I O U' note issued by Howards Australian Hotel Boulia 1930
A section of the Kennedy Dev.Winton-Boulia road 1965
Both Kennedy in this book, and H.G. Lamond in an article on the Warenda Station say, that Vallis was the first white man in
Boulia. The Ernest Henry mentioned above was also the founder of
Hughenden and the discoverer of the vastly rich
Cloncurry mining field. Kennedy says "Henry was the first man to blaze a track between
Cloncurry and
Boulia which afterwards became a much used route".
.