Upper Flagstone, Queensland

Upper Flagstone
Queensland
Upper Flagstone
Coordinates 27°37′57″S 152°00′05″E / 27.63250°S 152.00139°E / -27.63250; 152.00139Coordinates: 27°37′57″S 152°00′05″E / 27.63250°S 152.00139°E / -27.63250; 152.00139
Population 763 (2011 census)[1]
Postcode(s) 4344
Location
LGA(s) Lockyer Valley Region
State electorate(s) Lockyer
Federal Division(s) Wright
Suburbs around Upper Flagstone:
Middle Ridge Silver Ridge Silver Ridge
Preston Upper Flagstone Flagstone Creek
Preston Rockmount Stockyard

Upper Flagstone is a rural locality in the Lockyer Valley Region, Queensland, Australia.[2] In the 2011 census, Flagstone was included within the count for neighbouring Preston which had a population of 763 people.[1]

The locality is dominated by an east/west valley containing Flagstone Creek. The valley remains mostly covered in natural vegetation. In the southeast Flagstone Creek Conservation Park has been established.

History

In 1840, the penal colony at Moreton Bay was being prepared to be turned into a free settlement (which ultimately became the city of Brisbane). As there was settlement already occurring on the Darling Downs, there was a need for Lieutenant Owen Gorman, the last commandant of the penal colony, to find a wagon route between the two locations, but the obstacle was the mountains of the Great Dividing Range. There was a route already known at Cunninghams Gap but it was not able to be used by a wagon. A convict John Sterry Baker had escaped from the penal colony in 1826 and had lived among the Goomburra Aboriginal people in the Lockyer Valley area and walked with them on a track to the top of the range. Having returned to the penal colony in 1840, Baker told Gorman of the track up the range and modified an Irish jaunting car to test as a wagon on the route. Together Gorman and Baker ascended the range with their wagon on 17 October 1840 arriving at Eton Vale. Despite the fact that Gorman did not discover the route, it nonetheless became known as Gorman's Gap Road. The route which runs between Upper Flagstone in the west and Flagstone Creek in the east was marked by blazing a line of trees. It became the first gazetted road in Queensland. Today, the road no longer officially exists and is overgrown but can still be followed. There are three monuments along the route, one at each end and the other along the route at Camel's Hump where Gorman took his compass bearing.[3][4][5]

References

  1. 1 2 Australian Bureau of Statistics (31 October 2012). "Preston (SSC)". 2011 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 13 May 2014. Edit this at Wikidata
  2. ↑ "Upper Flagstone (entry 47619)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  3. ↑ "Gormans Gap Road". Register of the National Estate. Government of Australia. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  4. ↑ Hahn, Pamela (May 1994), "The marked tree line: the Gorman's Gap walking trail", Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland (1988), 15 (7): 338–342, ISSN 1447-1345
  5. ↑ "Gormans Gap". Monument Australia. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
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