Historic Ilfracombe

Ilfracombe was founded in 1891 as a transport hub for Wellshot Station, which at the time was the largest station in the world, and held the largest number of sheep on any station in the world. A shearers' strike at Wellshot Station in 1886 led to the formation of the Queensland Shearers' Union.

The town boasted five hotels in 1901 but two burnt down. The Commercial Hotel ceased trading in 1938. That left the Railway Hotel and the Wellshot, the only surviving hotel. The Railway burnt down in 1976. It had been run by Miss Matilda Agnes O'Kane from 1910 following the death of her father, until 1973 when she retired and moved to Brisbane aged 86.


The roadside Machinery Mile and Heritage Museum are unmissable attractions in town. Various historic vehicles and machines are on display beside the highway. The museum has a collection of guns and bottles that can also be viewed for free, but there is a donation box. A Swastica flag is on display with the guns. While this was probably a souvenir brought home from WW2, it might attract undesirable attention from current day right wing extremists. 

This area of central western Queensland was sheep country. The size of the national sheep flock has declined significantly since the establishment of Ilfracombe. Since the early 1970s the number of sheep has dropped from 180 million to 64 million today, due to the combined effects of the low wool price, droughts, wild dog attacks, and the move to cropping and cattle. 

As it is Good Friday the hotel and post office are closed. There are no other shops or food and drink outlets in town. The local artesian spa opened for three hours this morning so we all went for a dip in the temperate 20m pool, and a soak in the small spa fed from the heated waters of the Great Artesian Basin. There has been minimal traffic along the highway.

 



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