Birdsville is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Diamantina, Queensland, Australia. It is situated north of the border of South Australia and Queensland. In the , the locality of Birdsville had a population of 110 people. It is a popular tourist destination with many people using it as a starting point across the Simpson Desert.
Betoota is a ghost town within the east of the locality ().
Geography
Birdsville is west of the state capital, Brisbane, from Charleville and south of the city of Mount Isa. Birdsville is on the edge of the Simpson Desert, approximately 174 km east of Poeppel Corner.
Birdsville is located about north-east of the Diamantina River in the Channel Country in the Lake Eyre drainage basin. Thundahpurty Waterhole is on the river in the east of the locality ().
The Birdsville Track extends from Marree in South Australia before ending at Birdsville; the road continues north as the Eyre Developmental Road to Bedourie. The Birdsville Developmental Road travels east from the town towards Windorah. A popular route across the Simpson Desert goes from Birdsville to Mt Dare via the French Line. The Line is an unsealed track built in the early 1960s by French Petroleum for oil exploration purposes.
Birdsville Airport is immediately north-west of the town (). It is operated by the Diamantina Shire Council.
Almost all the buildings in the town are of local sandstone, there being no local timber available. Distance and the lack of good access roads or a railway create prohibitively high transportation costs, so imported building materials are kept to a minimum.
Birdsville has the following mountains:
Carloowattie Hill () Grahams Bluff () Louies Hill () Mount Hal () Mount Leonard () Mount Lewis () Mount Oakes () One Tree Hill () Pig Hill () Square Hill () Squaretop Hill ()
History
Birdsville is located on land traditionally occupied by the Wongkanguru people, in the Channel Country of Central West Queensland, Australia.
Long before Birdsville was established by British colonists, the region in which it is situated was occupied by indigenous Australians, speakers of the Wangkangurru language (also known as Arabana/Wangkangurru, Wangganguru, Wanggangurru or Wongkangurru), whose extent ranged from Birdsville south towards Innamincka and Lake Eyre, including the modern local government areas of the Shire of Diamantina as well as the Outback Communities Authority of South Australia.
Although British explorers had passed through the Diamantina district in the 1840s and early 1860s, pastoralists did not occupy this semi-arid region until the mid-1870s. Brothers Hector and Norman Wilson formed "The Bluff" property around the present site of Birdsville in 1875 as an outpost of their massive Coongy station across the border in South Australia. The Bluff property was also known as Salmonville. Nearby pastoral stations of Annandale, Pandie Pandie, Glengyle and Roseberth were taken up in 1876; and Carcoory in 1877.
Conflict in the region during this time included several large massacres of the resident Aboriginal people being perpetrated. For instance in 1879, Sub-Inspectors Henry Kaye and Henry Gough of the Native Police, together with troopers and stockmen from The Bluff and other properties, conducted a sweeping patrol for the perpetrators of the murder of a stockman. They came across two camps of Aboriginal people and dispersed them. A pastoralist on the nearby Warburton Creek reported to the Police Commissioner in Adelaide that 67 people were killed in these raids and that survivors from the violence had fled to his property.
There are a number of different theories as to the origin of the name Birdsville. One is that the name was suggested by Robert Frew, owner of Pandie Pandie Station, who also had a store and shop at the Diamantina Crossing, in reference to the prolific bird life in the district. The other is that a store was established by Percy Bird and George Field and they called it Birdfield. However, in 1882, G. and R. Wills, of Adelaide, misaddressed a consignment of goods as going to Birdsville and that name stuck. Another is that a man named Burt established a store and called it Burtsville which corrupted to Birdsville. Whatever its origin, by 1882, the name Birdsville was in common use. The name was adopted in the 1885 survey and was formalised at the proclamation of town in 1887.
In 1881, Hector and Norman Wilson, sold The Bluff (Salmonville) property for £19,000. Outside of their pastoral business, the brothers resided in Melbourne where they were the driving force behind the establishment of the Melbourne Racing Club, the Coongy Cup and the Caulfield Cup.