Mareeba Shire
Today's 53,491-square-kilometre Mareeba Shire is the most recent incarnation of the Woothakata Division, created in November 1879 as one of seventy-four divisional boards around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879.
Woothakata, based in Thornborough on the Hodgkinson goldfield, extended across the Cape York Peninsula to the Gulf of Carpentaria coast between the Gilbert and Mitchell River estuaries.
Subsequent administrative and legislative changes saw parts of the original Woothakata division carved off to form new divisions named Tinaroo (1881, with portions of Cairns and Hinchinbrook Divisions) and Walsh (1889, the tin-mining areas around Stannary Hills and Irvinebank south of the Walsh River).
The Local Authorities Act 1902 renamed the former Divisions as Shires. Further cosmetic changes saw part of Woothakata transferred to the Walsh Shire, which was subsequently split to create the new Chillagoe Shire in December 1908.
The decline of mining on the Hodgkinson saw the shire's administrative centre shifted to Mareeba in 1919. Around the same time, another realignment of local government boundaries saw the former Barron Shire abolished, with its territory split between Mulgrave and Woothakata Shires.
Further readjustments saw the former Chillagoe and Walsh Shires merged back into Woothakata, which became Mareeba Shire in December 1947.
From there, Mareeba continued as a local government entity until 2008, when it amalgamated with Atherton, Eacham and Herberton Shires to become the Tablelands Regional Council.
In the meantime, further boundary realignments added part of Mareeba and Douglas Shires and the whole of Mulgrave to the City of Cairns in March 1995. The changes saw Mareeba lose the localities of Barron Gorge, Lamb Range and Redlynch.
A 2012 proposal to de-amalgamate Mareeba from the Tablelands Region went to a referendum in March 2013. Mareeba residents endorsed the proposal, and the current Mareeba Shire was re-established on 1 January 2014.
The Shire of Mareeba includes the following settlements:
Mareeba
Almaden
Amber
Arbouin
Arriga
Barwidgi
Bellevue
Biboohra
Bilwon
Bolwarra
Bulleringa
Chewko
Chillagoe
Crystalbrook
Desailly
Dimbulah
Forty Mile
Fossilbrook
Gamboola
Glen Russell
Groganville
Highbury
Hurricane
Irvinebank
Julatten
Kingsborough
Koah
Kowrowa
Kuranda
Lyndside
Mona Mona
Mount Carbine
Mount Carbine Tableland
Mount Molloy
Mount Mulgrave
Mount Mulligan
Munderra
Mungana
Mutchilba
Myola
Paddys Green
Petford
Ravensworth
Red River
Rookwood
Southedge
Speewah
Springfield
Staaten
Strathmore
Thornborough
Watsonville
Wrotham
Links to add:
Atherton Shire
Barron Shire
Cairns City/Division
Cape York Peninsula
Chillagoe Shire
Divisional Boards Act 1879
Douglas Shire
Eacham Shire
Gilbert River
Gulf of Carpentaria
Herberton Shire
Hinchinbrook Shire/Division
Hodgkinson goldfield
Lamb Range
Mitchell River
Mulgrave Shire
Redlynch
Stannary Hills
Tablelands Regional Council
Tinaroo Division
Walsh River
Walsh Shire/Division
Woothakata Division
