Gracemere
In Darumbal country on the Capricorn Highway 9 kilometres southwest of Rockhampton, modern-day Gracemere is one of the city's dormitory suburbs. However, Gracemere Lagoon in the north of the locality is the site that Charles and William Archer chose for their homestead when they arrived in the area in 1853. The station was initially referred to as Farris. It was renamed Gracemere — for Thomas Archer's wife Grace, with mere, a Scottish term for lake, appended — in 1855 when the brothers established their pastoral station around it two years later.. A suitable landing point for supplies on the nearby Fitzroy River would subsequently develop into the town of Rockhampton.
Large-scale development bypassed Gracemere, which remained a centre for dairying, poultry, fruit and vegetable growing for the nearby urban population and the site of a significant cattle sale yard, until work on the nearby Stanwell power station began in 1984. After work was completed in 1993, the Australian Magnesium Corporation established a magnesite treatment plant next to the power station.
The Gracemere hAais near the Gracemere Lagoon, immediately north of the Capricorn Highway, and has been heritage listed since 1992.
