Westwood
Located around forty-five kilometres southwest of Rockhampton and one hundred and thirteen kilometres west-northwest of Gladstone, on the border of Darumbal country, Westwood was the first town gazetted by the newly established Queensland Government in May 1860. Although the original survey named the locality Prestone, Governor George Ferguson Bowen decided to name the town after Westwood House in Worcestershire, home of Sir John Pilkington, a former Secretary of State for the Colonies and War who was subsequently First Lord of the Admiralty.
Although Westwood became the first railhead of the line running west of Rockhampton on 29 September 1867 and maintained that position through the bureaucratic and financial issues that prevented further construction until 1873, the town became increasingly insignificant as the line moved further west.
The Westwood Sanatorium opened in September 1919 to treat miner's phthisis and, subsequently, tuberculosis. It operated until 1959, although the building continued operating as a nursing home until the 1980s.
