Boyne Island
Located in Gureng Gureng Country, around 12 kilometres southeast of Gladstone and 3 kilometres west of Tannum Sands, which lies across the Boyne River, the coastal town of Boyne Island takes its name from the river named by John Oxley when he investigated Port Curtis as a possible site for a new penal settlement in 1823.
The earliest European settlers in the area — squatters who grazed sheep — arrived in the 1850s. After the pastoral leases were granted in 1863, and government resumptions in the 1870s and 1880s farming and agricultural selections produced small crops and fruit trees, some of which were raised from seeds and specimens from Kew Gardens and India. Several remnant fruit trees are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.
Boyne Island remained a small farming community until a bridge from the mainland opened the area to motor vehicles. After a time as a minor holiday resort, the township developed into a significant population centre after work started on the Boyne Island aluminium smelter, situated west of the town, in 1979. The smelter, separated from the residential area by a buffer zone, opened in 1982 and is now Australia's largest.
