St Lawrence
Located one hundred and fifty-two kilometres northwest of Rockhampton, one hundred and thirty-eight kilometres south-southeast of Mackay and six kilometres off the Bruce Highway on Guwinmal country, St Lawrence was the administrative centre of the former Broadsound Shire from 1879 until 2008, when the shire was amalgamated with Belyando and Nebo Shires to form the Isaac Regional Council. The township lies to the south of St Lawrence Creek, which flows into Broad Sound, which is noted for its deep, rapid tidal surge.
European settlement in the area dates back to around 1859 when John Arthur ('James') Macartney took up the Waverley pastoral run to the west of the township, which developed as a rudimentary port providing access to mining settlements at Clermont and Peak Downs in the 1860s. A post office opened in 1864, along with a telegraph office when the line to Bowen and the Gulf Country reached the settlement and a wharf in 1866. After a cyclone damaged the old pier in 1873, a new one at Waverley Creek offered better land and sea access. So, by 1876, the township had a customs post, post and telegraph office, school, courthouse, wharf, pilot station, and two or three hotels.
By 1893, the boiling down works erected about four miles from the town near the wharf on Waverley Creek to recover tallow from cattle considered below standard for butchering had become meatworks. A tram line connected the new facility to the existing dock, with a steamer named the Tarshaw carrying the meatworks' tinned meats and extracts to Rockhampton and the south, but it did not last. Relative remoteness, competition from other more conveniently located operations and shortages of cattle in drought years saw the operation close down around 1912. After the closure, the machinery and other equipment were dismantled and sold. The Meatworks and Wharf Site was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 23 February 2001.
The town benefited somewhat when the North Coast Rail line extension from the south arrived in June 1921. Three months later, the station became a refreshment stop when the connection to Carmila opened, but that represented a brief intermission in a long, slow decline. The last local railway workers were laid off in 1992.
Links to add:
Broadsound Shire
Belyando Shire
Nebo Shire
Isaac Regional Council.
St Lawrence Creek
Broad Sound
John Arthur ('James') Macartney
Waverley pastoral run
Clermont
Peak Downs
Gulf Country
Waverley Creek
Tarshaw steamer
North Coast Rail line
