Kelso
Situated on Wulgurukaba country nineteen kilometres southwest of central Townsville, Kelso is the southernmost of three dormitory suburbs along the Ross River's western bank. Allambie Lane bAa in the north, the Ross and Bohle Rivers to the east and west, with a diagonal line drawn along Kelso Drive to the Bohle River as the southern boundary.
The suburb was named after Scottish immigrants Mary and James Kelso, who took up a selection at Five Head Creek in 1879. The couple ran cattle on the property, which eventually covered more than forty thousand hectares on both sides of Ross River, between the Mount Stuart massif's foothills and Hervey's Range. James and his son worked as carriers, transporting freight to Georgetown, Gilberton, and other locations in the Gulf country while the family's women operated a dairy The family acquired a second property on Hervey's Range at Granite Hills after James Junior went into partnership with his father-in-law William Ireland during World War I.
The Townsville City Council resumed some of the property's best grazing land in 1970 to construct the Ross River dam. Stage Two of the dam project saw a realignment of the Flinders Highway and the Mount Isa railway line, and a further upgrade in 2007 expanded the capacity to 250,000 megalitres. As a result, most of the former Laudham Park is now underwater; the rest is the suburb of Kelso, which developed gradually after the first round of subdivisions in 1966. Granite Hills is now Defence Department property.
Garbutt–Upper Ross Road (Riverway Drive, the former Upper Ross River Road) provides commuter access to the rest of Townsville.
Links to add:
Mary and James Kelso
Five Head Creek
Mount Stuart
Hervey's Range
Georgetown
Gilberton
Gulf country.
Townsville City Council
Ross River dam
Flinders Highway
Mount Isa railway line
Garbutt–Upper Ross Road
Riverway Drive
