Sarina
Located on the Bruce Highway on the northern side of Plane Creek, about thirty-one kilometres south of Mackay and two hundred and fifty-five kilometres north-northwest of Rockhampton on Yuwibara country, Sarina was initially known as Plane Creek but was renamed in September 1907. Surveyor William Charles Borlase Wilson had named the nearby Sarina Inlet after an enchantress in Greek mythology around 1869. The area fell within the boundaries of the Pioneer Shire until the Sarina Shire was excised in 1912. Sarina Shire was subsequently merged with Mackay City and Mirani Shire to form the Mackay Region in 2008.
The first European settlers established the Plane Creek pastoral run around 1865. Although the area was opened to selectors in the 1880s, there was no concentrated development while the Colonial Sugar Refinery Company based its activities in nearby Homebush. Local sugar growers took advantage of the government funding to build a central mill on Plane Creek, and the township developed around the mill after it began operations in 1896. The mill diversified in 1927, distilling previously discarded molasses into power alcohol (ethanol).
Sarina was connected by rail to Mackay in 1913, and further extensions followed: to Koumala (1915) and St Lawrence (1921), completing the North Coast railway route from Brisbane. Coal-mining developments in the Bowen Basin saw coal export terminals established at Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay.
Links to add:
Plane Creek
William Charles Borlase Wilson
Sarina Inlet
Pioneer Shire
Sarina Shire
Mackay City
Mirani Shire
Colonial Sugar Refinery Company
Plane Creek mill
North Coast railway
Brisbane
Bowen Basin
Hay Point
Dalrymple Bay.
