Barcaldine Shire Hall

Barcaldine Shire Hall is a heritage-listed town hall at Ash Street, Barcaldine, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Alfred Mowbray Hutton and built from 1911 to 1912 by Robinson & Freeman. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 29 April 2003.HistoryThe present Barcaldine Shire Hall was built in 1911-1912 and is the second official building used by the Council for the administration of the Shire of Barcaldine. The building was designed by Alfred Mowbray Hutton. Major alterations were made to the building in 1952.The town of Barcaldine developed almost "overnight" in 1886 with the extension of the Central Western Railway west from Rockhampton. The railway was a vital factor in opening up the central western regions of Queensland to European settlement in the mid to late nineteenth century. The original site of the terminus was to have been the pastoral station of Barcaldine Downs, established by pastoralist Donald Cameron in 1865. It was eventually decided to locate the terminus at Lagoon Creek however.Barcaldine rapidly grew to prosperity, on a permanent scale, unlike most of the other railway townships on the central line. The town was surveyed by Victor Desgrand, the Government Surveyor, in July 1885 and sales of town lots were held in December. The town was laid out on a rectangular grid, parallel to and south of the railway line. A town reserve of 100 square miles was gazetted in June 1886, when further allotments of land were sold. The railway was not officially opened until December 1886, by which time the town had already "assumed formidable proportions". After a year of official European settlement, the population of Barcaldine in 1887 was estimated at 1500.