Finch Hatton railway station

Finch Hatton railway station is a heritage-listed former railway station at Mackay-Eungella Road, Finch Hatton, Mackay Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1904. It is also known as Hatton railway station and Pelion railway station. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 December 2004.HistoryThe Finch Hatton railway station opened on 21 September 1904. The station formed part of the Pioneer Valley Line of the Mackay Railway, the first stage of which opened on 10 August 1885 terminating at Mirani. In search of new pastoral land, John Mackay and his party entered and named the valley of the Mackay River in 1860 (renamed Pioneer River in 1862), and the following year he returned to establish a cattle station. Other settlers quickly followed. In 1862, the ketch "Presto" entered the Mackay River landing stores and building materials, then surveyed the river mouth, which consequently was gazetted as a Port of Entry.In the earliest years of non-Indigenous settlement of the Pioneer Valley, the area was leased as two cattle runs, Hamilton and Hopetoun. They were worked as one property with the head station at Hamilton, across the Pioneer River from the township now known as Mirani. Prior to the opening of the railway station in 1885, the town of Mirani was known as Hamilton, after one of the cattle properties, but was changed so that no confusion could arise between it and the suburb of Hamilton in Brisbane.