Gatton

Gatton is a town and the administrative centre of the Lockyer Valley local government area situated in the Lockyer Valley of South East Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Gatton had a population of 6,869.Over recent years, the rural tranquility of the Gatton area has started to be encroached on by the suburban sprawl of metropolitan Brisbane and Ipswich in the east and Toowoomba in the west. The Warrego Highway, which runs east–west through the Shire, has also experienced increasing strip development, with fuel outlets and commercial properties gradually spreading along the highway.HistoryThe Gatton area was explored by Major Edmund Lockyer in 1825. A settlement known as Gatton was gazetted in 1855. The post office opened 1 January 1866, with Frederick Lloyd, a dairyman, as the first postmaster. The small village did not experience significant growth until the mid-1870s, after the railway to Grandchester attracted people to the area.The Queensland Agricultural College opened an agricultural college and experimental farm in 1897 at Gatton.In December 1898 three local youths from nearby Blackfellow’s Creek were murdered. The crime, known as the Gatton murders, has never been solved.