Meringandan, Queensland

Meringandan is a small country locality in the Toowoomba Region on the Darling Downs in Queensland, Australia. The town is located near Highfields, 19km NNW of Toowoomba. At the 2011 census, Meringandan had a population of 305.The name Meringandan is a corruption of the aboriginal words, Moorin meaning fire and Gandan meaning clay. Therefore, Meringandan means 'place of fire and clay'.HistoryFollowing the settling of the Leslie brothers at Toolburra, near Warwick in 1840, Henry Hughes (1816-1882) and Henry Isaac (1816-1862) occupied Gowrie as a sheep run on the upper section of Gowrie Creek in 1841. They later took over the land to the north up to the Great Dividing Range, the Meringandan run, from C W Pitts. Henry Hughes severed the partnership with Henry Isaac in 1850; he moved to Westbrook run and Henry Isaac took over the Gowrie aggregation. Henry then took his brother, Fred Isaac (1820-1865), into partnership with him. Fred had reveled in Australian country life and had quickly become an accomplished bushman and station manager.In 1854, Fred, who had gone home to England for a visit, married his half-cousin, Caroline Sophia née Sparkes (1835-1913), and then returned to run Gowrie. (Their mothers were half-sisters.) By 1860, Henry Isaac had had enough of the pioneering life, so he sold his share of Gowrie to Fred, and returned to England where he died shortly afterwards. To help with financing the purchase of Henry's share of Gowrie, Fred entered into a partnership with Ernest de St Jean de Satgé (1834-1901), who was Caroline's second cousin. In 1865, Fred Isaac died, the estate was sold to George King and the debts owing to Henry Isaac and Ernest de St Jean were settled. George King's sons initially continued to manage the property for sheep raising but later also bred horses for the Indian remount trade.