Theodore

Theodore is a town and a locality in the Shire of Banana, Queensland, Australia. It was established as part of Queensland Premier Ted Theodore's ambitious Dawson River Irrigation Scheme. At the, Theodore had a population of 452.GeographyTheodore is situated on the Dawson River just off the Leichhardt Highway 565km north-west of the state capital, Brisbane. Castle Creek flows through the town and into the Dawson River immediately south of the town centre.HistoryThe Aboriginal inhabitants of the area were the Kangulu people.The first European settler in the district was Joseph Thompson who amassed a number of pastoral leases from 1850 to his death in 1857, including Oxtrack Creek, Okangal, Coteeda, Delusion Creek, Macoom, Hope, Thalba and Woolthorpe. He entered a partnership James Reid who acquired the Boam run and acquired Thompson's runs after his death and then acquired further runs, before beginning to sell out to new settlers.In 1864 a town called Woolthorpe was surveyed and town lots offered for sale, but few were sold and no town developed at that time.In 1893, William Woolrych acquired 13,000acres of land alongside the Dawson River and gradually built it up through further land acquisitions into the very large Woolthorpe Station.