Wallangarra, Queensland


Wallangarra is a town and locality in the Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It is the third most southerly town in Queensland, south west of Brisbane. Wallangarra is on the Queensland side of the border and Jennings is on the New South Wales side.

Geography

Wallangarra lies in a valley between two ranges of mountains, which are branches of the Great Dividing Range. It is 878 m above sea level. There is a gap between the more Westerly range at Wyberba, about five kilometres north of Wallangarra. This gap has made Wallangarra the major inland border crossing for the New England Highway and what was the first railway line between Brisbane and Sydney.

History

TIn 1885, the Queensland Government announced that a town would be formed where the railway line between Queensland and New South Wales would meet. On 29 June 1885, 179 lots were offered for sale at. The town would provide a break-of-gauge between Queensland's narrow gauge Southern railway line of and New South Wales's standard gauge Main North railway line of when the two systems came together in 1888. The railway station was named Wallan-garra and the town took its name from the station but used the spelling Wallangarra. The railway was the only rail link between Queensland and New South Wales until a standard gauge track was completed via Kyogle in 1930, with the completion of the bridge over the Clarence River at Grafton. From that time on, the Wallangarra railway station lessened in importance. Scheduled rail services ended in 1997. In 2003, after major refurbishment, the station was reopened as a museum.
The railway line from Stanthorpe to Wallangarra has continued to be maintained and steam trains taking tourists to Wallangarra occasionally operate.
Despite being declared as Wallangarra, the station itself has the Queensland name boards hyphenated as Wallan-Garra.
At the, Wallangarra had a population of 385.

Heritage listings

Wallangarra has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
During World War II, the Commonwealth Government created a general army store on the Queensland side of the border, and an ammunition dump on the New South Wales side. Dual gauge tracks were run to each store.
Access to the army stores was via Margetts St, one of the main roads in the town. The late Muriel Daphne Verdun Nicolson lived at 30 Margetts St from before WWII until her death in 2001. During WWII she reported that the flow of trucks and materiel went on all day and night.
As of 2013, the Wallangarra Stores Depot remained a major Australian Army logistics facility. It is used to store a wide range of engineering and general equipment, clothing, and tents. Bulk fuel storage handling apparatus are also held at the site. The munitions storage facility is also still active in Jennings.

Riverina Stock Feeds

Taking advantage of the rail junction Riverina Stock Feeds operated a packing plant opposite the Wallangarra railway station for many years until 1995. After that it moved to Warwick, a city to the north. Warwick also has a major Woolworths warehouse. The Chairman of Woolworths who located the warehouse at Warwick grew up in Wallangarra.

Abattoirs

The Anderson Meat Packing Company was restarted by Mr. A.W. Anderson in 1938 after a 15-month closure. Until 1982 it operated a large beef abattoir at Wallangarra. Anderson's employed in excess of 400 workers at the Wallangarra plant. The plant was located on the border so as to take advantage of rail lines from both Queensland and NSW.
After this closed the town's future looked dim. Ten years later, Thomas Foods International opened Australia's largest mutton works opened on a new site just to the east of the town. The mutton produced is Halal, and most of it is exported to Arab countries. The abattoir shut down in July 2016 for "the short to medium term" blaming low stock numbers and poor global trading conditions.

Wallangarra Dam

Drive out along Margetts St, over the railway bridge, past the Rugby League grounds and out past the army. From there follow Old Paling Yard Road up the foothills of Mt Norman. There you will find a water treatment plant and a road branch to the left going down to Beehive dam. Beehive dam is in the mountains, and fed by a spring. It is a beautiful place for a picnic.

Attractions

Wallangarra is situated on the picturesque Granite Belt, and is bounded by Sundown National Park to the West and Girraween National Park to the East.

Facilities

The Wallangarra cemetery is in McCall Street.
The Wallangarra branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association has its rooms at 52 Rockwell Street.

Notable former residents

legend Billy Moore lived in Wallangarra as a child. He is best known for playing for the North Sydney Bears and the Queensland State of Origin team. He was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales as this was the closest hospital.

Climate

Wallangarra is one of the coldest towns in Queensland, due to its altitude and extreme southerly location in the state. Maximum temperatures rarely rise above in winter or above in summer. Wallangarra holds the record for the lowest maximum temperature in Queensland, on 3 July 1984. Despite this, minimum temperatures are not as low due to local geographic variations, and towns well to the north such as Warwick and Oakey frequently record lower minimums.