Gin Gin, Queensland

Infobox Australian Place | type = town
name = Gin Gin
state = qld


caption =
lga = Bundaberg Regional Council
postcode = 4671
est =
pop = 892 (2001 census)
elevation=
maxtemp =
mintemp =
rainfall =
stategov = Burnett
fedgov = Hinkler
dist1 = 365
location1= Brisbane
dist2 = 51
location2= Bundaberg

Gin Gin is a small rural town located on the Bruce Highway in central Queensland, Australia, approximately 51 km west of Bundaberg and 370 km north-west of Brisbane, the state capital. The town owes its existence to its strategic location about halfway between Brisbane and Rockhampton. It is often used as a stop-over point for drivers travelling between these two centres.

The Gin Gin district was originally settled in 1847 when Gregory Blaxland and William Forster moved into the area with sheep and cattle. The site where the town now stands was once part of the sprawling Gin Gin Station owned by Sir Thomas McIlwraith, who was Premier of Queensland three times between 1879 and 1893.

Gin Gin, like Bundaberg, is heavily dependent on the sugar industry, with sugarcane plantations dotted throughout the area. The Gin Gin Sugar Mill is situated at the nearby locality of Wallaville. An extensive system of sugar cane tramways service the area ["The Gin Gin Central Mill Tramway" Armstrong, J. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, March, 1975 pp53-69] . Cattle production also features prominently. In recent years small cropping has taken off across farms in the district, with varied success.

The Gin Gin district is nicknamed "Wild Scotsman Country" due to the capture of one of Queensland's few bushrangers, James Alpin McPherson, in the area on 30 March 1866. McPherson, who went by the same nickname, was captured at Monduran Station, 13 km north of town. The "Wild Scotsman Festival" is held in Gin Gin on the third week of March each year to commemorate this event.

The name "Gin Gin" was derived from the original station name, which used a local Aboriginal word indicating "red soil thick scrub".cite web
year = 2008
url = http://www.nrw.qld.gov.au/property/placenames/detail.php?id=13801
title = Place Name Details
format = PHP
publisher = Natural Resourses and Water (Queensland)
accessdate = 2008-03-13]

References