Marlborough
Located in Darumbal and Guwinmal country around ninety kilometres northwest of Rockhampton and two hundred kilometres south-southeast of Mackay in the Livingstone Shire, Marlborough is a service centre for the surrounding area and one of the few fuelling points on a largely uninhabited stretch of the Bruce Highway. European settlement in the area dates back to 1856 when a hotel at the junction of the coach road going west to the Peak Downs goldfields and a road running north provided accommodation, food, and drink for passing travellers.
Dan O'Connor established Old Marlborough in the area the following year and extended his holdings with eight-year leases on 16,000-acre runs called Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet in 1858. The properties, named after significant victories by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), were amalgamated as Marlborough in 1869. In the meantime, the Marlborough Post Office opened in January 1861, and town allotments were placed on the market in 1862. A Native Police base at Barrack Creek on the settlement's northwestern outskirts of the town operated from 1865 to 1876.
The town was relocated when the North Coast Railway bypassed the original site in 1917, and eighty-eight allotments at the new site were offered for sale; more recently, the Bruce Highway has been rerouted to bypass the settlement. Mining activity in the area includes the Kunwarara magnesite mine and a small, high-grade deposit of chrysoprase about twenty kilometres south-south-west of the township.
Links to add:
Livingstone Shire
Peak Downs goldfield
Dan O'Connor
Blenheim
Ramillies
Oudenarde
Malplaquet
Barrack Creek
North Coast Railway
Kunwarara
