Moranbah
Situated in Barna country within the Isaac Region, 153 kilometres southwest of Mackay and 296 kilometres northwest of Rockhampton, the coal mining town of Moranbah takes its name from the pastoral run selected by Andrew Scott of Hornet Bank on the Dawson River in the late 1850s. While the name is probably Aboriginal in origin, the meaning is unrecorded. The run was later consolidated into Grosvenor Downs in 1886, the name persisted as the name of a Parish within the land title system. The present area known as Moranbah was selected and named after the Parish in 1920.
After Ludwig Leichhardt passed through the area in January 1845, the first pastoralists arrived in the 1850s. However, the present town is a much more recent development. Established in 1969, as the residential and service centre for coal mines at Goonyella and Peak Downs, it grew rapidly through the late 1970s — the population was approaching 3000 when the hospital opened in 1974 — as coal mines proliferated in Mackay's hinterland. In addition to its permanent population, Moranbah accommodates a large fly-in, fly-out population.
Missing links:
Andrew Scott
Hornet Bank
Dawson River
Grosvenor Downs
