Koumala
The coastal locality of Koumala, fifty kilometres south of Mackay at the southern extremity of Yuwibara country within the boundaries of the Mackay Regional Council, is bordered by Cape Palmerston National Park in the east and the Hatfield (a.k.a. Koumala) Range to the west.
European settlement in the area dates back to the early 1860s when Mark Millet Christian established the Kelvin Grove pastoral station, which may have been part of Mount Funnel station. By the mid-1880s, Kelvin Grove had become interchangeable with Koumala, which was reputedly the Yuwibara or Guwinmal word for the sweet potato or yams which grew in the area. The initial change may have been due to the post office, which opened in February 1884. With the rural locality sharing its name with a Brisbane suburb, the authorities would prefer to avoid confusion.
Both names continued in use until the 1920s — Koumala Provisional School opened in 1889; Kelvin Grove was the name of the railway station when the line from Sarina reached the area in 1915, though the name was discarded shortly afterwards. At that point, surveyor Alfred Harry Burbank seems to have owned a sugar-growing property named Koumala
Although a few farmers moved into the area when it was opened up for selection in 1896, the district was mainly pastoral until the outbreak of World War I, as the absence of a railway connection inhibited farming. A sawmill had begun operations by 1912, and farm activity intensified after the railway connection meant that sugar cane could be transported to Sarina's Plane Creek mill.
Links to add:
Mackay Regional Council
Cape Palmerston National Park
Hatfield (a.k.a. Koumala) Range
Mark Millet Christian
Kelvin Grove pastoral station
Mount Funnel station
Sarina
Alfred Harry Burbank
Plane Creek mill.
