Timeline – Central Queensland

1901-1950 | 1951-2001

Mackay Meat and Dairy Company forms on Mackay's outskirts.

1902 Second Mackay customs house is constructed.

1904 Fruit farmers settle the Jubilee Pocket area of Airlie.

1906 Mrs Maggie Tracey becomes the post mistress of Proserpine's first official post office.

Forced repatriation of South Sea Islanders starts.

1907 Deauville, now Cannonvale, opens its first receiving and parcels office.

1909 Maltese migrants, the Busuttin brothers, buy St Bees Island near Mackay for sheep.

1910 Proserpine separates from Wangaratta (Bowen) Shire.

Railway opens between Bowen and Proserpine.

The Australian Workers Union becomes the principal union for sugar workers.

1911 Proserpine Public School opens.

400 strikers near Mackay fight for better conditions in the sugar industry.

1912 Silent movies become a regular feature at the Alexandra Hall, Proserpine.

Maltese migrants arrive in greater numbers to work in the Mackay sugar industry.

Sarina becomes an independent shire on January 1.

1913 Queensland Railways publishes Tours in the Mackay District focusing on the Eungella ranges.

Mirani Shire Council forms and bases its offices in Mirani.

1916 Flooding in Clermont kills 61, making it the worst last century.

1918 An intense cyclone damages Mackay and the surrounding district.

1920 First aircraft lands at Proserpine promoting Peace Loans.

1921 Shepherd's Bridge over the Proserpine River at Mill St opens.

1923 The last railway link is completed on the Brisbane to Cairns line.

1924 Palms, the last of the Mackay plantation sugar mills, closes.

Nebo Shire Council buys its first motor grader.

Farleigh and Habana become known as Little Malta.

Mackay begins generating power from a station in Tennyson St.

1928 The Mackay District Cooperative Butter Association forms.

1929 Proserpine switches on its electricity.

1932 Scottish-born William Forgan Smith from Mackay becomes Labor premier.

1934 The Thorogood and Sinclair brothers peg out gold reefs at Kelsey Creek.

Dr Lionel Leggett of Nebo, Glenden and Sarina develops the breakfast cereal, Cerevite.

Mackay becomes the first town in Queensland to adopt a town plan.

Mackay Harbour Board starts construction of a new deep-water port.

1936 Local doctor, Dr Felix Dittmer, opens Dittmer Gold Mines on Kelsey Creek leases.

Lands Department sells land fronting the water at Airlie Beach.

Mater Misericordiae Hospital opens in Mackay.

Proserpine chairman, Robert Shepherd, proposes Airlie for new township.

1939 Proserpine Hospital foundation stone placed in Herbert St.

Mackay outer harbour opens.

1940 Nebo Shire Council buys its first typewriter.

Nebo Hotel sells in wartime because its German publican has no customers.

1941 Arthur Fadden, who grew up on Mackay outskirts, becomes prime minister for a month.

Eungella National Park is gazetted.

1943 US troops make Mackay an R&R centre.

1944 Proserpine establishes a high school.

1947 Proserpine celebrates its Jubilee Year.

1948 Coal mining is established at Bee Creek in Nebo Shire.

1949 World-class Sugar Research Institute opens in Mackay.

1951 Proserpine Airport opens.

1956 Proserpine boys part of the Olympic torch run.

Nebo Rodeo starts to much fanfare.

1957 Mackay Bulk Sugar terminal opens.

1958 Eton branch railway line closes.

1959 Princess Alexandra visits Proserpine.

Residents successfully petition for an official post office at Airlie Beach.

1960 New Civic Centre opens in Proserpine.

Mechanical cane harvesting introduced.

1961 Concrete jetty opens at Shute Harbour, advancing Whitsunday tourism.

1963 TV arrives in the Nebo area.

1965 Flying Saucers over Australia book publicises a UFO sighting at The Retreat Hotel near Nebo.

1966 Electricity is switched on in Nebo township.

1969 Proserpine Memorial Swimming Pool opens.

1970 Cyclone Ada wreaks a trail of destruction among islands and Proserpine.

Coppabella township is established to accommodate railway workers and coal shipments.

Utah Development Company develops Mackay hinterland coal mines.

1971 Moranbah develops as a mining town.

1973 Proserpine celebrates 50 years of settlement.

1975 A 3000-tonne sugar bin collapses at the sugar mill in Proserpine.

Newly formed (1974) Australian South Sea Islanders United Council holds conference in Mackay.

1979 Nebo Telephone Exchange changes from manual to automatic.

1980 Glenden becomes the first mining town to accommodate disabled people.

1982 Moranbah East State School opens.

1983 Nebo Shire Council constructs the Braeside Saleyards.

Glenden township and the Newlands Mine open.

1984 New Proserpine cultural hall opens.

Glenden State School is built and air-conditioned.

1988 Proserpine Shire changes name to Whitsunday Shire.

North Eton Sugar Mill closes.

1990 Cattle Creek Sugar mill closes.

First pure Gelbvieh cattle bred near Sarina.

1991 Cyclone Joy fills the newly completed Peter Faust Dam, known as Lake Proserpine (above).

1992 Pioneer Valley railway line from Mirani to Finch Hatton closes.

1994 Pioneer Park in Main St, Proserpine, is completed.

1997 Proserpine centenaries include: Proserpine Co-operative Sugar Mill, police station and state school.

1999 Mackay Marina opens.

2001 Airlie Beach Lagoon opens at Airlie Beach.

Proserpine Historical Museum opens.

• Compiled by Lesley Jenkins with assistance from local historical societies and councils.

1901-1950 | 1951-2001