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Kilcoy
Kilcoy was originally known as Bumgur by the local Dungidau people. The word means "blue cod". The Kilcoy area was home to the Jinibara tribe which was composed of four local groups: Dungidau, Dala, Nalbo and Garumnga. The Jinibara tribe met at Buruja (Mount Archer). Jini was the name for the head of Kilcoy Creek on Mount Kilcoy and literally means "the place of the lawyer cane". There was a small patch of lawyer cane about 25 acres in extent at that location. There were four bora rings in the Jinibara area: two at Durundur, one at Villeneuve, and one at Kilcoy at Sandy Creek.
In 1841 Evan and Colin Mackenzie took possession of Kilcoy Station. The Kilcoy Run was described as comprising two large and several small creeks, tributaries of the eastern branch of the Brisbane River, and covering an area of 35,000 acres. They named it Kilcoy after their father's Kilcoy estate on the Black Isle of Scotland. The station was sold in 1849 to Charles Atherton. Atherton then sold Kilcoy Station to Captain Louis Hope and Robert Ramsay in 1854. Hope then became sole owner in 1863.
The site of the 'Town of Kilcoy' was surveyed by W E Hill in April 1888. The first land sale was on 6 November that year. The township quickly developed at the junction of Sheep Station and Kilcoy Creeks to service the settlers and their families. On 1 December 1892 a Post Office was opened at Kilcoy and named Hopetoun Post Office after Captain Louis Hope who was at the time the owner of Kilcoy Station. In 1907/1908 the post office name was changed to Kilcoy, and the town's original name came back into general use.
Timber a large industry for the region. Timber was originally hauled to Caboolture by bullock team which took around three days. One of the first timber sawmills was built by Frank Nicholson in 1877 at his Villeneuve property. By 1913 there were already multiple mills running at Villeneuve, Yednia, Louisavale and Menzies Lagoon. The railway line from Caboolture was extended to Kilcoy and opened in 22 December 1913. This enabled a boom for the local timber and agriculture industries.
The railway line to Kilcoy closed on 1 July 1964.
Other NamesHopetounTypeTowns & LocalitiesTownsKilcoy & SurroundsReferencesQueensland Ethnohistory Transcripts: Some original views around Kilcoy - Book 1 The Aboriginal perspective by Gerry Langevad. Queensland Archaeology Branch, 1982.Kilcoy State School: The first one hundred years 1892-1992. [Kilcoy]: Kilcoy State School Centenary Committee 1992.History Timeline. Kilcoy District Historical Society. (Accessed 5 March 2026).The Timber Mills of the Kilcoy District. Kilcoy District Historical Society. (Accessed 5 March 2026).Kilcoy Railway. Kilcoy District Historical Society. (Accessed 5 March 2026).Kilcoy Post Office over the years. Kilcoy District Historical Society. (Accessed 5 March 2026).Pioneers of the Kilcoy District: Volume 1 by Kilcoy District Historical Society, 2002.



