Families and occupations
The first state school enrolment details from 1887 provide a good basis for identifying the first families that settled in the town and their occupations.
Some families stayed and others moved on with the shifting fortunes in finding work in a largely frontier environment. The early settlers on the large sheep stations arrived around the district from the 1850s, created employment and supported the growing town population from the time the railway arrived in 1886.
As the larger stations like Barcaldine Downs, Home Creek and Saltern Creek were resumed and broken into smaller entities, the population grew from approximately 500 in 1886 to reach a height of nearly 3000 in 1891 during the Great Shearers’ Strike.
Some settler families arrived in Barcaldine in 1886, some arrived in the early 1900s and descendants are still living in town. The stories of some families have been included in significant publications over the years including the Duffy and Arthur families. The Hoare family had a unique experience being part of the experiment to open up a utopian settlement in Paraguay after the 1891 shearers’ strike.
Read More about the Hoare Family
