Westwood

History

Although towns such as Brisbane, Maryborough and Rockhampton had been gazetted by the New South Wales Government prior to the separation of Queensland, Westwood was the first town to be gazetted by the newly established Queensland Government on 23 May 1860. Although the area was named Prestone on the original survey plan, Queensland Governor George Bowen decided to name the town Westwood after Westwood House, the home of Sir John Pakington, the Secretary of State for the Colonies and War in 1852. On 29 September 1867, the first stage of the Great Northern Railway (now known as the Central Western Line) reached the area from Rockhampton, and Westwood became the railhead. The first load of wool was railed from the town on 23 August. Westwood State School opened on 26 August 1872. A Protestant church opened in Westwood on Thursday 2 October 1873. The town was meant to be the railhead for only a short time. However, bureaucracy and financial difficulties for the state meant that the next section of the line did not commence construction until 1873. The significance of Westwood declined when the railhead moved further west. On Saturday 6 September 1919, John Huxham, the Queensland Home Secretary opened the Westwood Sanatorium, a 64-bed sanitorium was opened in Westwood to treat miner's phthisis, a lung disease suffered by miners from working in dusty conditions. Later, it treated patients with Tuberculosis. In 1953, a ¾ mile bitumen road was built from the Huxham railway siding (just to the north of Westwood) to the sanitorium and named Haigh Drive in memory of Leonard Garfield Haigh, the former chairman of the Rockhampton Hospitals Board from 2 June 1933 to 16 February 1953. Commencing with a tiled-roof waiting shed at the siding with a plaque commemorating Haigh, the…

Geography

The northern half of the locality of Westwood is in Rockhampton region while the southern part is in the Shire of Banana. The town is in the south-east of the locality with two other neighbourhoods in the north-east of locality * Huxham (). It takes its name from the Huxham railway station, which in turn was named on 21 August 1919 by the Queensland Railways Department after John Saunders Huxham, the Home Secretary of Queensland. * Spring Creek () The Capricorn Highway passes through the town, and the intersection with the Leichhardt Highway is a few kilometres to the southwest. * Sugarloaf Mountain in the north-east of the locality (), rising to above sea level * Norman Head in the north-east of the locality (), * Cobbler Mountain in the west of the locality (), * Sebastopol Mountain in the south of the locality (), The predominant land use is grazing on native vegetation.

Most-observed species

• Rainbow Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus haematodus (Linnaeus, 1771) · Aves
  335
• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  329
• Peaceful Dove

  Geopelia placida Gould, 1844 · Aves
  326
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  316
• Laughing Kookaburra

  Dacelo novaeguineae (Hermann, 1783) · Aves
  310
• Double-barred Finch

  Taeniopygia bichenovii (Vigors & Horsfield, 1827) · Aves
  309
• Willie-wagtail

  Rhipidura leucophrys (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  301
• Torresian Crow

  Corvus orru Bonaparte, 1850 · Aves
  298