
Last time I did this drive, I visited Theodore when the road turned towards Theodore, and I followed it to the very end where I found a beautiful river and free camp area and said I would return one day, and I did. The banks of the river is a great place to camp, rich in bird life and there are fish and platypus in the water. I must admit I saw 3 platypus….and only one fish, a catfish, in the few days I was here.
It was established in the 1920s as part of Queensland Premier Ted Theodore‘s ambitious Dawson River Irrigation Scheme which failed to eventuate. It was originally known as Castle Creek. Theodore is situated on the Dawson River just off the Leichhardt Highway 565 kilometres (351 mi) north-west of the state capital, Brisbane. Castle Creek flows through the town and into the Dawson River immediately south of the town centre.
The town was initially called Castle Creek after the local railway station, which in turn took its name from the creek which flowed into the Dawson River just south of the town. However, in November 1926, it was renamed in honour of Ted Theodore, who as Premier of Queensland had given so much support to the irrigation scheme.
The Hotel Theodore was originally built as a boarding house to accommodate new residents to the district. Country Women’s Association hall, 2014
The Theodore branch of the Country Women’s Association was established in about 1928. In 1932, they openedtheir original rest rooms in Theodore in 1923 at a cost of £113. On 21 February 1953, their current hall on The Boulevard was opened.
The Theodore Public Library was opened in 1959
However, Ted Theodore never obtained funding for the Nathan Dam and in 1925 he resigned as Queensland Premier in order to move into federal parliament. In 1933, the Nathan Dam was postponed for 25 years. Without the water needed for irrigation, many of the small farm blocks around Theodore became economically unviable and many sold at a loss. In 2006, the Queensland Government announced that the Nathan Dam was the preferred short-to-medium-term water supply solution for the district to meet the needs of the growing mining activity in the Surat Basin but indicated that only existing agricultural users would be supplied, suggesting there is no plan to revive the Dawson River Irrigation Scheme more generally
Marguerite Carstairs
In March 2010 the Dawson River flooded, causing significant economic damage to the town.[41] On 28 December 2010, a second flood forced evacuation of the town, with the level of the Dawson River exceeding 14.6 metres.[42]
At the 2011 census, Theodore had a population of 452.
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