Crows Nest, Qld

Crows Nest is a town in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia. The town is located on the New England Highway, 158 kilometres (98 mi) from the state capital, Brisbane and from the nearby city of Toowoomba. It is within the Toowoomba Region local government area. At the 2011 census, Crows Nest had a population of 1,596.

History

Crows Nest was declared a town in 1876. A branch railway line from Toowoomba, which serviced a number of sawmills and a dairying district, was finished in 1886.

It is claimed by some that the town was named after an Aboriginal, Jimmy Crow, who gave directions to early European settlers. He lived in a big hollow tree near the police station, which became known as Crows Nest. It became a popular overnight camp for the bullock teams hauling timber, which in turn attracted farmers and settlers. A 6-foot 6-inch high statue of Jimmy Crow was unveiled in the Centenary Park at Crow's Nest on 12 July 1969 by Minister for Labour and Tourism, J. D. Herbert. The statue was sculpted by Fred Gardiner of the Tia Art Gallery. The statue was cut from a single block of Helidon freestone and weighs over one ton. An 18-foot high hollow tree stump was also moved to Centenary Park and a fig tree was planted on top so the roots could be trained around it to form a living hollow tree. It is believed to be the only memorial in Australia to an Aboriginal person after whom a town was named.