Shire of Burke


The Shire of Burke is a local government area in North West Queensland, Australia. The shire lies on the south coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria and abuts the border with the Northern Territory. It covers an area of, and has existed as a local government entity since 1885. The major town and administrative centre of the shire is Burketown.
The shire and town and the Burke River passing through all are named in honour of ill-fated explorer Robert O'Hara Burke.
From the months of August to November, a rare meteorological phenomenon known as "Morning Glory" – long, tubular clouds, some up to 1000 km in length – are often observed in the skies above Burke Shire.
The shire contains Boodjamulla National Park and the World Heritage Site Riversleigh fossil fields. The Aboriginal Shire of Doomadgee lies inside Burke Shire to the west of Burketown. It also includes Gregory Downs.

History

is an Australian Aboriginal language. The Yukulta language region is the Gulf Country including the local government areas of the Aboriginal Shire of Doomadgee and Shire of Mornington.
Yulluna is an Australian Aboriginal language. The Yulluna language region includes the local government boundaries of the Shire of Cloncurry and other areas near the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Garrwa is a language of the Gulf region, taking in the localities of Borroloola and Westmoreland. The Garrwa language region takes in the landscape of the Roper Gulf Regional Council and the Doomadgee Shire Council.
The Doonmunya Division was created on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879 with a population of 396. However, the divisional board appeared to be completely inactive, perhaps because the division was so large and was very sparsely settled. Nonetheless some of the citizens were unhappy about this. Consequently, on 11 January 1883, the Doonmunya Division was abolished and a new Carpentaria Division was created to replace it.
However, once the Carpentaria Divisional Board became operational, the residents of the Burketown area became concerned that their rates were likely to be spent on the Normanton area rather than their own and began to agitate for their own division west of the Leichhardt River. On 30 January 1885, the Burke Division was created from lands formerly within the Carpentaria Division with some adjustments to the Cloncurry Division.
On 31 March 1903, Burke Division became the Shire of Burke.

Towns and localities

The Shire of Burke includes the following settlements:
The Burke Shire Council operate public library in Burketown.

Chairmen and mayors

The populations below exclude the Aboriginal community of Doomadgee, which hovered between 800-1000 residents for most of the period under consideration.
YearPopulation
1933355
1947250
1954248
1961361
1966291
1971384
1976413
1981466
1986511
1991513
1996660
20011,010
20061,145
2011514
2016328