Brampton
Resort island in the Cumberland Group, off shore from Mackay. The island was eventually given its European name in 1879, by Commander Bedwell of the Royal Navy, who named the islands in the group after towns in the county of Cumberland. Most of the island is part of Brampton Islands National Park.
Joseph Busuttin and his family became the island's first European settlers in 1916, with a resort established in December 1933 and operated by his sone until they sold the resort in 1959. In 1961, the island was purchased by the McLean family who had been operating Roylen Cruises from Mackay. In 1985, Trans Australia Airlines purchased Brampton Island, upgraded the resort and sold it on to P&O Resorts in late 1997. Three million dollars was spent on a major refurbishment of the resort before it was purchased by Voyages, who operated the resort until 2010 when it was sold to Brampton Enterprises, who announced a major redevelopment of the resort which would involve closing the resort from 24 January 2011.
Bramston Beach
Coastal Township located 60 kilometres south of Cairns and 17 kilometres east of the Bruce Highway that takes its name from Bramston Point, a landmark named after Sir John Bramston (1871 -1921), politician and civil servant, Member of Legislative Council 1863-69, Member of Legislative Assembly Burnett 1871-73 and Attorney-General 1865 and 1870-74.
Brandon
Township named after Henry Brandon, formerly associated with the Pioneer sugar plantation in Mackay. Brandon acquired land west of Sheep Station Creek in 1883 and set about installing a sugar mill, which he named Pioneer after his former interest. A selector close to the site of the mill subdivided land for a township in 1882 and named it Brandon.
Brigalow (Belt)
Vegetation zone west of the Dividing Range, extending from the Townsville region to northern New South Wales characterised by Acacia harpophylla, a root-suckering tree that grows to 25 metres high that presented significant hurdles to agricultural development since the usual land clearing practice of ringbarking was negated by suckering, which actually made the scrub worse. Most references to the Brigalow Belt refer to country extending from Taroom to Nebo, which was identified for the Fitzroy Basin Brigalow Development Scheme (1962) with 11 million acres cleared in the shires of Banana, Bauhinia, Broadsound, Duaringa, Nebo, Peak Downs and Taroom. Bulldozers hauling heavy chains crushed the scrub, which was then burnt-off and subdivided into farm blocks averaging 8000 to 10,000 acres.
Brinsmead
Residential suburb of Cairns, immediately west of Whitfield, formally named in 1975 after the Brinsmead Gap in the Mount Whitfield Range which in turn takes its name from Horace George Brinsmead who came to Cairns from Melbourne around 1881. He obtained land at Freshwater and began cane farming in 1882 on Virginia Plantation.
Broadsound
Electorate created by the 1986 redistribution from parts of Callide and Mirani. Abolished in 1991 and distributed among new electorates (Keppel and Fitzroy) and Mirani.
Shire north-west of Rockhampton administered from St Lawrence, amalgamated with Belyando and Nebo shires in 2008 to form Isaac Regional Council. The northern boundary was near Sarina, and inland the shire adjoined Peak Downs and Belyando Shires.
Stretch of water east of St Lawrence, named by Lieutenant James Cook 1 June 1770.
Bucasia
Residential suburb north-west of central Mackay that takes its name from Father Pierre Bucas who selected 1680 acres of coastal land in 1876 to provide a home for displaced Aboriginal people. The site became became an orphanage, but was moved to Rockhampton because it was thought to sit in a malarial environment. After that the area was known as Seaview, but was renamed Bucasia in 1938 in remembrance of Father Bucas and to avoid confusion with other locations known as Seaview.
Bungalow
Residential suburb of Cairns named after a plantation established by Archdeacon Joseph Campbell for experimental cotton growing, separated from the city centre by Parramatta Park, extending from the showground in Parramatta Park to Chinaman Creek, Woree. Bungalow formerly included the Smiths Creek and Trinity Inlet Wharves, which were redefined as the wharf-side industrial suburb of Portsmith in 1973.