Kanimbla
Residential suburb of Cairns, formally named in 1989 taking in sections of Manoora and Mooroobool. MV Kanimbla was a coastal passenger vessel, wartime landing ship in the South West Pacific and a postwar tour ship in north Queensland.
Karumba
Coastal town at the mouth of the Norman River downstream from Normanton. Originally known as Kimberley, the settlement was slated to be the terminal of the overseas cable from Java before the cable route was changed to Darwin. Kimberley was, however, a significant port for vessels trading in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The name was changed to Karumba, thought to be an Aboriginal name for the locality in the early twentieth century. The closure of the Croydon golf field after 1913 affected Normanton and Karumba and while a meat works operated in the 1930s, and a sheltered part of the river was used as to refuel pre-war flying boats the district continued in the doldrums until the fifties, when basic services and accommodation were established for fishing, and hunting pigs, ducks and crocodiles.
Things picked up after 1963, when prawn fishing and processing commenced, and live cattle export facilities went in. Tourism became significant, particularly attracting sport and recreational fishers. Prawn processing has increasingly moved offshore, with 'mother' ships freezing the catch for direct transport overseas. The port was enlarged in the late 1990s to export lead and zinc concentrates from Pasminco's mine at Lawn Hill.
Keerweer (Cape)
Coastal feature, the first given a European name bestowed in any part of Australia after the Duyfken, under the command of Captain Willem Jansz sailed south-east from the coast of New Guinea and coasted down the western shore of Cape York Peninsula. Running short of water and provisions, the captain turned back after reaching Cape Turnagain. Flinders confirmed the Dutch name in 1802 from respect to antiquity.
Kelso
Residential suburb south-west of Townsville along the western side of the Upper Ross River named in 1968 after a local farmer.
Kennedy
Electorate created by the Additional Members Act of 1864 stretching from Cardwell to Mackay and encompassing the Burdekin River system. Gradually shrunk and the remnant was included in the new seat of Haughton in 1949.
Kingsborough
Former mining settlement in the Hodgkinson Minerals Area, on Caledonia Creek, named after Henry King, the MLA for Wide Bay and Secretary for Public Works and Mines (1874-76).
Kirwan
Residential suburb of Townsville named in 1968 after an early farming family. Prior to residential development, the area was farmland that had been occupied by air force hangars during World War II. Settlement in the area started at a bend on the Ross River where a camping reserve was set aside for travellers on the Charters Towers Road. Eight years later families petitioned for a school, and the Ross River provisional school was opened on a site excised from the camping reserve.
Suburban Kirwan grew quickly, with primary and high schools and shopping centres at the intersection of Herveys Range Road and Upper Ross River Road, (Thuringowa Central), Willows Shopping Town, Sunland Plaza, Parkside and Mount View.
Kowanyama
Aboriginal community on the western side of Cape York Peninsula, due west of Cooktown and immediately south of Pormpuraaw. It is around 30 km from the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, close to the Mitchell River Delta, and Kowanyama is an Aboriginal word describing the 'many waters' of the delta. In 1905, an Anglican Aboriginal mission was established on Topsy Creek, but in 1919 it was moved northwards to Mitchell River. The mission was badly damaged by a cyclone in 1964, rebuilt and transferred to the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs in 1967.
Kuranda
Rural town north-west of Cairns. It is thought that the name was derived from an Aboriginal word describing the flax or stream lily (Helmholtzia acorifolia). Situated upstream of a series of waterfalls on the Barron River, Kuranda dates back to 1885 when farm selectors started to take up sites a year after the route for a railway from Cairns to the tin mines at Herberton was approved. The route wound its way up the Barron Valley, passing through Kuranda. The township was surveyed by Thomas Behan in 1888, and the railway line arrived three years later.
Farmers grew coffee until severe frosts in the early 1900s wiped out the harvest and raised small dairy herds, but timber was the town's main industry. While scrub was cleared for farming, much of the rainforest around the Barron Valley remained intact, and in time became a tourist attraction catering to locals on holiday and honeymooners. The 'Maze' (1923), renamed 'Paradise', and the 'Fairyland' tea garden were reached by the scenic railway which passed through 15 hand-made tunnels and crossed several gorges, traversing spectacular scenery. The Kennedy Highway was opened to provide access by road in 1938.
From the late 1960s alternative lifestylers and Cairns residents wanting an out-of-town lifestyle brought a population influx as communes and open-air market stalls selling local produce and hand made wares flourished with tourism as the backbone of the local economy.
Scenic Railway, thirty-seven kilometres of line, which takes an hour and three quarters to ascend. Construction began in 1882, and many lives were lost as 15 hand-made tunnels, 93 curves and 37 bridges were built on the way to the top of the Macalister Range at Myola (327.1 metres). Three million cubic metres of earth had to be excavated during construction. There were three separate contracts for lengths of 13.2km, 24.5 km, and 37.4km, with Sections One and Three relatively easy to locate and construct.
Section One ran from Cairns to beyond Redlynch. The contract was won by Mr. P.C. Smith for $40,000, but working conditions in the swamps and jungles were difficult, and sickness among the workers was rampant. Smith relinquished the contract, which was taken over by McBride and Co., but they too had packed it in by January 1887. Section one was finally completed by the Queensland Government.
John Robb’s tender of $580,188 for Section Two reflected the extreme danger involved with construction through steep grades, treacherous conditions, dense jungle and resistance from Aboriginal people defending their territory. Deep cuttings and extensive embankments removed totalled just over 2.3 million cubic metres of earth. At one stage, 1500 mainly Irish and Italian men were involved in the construction.
Kuridala
Former mining settlement south of Cloncurry in the northern foothills of the Selwyn Range where ore deposits were discovered as early as 1884. A Melbourne syndicate acquired the rights to the Hampden copper deposit in 1897, and developed the mine after copper prices climbed enough to justify the expenditure. After the railway system reached Cloncurry a 70 km extension was needed to carry Hampden's copper to Cloncurry and the line opened in 1910. The township was named Gulatten, then Friezland, and, due to anti-German sentiment during World War I, Kuridala, an Aboriginal word thought to describe the eagle hawk.
Wartime demand kept world copper prices high, but in 1920 copper prices collapsed. By the following year the population had halved. The hospital, picture theatre and court house were pulled down and re-erected in the new town at Mount Isa. Other buildings including the police residence and many private houses were moved to Cloncurry.
Kurrimine Beach
Coastal locality 30 km south of Innisfail, was originally named Murdering Point, after the discovery of two bodies in 1878, believed to be the survivors the 'Riser', which foundered on Kings Reef. The locality's renaming as Kurrimine appears to have occurred in the postwar years with the new name thought to derive from an Aboriginal expression meaning sunrise.
Kuttabul
Rural locality on the Bruce Highway, 30 km west of Mackay originally known as Hampden and later as Mount Jukes. The present name came about in 1927 when the Kuttabul railway station was opened. The name is thought to be of Aboriginal origin. The area was first settled in the mid-1880s, but transporting sugar cane to a mill was difficult until a tramway to Marian opened in 1896.