Stalworth, Queensland
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Stalworth | |||||||||||||
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  Stalworth | |||||||||||||
 Interactive map of Stalworth | |||||||||||||
| Coordinates: 26°06′39″S 151°35′44″E / 26.1108°S 151.5955°E | |||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||
| State | Queensland | ||||||||||||
| LGA | |||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||
| Government | |||||||||||||
| • State electorate | |||||||||||||
| • Federal division | |||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||
• Total | 45.1 km2 (17.4 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||
| • Total | 37 (2021 census)[1] | ||||||||||||
| • Density | 0.820/km2 (2.125/sq mi) | ||||||||||||
| Time zone | UTC+10:00 (AEST) | ||||||||||||
| Postcode | 4613 | ||||||||||||
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Stalworth is a rural locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia.[2] In the 2021 census, Stalworth had a population of 37 people.[1]
Okeden Road forms most of the south-western boundary of the locality.[3]
Hopefield is a neighbourhood in the centre of the locality (26°07′00″S 151°36′00″E / 26.1166°S 151.6°E).[4]
The land use is predominantly grazing on native vegetation with some crop growing and plantation forestry.[3]
History
The locality was officially named and bounded by government on 16 October 1998,[2] although the locality name has been used since the earliest days of settlement.
A hall was built at Stalworth which hosted dances and social events for many years. It opened on Saturday 21 September 1929.[5] It was later extended with significant alternations and improvements which were opened on Saturday 3 March 1934.[6][7] Church services and activities were also held in the hall regularly.[8][9] A Stalworth branch society within the Christian Endeavour movement met in the hall and they hosted the Weinholt Christian Endeavour Union rally there in 1937.[10] The hall was on the south-west corner of the intersection of Speedwell Abbeyward Road and Stalwood Road (approx 26°06′31″S 151°35′46″E / 26.1085°S 151.5962°E).[11]
Other social activities in the district included the formation of a Stalworth local soccer team.[12]
There was also a cheese factory at Stalworth for a short time. Newspaper articles from 1925 report that it was destroyed by fire on 30 December 1924 along with the adjoining residence,[13] and the circumstances were regarded as suspicious with the possibility of insurance fraud.[14] It was insured for £1100[14] and was owned at the time by E.V.Hobbs who did not reside there but engaged a caretaker.[15] The caretaker was James Wardill.[16] A local farmer giving evidence at the subsequent inquiry held in Wondai Court House[16] testified that the factory had by then been in disuse for many years,[17] however the owner testified that his son-in-law had operated the cheese plant for a short time between approximately 1919 and 1922 generating turnover to the value of £6000.[15] An advertisement was placed in the Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser newspaper on 6 June 1917 calling for tenders to construct the Stalworth cheese factory by its proprietor E.T.Howes of Memerambi.[18]
One of the first settlers in the district was Sydney Shaw, who subsequently became the first teacher at nearby Abbeywood State School.[19]
Communication services were established relatively early. Telephone was first made available at Stalworth on 25 March 1926.[20] Further, the district is mentioned in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 23 June 1932 when the Postmaster General was calling for tenders for mail delivery in the area - "Proston and Proston, via Block 10, Stalworth Post Office, Slingers and Jingeri letter-box, twice a week. Tenderers to state additional price required for three trips a week."[21]
