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Prior to European settlement, the Gladstone region was home of the Baiali (or Byellee) and Goreng goreng Aboriginal tribes.
In May 1770, the HM Bark Endeavour, under the command of James Cook, sailed by the entrance to Gladstone Harbour under the cover of darkness. Matthew Flinders, during his 1801-1803 circumnavigation of Australia, became the first recorded European to sight the harbour in August 1802. He named the harbour Port Curtis, after Admiral Roger Curtis, a man who was of assistance to Flinders years earlier at the Cape of Good Hope. John Oxley conducted further exploration of the harbour and surrounding countryside in November 1823. Oxley was dismissive of the region, noting the harbour was difficult to enter, the countryside was too dry, and the timber useless for construction purposes.
Nevertheless, a colony was eventually established at Port Curtis. Colonel George Barney's expedition was eventful. On January 25, 1847, the Lord Auckland, carrying 87 soldiers and convicts, arrived off the southern entrance of Port Curtis and promptly ran aground on shoals off the southern tip of Facing Island. The settlers spent seven weeks on the island before being rescued by the supply ship Thomas Lowry and delivered the intended site of settlement, the region now known as Barney Point.
On January 30 at a proclamation ceremony, Barney was officially sworn in as Lieutenant Governor of the colony of North Australia. The convict settlement lasted barely two months. A change of government in Britain ordered the withdrawal of Barney and the settlers. However, interest in the region remained. By 1853, Francis MacCabe was surveying the site of a new town on the shores of Port Curtis. Maurice O'Connell was appointed government resident the following year, resulting in an influx of free settlers as land became available throughout the region. In 1863, the town became a Municipality with Richard Hetherington elected Gladstone's first mayor.
The fledgling town was named after the British Statesman William Gladstone and has a 19th century marble statue on display in its town museum.
Development of Gladstone was slow until 1893, when a meatworks was established at Parsons Point. In 1963, Queensland Alumina Limited established its alumina refinery on the site of the old meatworks. Gladstone's port facilities were expanded and the city launched into an era of industrial development and economic prosperity.
In the sister city program, Gladstone is twinned with the Japanese port of Saiki.
Moving onto today...
Gladstone LNG is a planned liquefied natural gas plant at Fishermans Landing on Curtis Island at Gladstone, Queensland in Australia. It will be the first LNG plant in the world to convert coalbed methane to LNG. The project was announced in July 2007.
The LNG plant is estimated to cost A$7.7 billion (US$7.4 billion). Its annual capacity will be between 3 million and 4 million tonnes of LNG. The coalbed methane for the LNG production will be provided from Greater Fairview and Roma fields. The project also includes construction of the 450 kilometres (280 mi) gas pipeline from gas fields to Gladstone.
The pre-front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) will becarried out by Foster Wheeler and Bechtel. The project FEED would start in late 2008. The plant is expected to be commissioned in 2014.
The developer of the project is Santos Ltd. On 29 May 2008, Santos announced that Malaysian gas company Petronas will have 40% in the project.
TIME LINE OF INDUSTRIAL GROWTH
1853 The township of Gladstone begins
1896 Gladstone Meatworks is established
1897 Rail link from Brisbane is completed
1914 Gladstone Harbour Board is formed
1934 The meatworks is expanded
1949 The first Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht race is held
1963 The meatworks closes
1960 The town’s population is 7,200 with a port trade of 202,000 tonnes
1964 Queensland Alumina Ltd (QAL) commences construction
1967 Gladstone-Moura rail link is completed and QAL produces its first alumina
1970 Population is 14,000
1971 Queensland’s largest power station commences construction in Gladstone
1976 The power station commences generation and Gladstone is declared a city
1980 The population is 23,000, port trade is 17 million tonnes and Boyne Island and Tannum Sands are linked by bridge
1981 Queensland Cement Ltd (now Cement Australia) commences clinker production
1982 Boyne Smelters Ltd (BSL) commences aluminium production
1987 Marina opens as a small craft facility
1990 Orica (originally ICI) and Ticor (originally Minproc) commence chemical production
1994 Central Queensland University (CQU) establishes its Marina Campus
1993 Gladstone State Development Area (GSDA) established to west of Gladstone by Queensland Government
1996 Port trade is 38 million tonnes and the region’s population is 44,127
1997 Major expansion of Boyne Smelter raising the smelter’s capacity from 260,000 tonnes per annum to 530,000 tonnes per annum
1999 Stuart Oil Shale Project commences a demonstration plant and Port trade is 43 million tonnes
1999 Gladstone Economic and Industry Development Board established
2000 Port trade is 50 million tonnes
2001 Region’s population is 50,000 with a city population of 28,000
2002 Gladstone Area Water Board raises the Dam wall at Lake Awoonga increasing storage capacity from 283,000 to 777,000 megalitres
2002 Comalco Alumina Refinery commences construction
2003 Official opening of CQU’s Process Engineering and Light Metals (PELM) Centre
2003 GSDA extended to include 21,000 hectares
2004 Port trade is over 60 million tonnes
2005 Official Opening of Comalco Alumina Refinery Stage 1
Information courtesy of gladstoneindustry.org.au
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