Community & Business
8 April, 2025
Clifton 150 years old this year
The town of Clifton will be 150 years old in June this year.
Records show that the township was first surveyed by a Licensed Surveyor, George I. Weale and he completed his work on April 29, 1875.
The first land sale was conducted on June 29, 1875, and only a section of the 16 allotments of one acre each, was sold.
A report in The Clifton Courier on April 5, 2000, quotes a university historian (the university is not named):
“The railway line was completed through Clifton in 1871 and by the year 1876 the population of Clifton was 48 people.
“The first settlement in the area was made in November, 1840 by Messrs King and Sibley who camped near a creek which came to be known as King’s Creek. Subsequently on the bank of that creek the two men erected a bark humpy, and there was born a sheep station.
“In 1884 they sold the station to Sir Francis Forbes, Chief Justice of New South Wales, whose two sons conducted the property.
“Prior to 1849 John Milbourne Marsh purchased the property and named it CLIFTON after his birth place in Westmoreland, England.
“There were four owners of Clifton in quick succession until the Government decided to make a township on the site of the Clifton Pastoral Station.
“The survey of the township was completed in 1875.
“In 1879 the Colony of Queensland was divided into Divisional Boards and the Clifton Divisional Board was formed in 1880, with the first meeting held on February 3, 1890.”
Clifton’s population has fluctuated over the years.
In 1891 the town was home to 278 people.
This rose steadily peaking at 992 in 1921, but then fell for the next 60 years.
The population started to rise again in 2006 when the Census recorded 1067 residents steadily climbing to 1490 in 2021.
The next Census is due in 2026.
