Shire of Peak Downs was a local government area in the Central Highlands of Queensland, Australia, 320 km west of both Rockhampton and Mackay. In 2008, the Shire was amalgamated into the Central Highlands Regional Council.
It had about 4,000 inhabitants, the primary economic activities in the shire are coal mining, farming and grazing.
The Shire is part of the Bowen Basin, a major coal deposit. Mining began in the shire in the late 1970s with the opening of Gregory Mine in 1979, which was followed by Mount Isa Mines' Oaky Creek Coal Mine in 1983. Oaky Creek was also the reason behind the construction of the township of Tieri, whose sole purpose was to house the workforce that was required to operate Oaky Creek. Three more mines were opened in the 1990s – Ensham/Yongala, Crinum and Gordonstone (later purchased by Rio Tinto and renamed Kestrel Mine).
Peak Downs is also an area of intensive agricultural production, which is made possible by its black soil plains and is typified by the abundance and variety of grains in the Shire. Grains planted include sorghum, wheat, barley, sunflower and more recently chickpeas.
Famous quotes containing the words peak and/or downs:
“I think I’ve been good, but I want to be better. I think women reach their peak in their mid-thirties.”
—Mary Decker Slaney (b. 1958)
“Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily her own tail? If you could look with her eyes, you might see her surrounded with hundreds of figures performing complex dramas, with tragic and comic issues, long conversations, many characters, many ups and downs of fate,—and meantime it is only puss and her tail.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)