Capella (including Tieri)
A town which services the surrounding coal mines and mixed agricultural area.
Capella is located on the Gregory Highway, 51 km north of Emerald, 241 km from Rockhampton and 705 km north of Brisbane. It is, by any conventional definition, a tiny township that exists because of the the local coal mines and the agricultural activity of the area, which includes the growing of a variety of grains (predominantly sorghum and wheat), sunflowers and beef cattle. It is also the headquarters for the Peak Downs Shire Council.

The first European explorer through the area was Ludwig Leichhardt on his journey through Central Queensland to Port Essington. Apart from discovering the coal deposits in the area Leichhardt was the first European to see the dramatic volcanic plugs of the Peak Range (see entry on Clermont for more detail). He described them as 'a range of noble peaks' and proceeded to name them after members of his expedition.

The Peak Downs area was settled by graziers in the early 1860s and the town of Capella came into existence in 1883. Prior to that the main town in the area had been Lilyvale (supposedly named after the lilies in the local waterhole) which had been surveyed in 1862. However, the railway line bypassed Lilyvale and it was supplanted by Capella.

The Gregory mine (named after the explorer Sir Augustus Charles Gregory who passed through the area in the 1850s) became operational in 1979 and produces about 3 million tonnes of material each year. The coal is transported by rail 275 km to the Clinton coal facilities at Gladstone and shipped to countries as diverse as Japan, Ireland, Algeria, Brazil and Taiwan. The majority of the mine personnel live in Capella and Emerald.

Things to see:  

The Capella Pioneer Village
Situated in Pioneer St, the Pioneer Village is an historic 1869 homestead filled with antique machinery and memorabilia, tel: (07) 4984 9378.

Lilyvale
The few remnants of Lilyvale can be seen at the Lilyvale Waterhole which is on the road out to the Gregory coalmine.

The Gregory Coalmine
Guided tours are available each Tuesday and Thursday, tel: (07) 4982 8200.

Tieri
38 km east of the town is one of the newest settlements in the Central West. Tieri is a mining town which only came into existence in the early 1980s. It is a typical mining town which, as one cynic observed, 'is just a high class camp where people come to make money and leave as soon as they've made enough'.

	Motels
	Bottlebrush Hotel 12 Abor St Capella QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4984 9752
	Capella Motel Slider St Capella QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4984 9177 Rating: **
	Hotels
	Hotel Capella 63 Peak Down St Capella QLD 4702 Telephone: (07) 4984 9379 Rating: **