Cecil Plains
Service town for the surrounding rich agricultural land.
There is something quite extraordinary about the dark black soils of the area around Cecil Plains. They look so rich and fertile. Located 212 km west of Brisbane and 84 km west of Toowoomba, Cecil Plains is a tiny settlement which now boasts one of the largest cotton gins in the world. This unusual claim to fame is a direct result of the richness of the local soil and a commitment, in recent years, to making the Darling Downs (from St George in the west and Goondiwindi in the south across to the hills of the Great Divide) one of the richest cotton-producing areas in the southern hemisphere.

The first European in the area was Henry Stuart Russell, a wealthy 22-year-old member of the English upper class, who arrived in 1841, laying claim to land which he later called Cecil Plains Station. It was named after his mother's family - the Cecils, a powerful Tory family who could trace their lineage back to the sixteenth century.

The story is that Russell started from the Condamine River and simply took the best land on either side of this permanent and reliable water course. The result was a parcel of land which stretched from Yandilla station through to Jondaryan.

Russell and his workers erected their tents on a site which subsequently became the location of the station homestead and eventually the site of the township. Unlike many of the other landholders in the area Russell started with cattle. He quickly established himself as one of the most successful graziers in the area.

In 1844 and 1847 Ludwig Leichhardt used Cecil Plains station as the base for his botanical expeditions into the surrounding region. He moved further north to Jimbour for his major journey to Port Essington.

Russell's involvement with Cecil Plains was short-lived. He formed a partnership with James Taylor and in 1848 left Cecil Plains station, never to return. Taylor eventually bought out Russell's share of the property which, by the turn of the century, covered a vast 130 000 acres of the rich black Darling Downs. Although the soil was sufficiently fertile for cultivation the property was used almost exclusively for sheep with the wool being sold to markets as far away as Europe.

The area was to change forever when, in 1916, Cecil Plains station was sold to the Queensland Government. It was subdivided into 185 portions, of which 75 were set aside for the Soldier Settlement Scheme. The vast majority of the new arrivals eked a humble living by a combination of dairy and wheat farming.

The railway arrived in 1919 and while it changed the quality of life for the residents in the area it did little to increase the size of the town. The post office was established at the railway station in 1921 and a police station was built in 1934.

Unbelievably, for an Australian town (which usually starts with an inn) the town did not get its first hotel until 1938. The teetotalers twice voted against a drinking establishment and when the imbibers finally won a third vote they decided to call the hotel 'Victory' as a statement of the triumph of thirst over adversity.

In the mid-1960s, after over a century of cattle and sheep grazing, the area turned its attentions to cotton growing. Since then cotton has become an increasingly important crop and it is common, between April and July, to see the sides of the roads littered with cotton balls which have fallen off trucks taking their loads to the local cotton gin.

Things to see:  

The Cotton Gin
The Cecil Plains gin is open for inspection between April and July. Contact (07) 4668 0106.

	Hotels
	Victory Hotel Taylor St Cecil Plains QLD 4407 Telephone: (07) 4668 0211 Facsimile: (07) 4668 0410
	Restaurants
	Victory Hotel Taylor St Cecil Plains QLD 4407 Telephone: (07) 4668 0211 Facsimile: (07) 4668 0410