Kilcoy and district DIARY OF DEVELOPMENTS

The site of the 'Town of Kilcoy' was surveyed by W.E. Hill by April 1888, and the first land sale was on November 6 that year. On 1 December 1892, a post office was opened at Kilcoy, and named Hopetoun Post Office, after Louis Hope. The township was referred to unofficially as Hopetoun until when in 1908 the post office name was changed to Kilcoy, and the town's real name came back into general use.

1841 - Mr Evan MacKenzie from the town of Kilcoy in Scotland, took up land and began grazing sheep. Soon after, land was opened up to free settlers. His brother, Colin John MacKenzie, joined him in the running of Kilcoy Station. The property was sold to Charles A. Atherton in 1849. Atherton in turn sold it to Louis Hope and John Ramsay in 1854. The partnership broke up ten years later and Hope became sole owner and built Kilcoy Station homestead of red cedar timber and bricks, which were made on the property. He stayed on in Kilcoy until 1900.

1900 

·  First Police Station built

1901 

·  School at Villeneuve re-named as Westvale School

·  Villeneuve Provisional School opened

1902 

·  Severe drought

·  End of Boer war

·  Durundur lands on Mt Kilcoy thrown open for selection

1903 

·  Exchange Hotel built

1904 

·  Hancock & Gore timber company formed

1905 

·  Kilcoy Methodist Church built

·  St. Mary's Church of England was opened in 1898

1905 

·  Opening of Stanton's Butchery

1906 

·  Telephone line from Woodford to Kilcoy built

1907 

·  Hopetoun Masonic Lodge opened

1907 

·  Hopetoun State School opened on its Royston Street site

·  Kilcoy Provisional School had opened in Hope St in 1892

·  Kilcoy Station sold to Government for purpose of enabling closer settlement

·  William Butler bought the Homestead

·  Union Bank opened

1908 

·  Lanes and Craig's store began business

1907/08 

·  Hopetoun name changed to Kilcoy

1908 

·  Hazeldean Union Church built

1909 

·  St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church opened

1909 

·  Mt Kilcoy School opened

1910/11 

·  Courthouse erected

1910 

·  Herd's Butchery established

1911 

·  Kilcoy School of Arts erected

1911 

·  First private telephone installed in Kilcoy

·  Yednia School opened

·  Newton's Barber Shop opened

1912 

·  Kilcoy Hospital opened

·  Kilcoy Shire Council formed

·  Kilcoy Show began east of Kilcoy Creek

·  First locally owned car arrived in Kilcoy

·  Hancock and Gore's Monsildale sawmill built

·  Louisavale timber mill built

1913 

·  Monsildale Provisional School opened

·  Woodford to Kilcoy rail line opened

·  Mail coaches ceased

·  Kilcoy Post Office erected

1914 

·  Hopetoun State School renamed Kilcoy State School

·  Yednia timber mill re-opened

·  Outbreak of World War one in Europe

1915 

·  Somerset School at Mt Kilcoy opened

·  Louisavale School opened

1917 

·  Forsyth's Tailor Shop in William St destroyed by fire

1918 

·  End of World War One

·  First Kilcoy Show held at Kilcoy Showgrounds

·  Winya School opened

·  Stanley Hotel in Royston Street built

1919c 

·  William Butler Memorial Clock erected

·  Inauguration of Kilcoy's RSL

·  Sheep Station Creek second school opened

·  Thurecht's timber mill established

#  References for the above information is available through the Society.