Early history The
Traditional owner Aboriginal groups in the region are the
Taribelang,
Gooreng Gooreng, Gurang, and Bailai peoples. They are the original inhabitants of the region. A determination of
Native Title was made for all four cultural groups by the
National Native Title Tribunal, pursuant to the
Native Title Act 1993, on 28 November 2017. It was determined that "native title exists in the entire determination area" of Bundaberg,
Gladstone, and the
North Burnett. As such, the Bundaberg Regional Council has reflected this recognition in their "First Nations Strategy 2022-2026", and endeavours to celebrate and embrace the region's "local connections to First Nation Peoples and other cultures". The Burnett River was surveyed by
John Charles Burnett, after whom it was named during his exploration mission of the Wide Bay and Burnett regions in 1847.
British occupation of the land in the region began in 1848 when
pastoral squatters Gregory Blaxland Jnr and
William Forster established a
sheep station. Blaxland was a son of the Blue Mountains explorer,
Gregory Blaxland, and Forster was later to become a
Premier of New South Wales. They selected a very large area of land which encompassed most of the western part of the modern day
Bundaberg Region along the
Burnett River. They named this pastoral lease Tirroan. Blaxland and Forster had previously set up sheep stations near the
Clarence River and had a notable history of conflict with Aboriginal people. Sheep stations imposed on native bushland disrupt native food production, typically resulting in widespread hunger and illness amongst native peoples. Conflict continued at Tirroan when two of their shepherds were killed by Aboriginal people in 1849. Forster and Blaxland led a
punitive expedition causing multiple Aboriginal deaths. Further conflict occurred the following year when Blaxland was clubbed to death. Forster and a number of other squatters conducted another reprisal, resulting in a large massacre of Aboriginal people in scrubland toward the coastal part of Tirroan. In the early 1850s, Forster sold the property to
Alfred Henry Brown who changed the name of the pastoral lease to Gin Gin. At the same time,
Native Police officer,
Richard Purvis Marshall, took up the Bingera leasehold in the rainforest scrubland downstream from Tirroan. Three towns in the Bundaberg region,
Tirroan,
South Bingera and
Gin Gin, commemorate these massive initial leaseholds.
Cattle and logging on the deck of a ship arriving in Bundaberg, 1895 with actors in
blackface, Bundaberg ca. 1930s. Before colonisation, much of the land around the lower reaches of the Burnett River consisted of either the Woongarra Scrub, a subtropical rainforest that stood where most of the Bundaberg canefields now grow, or the Barolin Plains, a lightly timbered grassland that stretched along the coastal fringe. Neither of these areas were suitable for sheep farming but the British soon found that raising cattle was possible. In the early 1860s the first cattle stations in the area were established;
Branyan on the south side of the Burnett River and
Tantitha on the north side. Timber companies, such as that owned by
William Pettigrew, started the logging of the Woongarra Scrub in 1867. The Waterview sawmill became a prominent supplier of timber until its closure in 1903 after being damaged by flood.
Town of Bundaberg In 1867, timber-getters and farmers, John and Gavin Steuart, established the Woondooma property which consisted of a few houses and a wharf on the northern banks of the Burnett River where
Bundaberg North now stands. assisted by James Ellwood and Alfred Dale Edwards, and the town of Bundaberg was gazetted across the river on the higher, southern banks. The first Bundaberg land sale was held in
Maryborough on 11 May 1870 where hotelier John Foley bought the original lots.
Sugar Most of the early settlers exploited the timber and grew maize on their selections but as a result of the incentives of the Sugar and Coffee Regulations of 1864, sugar became a major component in Bundaberg's development from the 1870s. Experimental
sugar cane cultivation in the district was first grown at John Charlton Thompson's
Rubyanna property in 1870 and the first sugar mill was built by Richard Elliot Palmer at his
Millbank plantation in 1872. Bundaberg rapidly became an important sugar production region after the construction of the Millaquin Sugar Refinery at
East Bundaberg by
Robert Cran and his sons in 1882. The
Fairymead sugar processing plant owned by the Young Brothers (Arthur, Horace and Ernest Young) opened in 1884 which further augmented Bundaberg's sugar producing capacity. The initial 35 years of the sugar industry in Bundaberg was reliant on
South Sea Islander workers, who were often
blackbirded and kept in a status close to slavery. The first significant shipload of
Kanaka labour, as it was called, to arrive on the Burnett River came in January 1872 aboard the
Petrel. Allegations of kidnapping and wounding immediately arose concerning the recruitment of the Islanders on this vessel. Influential Bundaberg plantation owners were able to purchase recruiting ships in order to obtain labour directly from areas such as the
Solomon Islands and the
New Hebrides. The Young Brothers owned the
Lochiel and the
May vessels, the Cran family and Frederic Buss were the major investors in the
Helena while the
Ariel was co-owned by a number of local planters. While some of the recruitment was voluntary, violence and deception toward Islanders often took place. For example, the crew of the
Helena fought a battle with the locals of
Ambrym while taking Islanders from there. These labourers had to work for three years and were only paid at the end of this time period. Instead of cash, they usually received substandard goods and trinkets of minimal value as payment. Excessive mortality of the Islanders while serving their term of labour in the Bundaberg region was frequent. Overwork, poor housing, inadequate food, contaminated water supplies and a lack of medical care all contributed to the high death rate. Penalties for the plantation owners whose neglect resulted in these fatalities were rare and did not exceed a £10 fine. Importing South Sea Islander labour was made illegal in 1904 and enforced repatriation of these workers out of Bundaberg and other locations in Queensland occurred from 1906 to 1908. The
1911 Queensland sugar strike occurred after the phasing out of
South Sea Islander labour, with workers claiming that many plantation owners had substituted black indentured labourers (sometimes referred to as slaves) with white ones. Workers sought better accommodation, wages and conditions, including an eight-hour day and a minimum weekly wage of 30 shillings, including food. The mobilisation of unionists from Bundaberg to
Mossman was a major achievement, with the 1911 strike lasting over seven weeks in Bundaberg where the town's economy was largely based on the sugar industry. The end result of the strike was a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the sugar industry in 1911–12, which had been initially requested by Harry Hall, a Bundaberg AWA organiser in 1908 with a petition signed by 1500 Bundaberg sugar workers. The Royal Commission, with ALF Secretary
Albert Hinchcliffe as secretary, concluded the AWA demands had been justified. The union victory was a watershed in organised labour in Queensland and Australia. marquees on Quay Street on the banks of the Burnett River, 1935
Further progress St Joseph's School opened in June 1876. With the passage of the
Local Authorities Act 1902, Barolin Division became the
Shire of Barolin and the Borough of Bundaberg became the
Town of Bundaberg on 31 March 1903. On 22 November 1913, Bundaberg was proclaimed a City. In 1912 Bundaberg pioneering aviator
Bert Hinkler built and successfully flew his own glider on
Mon Repos beach. He also completed a noteworthy non-stop flight from London to Turin in 1920. The following year in 1921 Hinkler flew from
Sydney to Bundaberg, non-stop, in a record breaking flight of 8 and a half hours, in the process beating a telegram he had sent to his mother, to warn her of his arrival. The
Bundaberg War Memorial commemorating those who died in the
Anglo-Boer War and World War I was unveiled by
Major-General Charles Brand on 30 July 1921. The Bundaberg digger was imported from Italy and is constructed of Italian marble. The completed memorial, at a cost of £1,650, was the third most costly to be erected in Queensland. It is a major regional memorial and one of the two most intact digger memorials that remain in their original settings of intersections. The
Bundaberg tragedy of 1928 resulted in the deaths of 12 children in a 24-hour period after they were administered a contaminated
diphtheria vaccine. In 1941 the
Sisters of Mercy purchased the house
Brabourne (originally owned by prominent citizen Frederick Buss) and established St Mary's Hostel, for women and girls working in or visiting Bundaberg. After
World War II, doctors were calling for modern hospital facilities in Bundaberg, so the Sisters converted the hostel into the Mater Private Hospital, a 24-bed hospital with an operating theatre, chapel, and accommodation for the nurses and maids, officially opening on 28 July 1946. The nurses were initially all nuns, but they established a training school for other women to become nurses. The hospital expanded over the years with additional beds, operating theatres, X-ray, pathology and a dedicated children's ward. It was the first hospital in Queensland to use the Zeiss ophthalmic microscope, the first regional hospital in Queensland to have a
lymphoedema clinic, and to use
facial recognition technology for
endoscopic sinus surgery. In the 1960s the township was completely flooded by the Burnett river. In 1967 Bundaberg celebrated its centenary by producing a coin and opening
The Bundaberg and District Historical Museum in the
Bundaberg Botanical Gardens in
Bundaberg North.
Bundaberg in the 21st century In December 2010, Bundaberg suffered its worst
floods in 60 years, when floodwaters from the Burnett River inundated hundreds of homes. Two years later, in January 2013, Bundaberg experienced its worst flooding in recorded history as a result of
Cyclone Oswald. Floodwaters from the Burnett River peaked at 9.53 metres. Over 4,000 properties and 600 businesses had been affected by floodwaters, which moved in excess of . Two defence force Blackhawk helicopters were brought in from Townsville as part of the evacuation operation, which ultimately used an additional 14 aircraft. In March 2026, Bundaberg again experienced major flooding, with the Burnett River expected to peak on Tuesday evening, or Wednesday morning 11 March. Tropical Low 29U crossed the coast in North Queensland on 5 March, before dragging the monsoon trough southwards as the low progressed to the West, bringing rain to much of Queensland. The low then progressed to the coast along the trough, with the rain ending on Monday evening following four days of rain. Riverine flooding began on Tuesday morning as floodwaters from upstream accumulated in the tidal plains of the Burnett River near Bundaberg. The Burnett River's depth rose to over , with more than 200 residents required to leave. Areas in town were flooded including McDonalds, Bundaberg Motor Group, Mitre 10, and
Dan Murphy's. On 6 April 2018,
Prince Charles visited Bundaberg Rum Distillery. He stated, "I'm thrilled that this Distillery's proving to be the one that produces some of the most famous and special of all rums around the world." == Demographics ==