Indigenous The
Baranggum people lived in the region for thousands of years before British colonisation. They spoke the now extinct
Barunggam language. They appear to have had kinship ties with the neighbouring
Mandandanji,
Bigambul and
Yiman people. The name Chinchilla is a corruption of the Aboriginal word "tintinchilla" or "jinchilla" indicating cypress pine, possibly recorded by explorer and naturalist
Ludwig Leichhardt. In 1847, British pastoralist squatter, Matthew Buscall Goggs, claimed around 37,000 acres of land along the Condamine River and Charleys Creek, calling his property Chinchilla. He fought a long war with the resident Baranggum people to take ownership. In 1849, with the help of military actions of
Native Police units under
Frederick Walker, Goggs was able to defeat and disperse most of the Baranggum resistance. In 1857, Goggs the sold Chinchilla property for £25,000 to the influential pastoralist and politician
Gideon Lang. The town of Chinchilla was established in 1877. As the
Western railway line was extended west across the
Darling Downs from
Toowoomba and
Dalby, a temporary construction camp was established on the banks of Charley's Creek which developed into a town. Chinchilla Post Office opened on 3 January 1878.
Civic infrastructure and schools Chinchilla State School opened on 22 January 1883. A secondary department was opened in 1954, closing in 1963 when Chinchilla State High School opened. Mulga Provisional School opened circa 1896. On 1 January 1909, it became Mulga State School. Between 1914 and 1915, the school operated as a half-time school, sharing a single teacher with Hill Top Provisional School (later Boonarga State School). It closed in 1915 but reopened as the full-time Mulga State School in 1917. It closed circa 1943. Monmouth Provisional School opened on 16 August 1904. On 1 January 1909, it became Monmouth State School.It closed in April 1921, reopening as Monmouth Provisional School in 1930. It closed circa 1946. The tramway operated until 1970. It was a gauge tramway. Speculation Provisional School opened in 1908 and closed circa 1915. Gunbar Provisional School opened on 9 July 1919 as a half-time school in conjunction with Wombo Creek Provisional School. It closed circa 1925–1926. It was established by three
Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart with an initial enrolment of 63 students. Since 1992 the school has operated under
lay leadership. The town saw a resurgence after the defeat of the
prickly pear. Experimental work took place in the town to assess the success of the
Cactoblastis cactorum moths in the eradication of the pest. In 1926, the first moth was released and by 1933 most of the affected land had been cleared of prickly pears. Oak Park State School opened on 13 February 1946. It closed in 1962. The Warwick Public Library opened in 1999 with a major refurbishment in 2012 and a minor refurbishment in 2016. • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 5.8% of the population. • 80.2% of people were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was New Zealand at 1.6%. • 84.5% of people spoke only English at home. • The most common responses for religion were Catholic 20.1%, Anglican 20.1% and No Religion 18.7%. In 2018, Chinchilla won a national competition run by
Wotif to create the
Next Big Thing as a new tourist attraction. The long Big Melon was installed next to the town's information centre in November 2018. == Demographics ==