The area had been occupied by Aboriginal people for thousands of years.
Gangalu (Gangulu, Kangulu, Kanolu, Kaangooloo, Khangulu) is an
Australian Aboriginal language spoken on Gangula country. The Gangula language region includes the towns of
Clermont and Springsure extending south towards the
Dawson River.
Wadja (also known as
Wadjigu,
Wadya,
Wadjainngo,
Mandalgu, and
Wadjigun) is an
Australian Aboriginal language in
Central Queensland. The language region includes the local government areas of the
Aboriginal Shire of Woorabinda and Central Highlands Region, including the
Blackdown Tablelands. the
Comet River, and the
Expedition Range, and the towns of
Woorabinda, Springsure and
Rolleston.
Ludwig Leichhardt was the first European to explore the area, doing so between 1844 and 1845. His favourable reports encouraged settlers to move in and settle the land. In 1861, squatter
Horatio Wills and a party of Victorian settlers arrived near modern-day Springsure in 1861. Two weeks later, 19 men women and children, including Wills, were killed by
Aboriginal Australian people, the Kairi or Gayiri, in the
Cullin-La-Ringo massacre, which was the largest massacre of European settlers by Aboriginal peoples in Australian history. At least 15 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed by the Queensland Native Police and militias of local European colonists and their employees in a series of reprisals over the months that followed. However, the massacre of the 19 European family members was itself a retaliatory response to an earlier shooting of fugitive murderer who was Gayiri tribesman by Jesse Gregson, manager of nearby Rainsworth Station, with Second Lieutenant Alfred March Patrick and Native Police Troops in his command. Prior to the massacre of the 19 colonists, in early 1861 Second Lieutenant Patrick had complained to Charles Dutton, lessee of Bauhinia Downs pastoral lease south-east of Springsure, that other officers in the Queensland Native Police "...had been able to bag their first Aborigine after only a few weeks in the Force; he had served for six months and still had not yet killed a black." The
Old Rainworth Fort was built in 1862 by the colonists of Springsure in order to defend themselves from future raids by Aboriginals. Horatio's son, star
cricketer and
Australian rules football pioneer
Tom Wills, survived the massacre, and remained on site until 1864. The town takes its name from a pastoral run which was first named
Springsure in 1861, after its permanent spring. In 1922, it was replaced by a new church building known as St Andrew's Presbyterian Church. It closed in March 2011 after 145 years. It was at 55 Charles Street (). Springsure State School opened on 14 March 1870 under head teacher John Henry Nicholson, son of an eminent scholar,
John Nicholson, a friend of Ludwig Leichhardt. The Springsure branch railway line opened on 15 August 1887. The section beyond Wurba Junction to Springsure railway station was closed on 26 June 2013. On 6 December 1919, the Springsure State School Memorial Fountain was dedicated by Mrs
Annie Wheeler (née Laurie), a former pupil at the school. The memorial is a marble fountain and commemorates students of the school who served in
World War I. In March 1925, the Rev. Father Thomas Andrew Sweeney arrived in Springsure to replace Rev. Father Jules Bucas as the Catholic priest for the parish. Sweeney saw that there was a need for a Catholic school in Springsure and set about building a school and a convent for its teachers in August 1925. The architect was Roy Chipps and the builder E.H. Fletcher, both of Rockhampton. In January 1926 the school and the convent opened in a ceremony led by
Roman Catholic Bishop of Rockhampton Joseph Shiel. The convent and school were under the control of Sister Mary Bonaventure of the
Sisters of Mercy. The school opened on 2 February 1926 with 64 children. It was originally known as The Convent of the Little Flower, but the name was later changed to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. On 16 November 1943, a Douglas
C-47A Skytrain broke up in mid-air during a violent storm in the area, and crashed on Rewan Station, around 100 km south of Springsure. All 19 people on board the aircraft perished in the crash. Minerva Hills National Park was gazetted in 1994. == Demographics ==