Caboolture history

Caboolture is located some 45 minutes from downtown Brisbane, just off the Bruce Highway. The area was first settled in 1842 when the land around the Moreton Bay penal colony was opened up to free settlers.

The area around the Caboolture River was called Kabul-tur by the Brisbane Aborigines, meaning the place of the carpet snakes because these reptiles were plentiful in the region. The river was important for the opening up of the country to white settlement. Timber getters floated red cedar logs down the river, settlers arrived and ferried their supplies in by the same means.

By the mid 1860's the local pastoralists were experimenting with sugar cane and cotton. In 1867 a tiny settlement was established as a supply and trading centre for the settlers in the area and to service the needs of miners trekking from Brisbane to the goldfields near Gympie. The local shire was constituted in 1879 and in 1888 the railway line from Brisbane was opened.

The major components of the local economy are construction, property and business services, retail trade and agriculture. In fact, Caboolture is possibly the largest producer of strawberries in Queensland.