Ilfracombe

Welcome to Ilfracombe

Ilfracombe (pronounced; Ill – fra – combe) is located 28km due East of Longreach on the Landsborough Highway and was named after a small Devonshire town in England.

Ilfracombe is located in the heart of Queensland, Australia, between Longreach and Barcaldine. The Ilfracombe district was explored by the New South Wales Surveyor-General, Thomas Mitchell in 1846, by Edmund Kennedy in 1847 and by William Landsborough in 1862.

Long before the railway reached its way to Ilfracombe, wool transport consisted of giant wool laden wagons drawn by up to 30 horses, taking three months to carry the load of wool over the 650 kilometres to the nearest port, which then was Rockhampton. The town had three hotels with plenty of accommodation, each with its own dance hall, two general stores, a billiard saloon, a coach builder, a soft drink maker, a couple of butchers, a baker, dressmaker, three commission agents, and a saddler. Today there are just over 268 people living in the Ilfracombe area.

In 1872, Alexander Buchanan acquired one million acres of land which became Wellshot Station. Partnerships were formed with Scottish and New Zealand financiers in order to develop the property and build permanent water holes. To this day, visitors can still see the flagstones at the 12 mile that were cleverly placed to not only catch water, but to reduce erosion. In 1893, modern technology made it possible to sink a bore one km deep underground. Precious water flowed across the country and made it possible for the land to carry more sheep than ever before. Because of this, Wellshot Station was the largest sheep station in Australia.

Ifracombe was founded in 1891 as a transport hub for Wellshot Station, which at the time held the largest number of sheep on any station in the world. The shire also claimed the record of the largest mob of sheep ever moved as a single flock in 1886. 43,000 sheep were moved through the area by a droving team of 27 horsemen, not including the cooks, blacksmiths and hands needed to accompany the drovers.

The railway arrived in 1891, and the town was renamed Ilfracombe to avoid confusion with the station. The town was thriving in its day, and a forward thinker by the name of Patrick Finn from Barcaldine decided to pull down his pub in Barcaldine and cart it by bullock teams to Ilfracombe where he rebuilt it before the railway actually arrived. He called it the Wellshot Hotel, which still stands and operates today.