Gympie

Gympie is a town in southeast Queensland, on the Mary River north of the Sunshine Coast. It takes its name from gympie-gympie, the Kabi Kabi word for the stinging tree that grows in the forests of the region.

James Nash found gold on a creek near the river in 1867, at a time when the colony of Queensland was close to bankruptcy, and the rush that followed is said to have saved its finances. The camp was first called Nashville and took its present name the next year. Deep reef mines worked the field into the 1920s, and their headframes, batteries and offices are shown at the Gympie Gold Mining and Historical Museum. When the gold ran out the town turned to dairy farming and timber from the Mary Valley. Andrew Fisher worked as a miner in Gympie, entered the Queensland parliament as its member and later served three times as prime minister of Australia.

Nolan Meats, a family company based in Gympie, processes beef from cattle raised on farms around the town. Macadamia nuts, pineapples and ginger grow on the slopes of the Mary Valley south of the town.

The Mary Valley Rattler, a heritage steam train, runs from the old Gympie station through farmland to the village of Amamoor. Each August the Gympie Music Muster, a country music festival, fills a forest camping ground near Amamoor with stages and tents. To the east, the Cooloola section of Great Sandy National Park has colored sand cliffs and freshwater lakes behind a long surf beach.