Towns in Australia

Exploring Australia, town by town

Bell QLD

Bell

Postcode: 4408

Bell is nestled in the foothills of the Bunya Mountains of Queensland, Australia. It is in the local government area of the Wambo Shire Council.

It links the agricultural areas of the Darling Downs and the South Burnett via the Bunya Highway. Bell is known for it’s traditional country crafts and activities such as horse race meetings, show, rodeo and campdraft competitions and a wide variety of community events.

The Bell Line has the honour of being the most cheaply constructed line built by the Queensland Railways. As an experiment the line was built using the “packed earth” method whereby the sleepers were laid directly onto the ground in a shallow channel, which was subsequently filled with dirt removed to form the channel. Initially no ballast was used on the line.

By 1907 the Bell township contained four residences, one hotel, one private dwelling and two government buildings.

The first Bell School located on several acres of land south of the township across the railway in the now McPhee Street was established in 1907 following earnest petitioning of education authorities to meet the growing need of the new town and settlers moving in. A workshop and residence are presently on this site.