Greenmount
Postcode: 4359
Greenmount, formerly known as Greenmount West, and prior to that as Emu Creek, is a rural town on the Darling Downs in the state of Queensland, Australia. It is located just off the New England Highway 28 km south of the regional city of Toowoomba, in Cambooya Shire. The region was settled by graziers in the 1840s; farming activities remain the chief source of employment in Greenmount today.
From 1890-1920 the area became a major producer of dairy products and around 1893 it became the first town on the Darling Downs to establish its own cheese factory.
The tiny hamlet’s only claim to fame today is the fact that Arthur Hoey Davis (‘Steele Rudd’) lived at Emu Creek for 12 years. He was born in Drayton in 1868 and was largely self educated having left school at the age of 12. He worked as a farmhand for five years before leaving the area and moving to Brisbane where he got a job as a clerk. During this time he started writing humorous sketches about rowing for the Brisbane Chronicle. He initially signed his pieces Steele Rudder (a combination of the English essayist Richard Steele and the steering mechanism of a boat) but he later contracted this to Steele Rudd. By 1895 he was writing for the Bulletin and over the next four years he became such a regular and popular contributor that in 1899 a collection of his pieces titled On Our Selection was published. In this collection he created the memorable characters of Dad and Dave.