Howard – Burrum District History

Van Cooten's Old Store - Upper Steley Street, Howard - 1931

This image is kindly provided by the Burrum and District Heritage Society Inc.

Eighteen miles north of Maryborough, near the banks of the Burrum River, lies the Town of Howard. 

According to Historical Society of Queensland records, Howard was named after pioneer William Howard, who had come to Maryborough in 1857 as a young man and travelled extensively through the district.  William has been credited with the exploring the Isis Scrub and assessing its value for timber getting.  William Howard later became identified with coal mining in the Burrum River area and died in Bundaberg on 31 July, 1930, aged 92 years.

A different account of the source for the township’s name comes from local government records held by the John Oxley Library, Brisbane.  These records state:

HOWARD:  A township, railway station and coalmining area on the Sunshine Route, 18 miles north of Maryborough, named by the Douglas Government after George Howard, son of an English doctor who came to Australia in 1831 aged 21 and settled in Tasmania.  In 1853, he took over the Maryborough Inn at the corner of Kent and Richmond streets and proved the existence of the Burrum coalfields.  He died in 1883.  Prior to 1881, the settlement was known as The Burrum, after the river on which it stood.  Burrum is an Aboriginal word referring to the presence of rocks that prevented navigation of the river which runs into Hervey Bay. 

References

Burrum & District Heritage Society Inc. (2009). The Burrum: Pioneers of Howard, Torbanlea, Toogoom & Burrum Heads.  Howard (QLD): Burrum & District Heritage Society Inc.