William LandsboroughPrint Page

(State Library of Queensland)

The monument commemorates the explorer, William Landsborough, who passed through the area in 1856.

The area was explored by Leichhardt in 1845 who followed the Isaac River in the west of the shire, but it was William Landsborough in 1856 who named Nebo Creek and a prominent nearby mountain, Fort Cooper.

The little town of Nebo, 62 miles south-west of Mackay and on the direct route to Clermont and Blair Athol, was originally named Fort Cooper. The creek on which it stands was named Nebo Creek by the explorer Landsborough after Mt. Nebo in the ancient land of Moab where Moses died in sight of the Promised Land. The official name of Fort Cooper led to some confusion because of Fort Cooper station and residents called their settlement Nebo.

The Nebo district was discovered In the year 1856 by a young Scotchman named William Landsborough, who was interested in the pastoral industry on the Burnett River and did some exploring on his own account. He named Nebo Creek, Cooper Creek, and Fort Cooper Mountain. A little grassy mountain nearby on the bank of Cooper Creek, he named Mount Landsborough. Here he camped for some time exploring the country within several miles. In fact it was at this camp that a little later Fort Cooper station was founded but shortly after was shifted about eight miles to the west where a homestead was built on a lagoon near Bee Creek.
Daily Mercury (Mackay, Qld.), 8 September 1947.