Surat (Queensland)

Surat is a small country town in the southeast of the Australian state of Queensland. This is located on the Balonne River, about 75 km south of Rome and about 450 km west of Brisbane. By car it is reached by the Carnarvon Highway and the Surat Developmental Road. At the 2006 census, 436 inhabitants were counted.

History

The area was first mapped in 1846 by Surveyor - General Sir Thomas Mitchell. End of the 1840s to pastoralists had settled in the area and in 1849 commissioned Mitchell one of his surveyor named Burrowes, to select a site for a settlement on the Balonne River. Burrowes did this and named the new town after the Indian city of Surat diamond cutters, where he had lived earlier.

Economy

South of the city there are oil fields.