Bouldercombe, a rural town, is 25 km south of Rockhampton on the road to Mount Morgan.
The Bouldercombe district was first known by the sites of minor gold discoveries in the 1860s, Crocodile Creek and Gavial Creek. Gold mining continued intermittently, extending to creek dredging in 1900-19, which met with difficulties from large boulders in the creek bed. The state of the creek bed suggests the origin of Bouldercombe's name, although that is not officially verified.
Apart from mining, Bouldercombe became a dairying and orchard area for Rockhampton. Dairying ended in the late 1940s, but orcharding, particularly citrus, continued beyond then. As Rockhampton expanded with a demand for building materials, a brickworks was opened at Bouldercombe in 1976.
Bouldercombe has a primary school (1871), a public hall, a recreation reserve and sports complex, and a general store. Its census populations have been:
| Census Date | Population |
|---|---|
| 1911 | 165 |
| 1947 | 248 |
| 1966 | 196 |
| 2001 | 600 |
| 2006 | 709 |
| 2011 | 1132 |
Grace Johansen, Pioneers to prosperity: a history of Fitzroy Shire, Rockhampton, Central Queensland University Press, 2003
