Apple Tree Creek

Apple Tree Creek is a rural town 6 km north-west of Childers on the Isis Highway. The creek is an eastwards-flowing tributary of the Isis River, its name derived from the trees with flowers similar to apple blossom fringing its banks.

Apple Tree Creek, originally known as Bodalla until 1962, was situated in the fertile Isis scrub, first cleared for agriculture in the 1870s. The Apple Tree Creek School was opened in 1887 and a railway line from Childers to Cordalba was opened in 1896. Although bypassing Apple Tree Creek, the line illustrated the development of the district's sugar economy, coming with the opening of CSR's Isis central mill west of Apple Tree Creek. In addition to a few shops Apple Tree Creek had a Methodist church and a band rotunda (1911). Near the rotunda there is a World War I memorial (1921) which is listed on the Queensland heritage register. Ambitions for Apple Tree Creek prompted a town lot subdivision in 1913, however, the project lay dormant until 1989 when demand finally caught up with supply. The school had closed in 1969, a decade or so before Apple Tree Creek experienced the beginnings of a renaissance: in the 1990s the population doubled.

Apple Tree Creek has a notable memorial hall along with a war memorial recording over 70 names, a telling indication of the densely populated farmlands around the Isis central mill. There are also a general store and a hotel. Apple Tree Creek's census populations have been: