Kuttabul is a rural village on the Bruce Highway and the North Coast railway, 30 km west of Mackay. The place was originally known as Hampden, and the Hampden primary school was opened in 1887. Later known as Mount Jukes, the present name came about in 1927 upon the opening of the Kuttabul railway station. The name is thought to be of Aboriginal origin. (Its relationship with HMAS Kuttabul (1922), the Sydney ferry torpedoed by a Japanese midget submarine in 1942 is obscure, if one exists.)
Farm selections occurred in the Hampden area in the mid-1880s, but transport of sugar cane to a crushing mill was difficult until a tramway to Marian was opened in 1896. The Hampden district then had numerous cane growers, along with cane from the adjoining Mount Jukes Sugar Co. The number of farmers in the Hampden district nearly doubled to over 40 between 1893 and 1902, and according to the post office directory over 20 were exclusively sugar planters. By 1924 there were about another 10 farmers, but Hampden also had a store, a post office and the Ossa Hotel (Mount Ossa is 15 km north-west).
Mount Jukes is five km north-east of Kuttabul. It rises to 547 m and is an igneous rock mass exposed by weathering and erosion. It is in a national park with rainforests and gullies, rare in the predominantly agricultural landscape which has mainly grazing and cane growing.
Kuttabul has a caravan park, a hotel, a butcher, a roadhouse and the Hampden primary school. In 2002 the school restored the Hampden cemetery. Census populations have been:
Census Date | Population | |
---|---|---|
Kuttabul | Hampden | |
1911 | 309 | |
1961 | 240 | |
2006 | 787 | 667 |
2011 | 796 | 589 |