Oakhurst and Yengarie

Oakhurst and Yengarie are seven km north-east and nine km south-east of central Maryborough. Both are on the North Coast railway line, and at one time were rail stopping places. Until 2008 Oakhurst was shared by Woocoo Shire and Maryborough City.

Yengarie began as an abattoir, boiling-down works and meat extract plant owned by Robert Tooth and Robert Cran Senior in the early 1860s. It is thought that the name derived from an Aboriginal expression meaning 'go away'; whether that arose from the effluvium from the boiling-down works is unrecorded. Tooth and Cran turned their attention to the sugar industry around Maryborough, and in 1868 started their technologically advanced Yengarie sugar mill. Further refinery plant was added in 1869, and the partners also had extensive local cane plantations.

Yengarie became a small village with shops, a primary school (No 121, c1875), a Catholic church and sports and social activities. Goods were transported from the Yengarie wharf on Graham Creek, a few kilometres upstream from the Mary River. The mill was a landmark, operating until 1900. Over 100 years after it was built, the mill's brick chimney stood above Yengarie's ruins.

Oakhurst was a locality on the railway line, unnoticed in post office directories until the 1940s. The 1949 directory recorded a few dairy farmers, market gardeners and fuel dealers at Oakhurst. The locality was partly in Woocoo Shire, which was headquartered in Brooweena, about midway between Maryborough and Biggenden. In 1998 the shire erected new offices in Oakhurst, coinciding with rural/residential growth and a few housing estates.

Census populations have been:

^*Woocoo Shire incl Yengarie
^**Maryborough City