Westwood
Postcode: 4702
The township of Westwood is located in Central Queensland, Australia, approximately 50 kilometres west of the city of Rockhampton. The area is administered by the Fitzroy Shire Council.
The Capricorn Highway passes through the town, and the intersection with the Leichhardt Highway is a few kilometres to the west. The major industry of the area is cattle grazing.
Westwood is today a handful of houses, a hotel, and a police station. In 1867, the Great Northern Railway reached the area from Rockhampton, and Westwood became the railhead. The first load of wool was railed from the town on August 23. The town was meant to be the railhead for only a short time, however, bureaucracy and financial difficulties for the state meant that the next section of the line did not commence construction until 1873. The significance of Westwood declined when the railhead moved further west.
Westwood is a tiny village on the main highway between Rockhampton and Emerald, on a road that angles west and north. In earlier days it was an important staging post for settlers travelling north up the ‘downs’ country, allowing them easy access to the coast over an otherwise quite steep escarpment. Here herds of cattle and wheeled vehicles could quite easily reach the river port and towns were spaced in easy day-trek distances.