Rockhampton, city and commercial centre for a large part of central Queensland, Australia, at the head of ocean navigation on the Fitzroy River, 38 miles (60 km) upstream from its mouth on Keppel Bay. The town was laid out in 1858 on Gracemere Station and its name chosen in reference to rock formations in the river and to Hampton, England. Proclaimed a municipality in 1860, it began to grow after gold, tin, and copper were found in the interior at Canoona and Peak Downs. Its development was stimulated by the completion in 1867 of a railroad over the Eastern Highlands, by the discovery in the 1880s of gold at Mount Morgan (22 miles [35 km] south), and by the introduction of refrigerated meat boats. Declared a borough in 1883, it became the City of Greater Rockhampton in 1960.
Located on the Bruce Highway and the Great Northern Railroad to Brisbane, some 325 miles (525 km) southeast, Rockhampton continues to serve the grain, cattle, and sheep lands to the west. Its more immediate hinterland yields tropical fruits, corn (maize), and dairy products; gold, copper, pyrites, limestone, salt, and coal (at Moura and Blair Athol) are mined farther west. The city is served by Port Alma, its deepwater outport at the mouth of the Fitzroy. Rockhampton has facilities for processing meat, butter, and fruit; railroad workshops; fertilizer, chemical, soap, and cement plants; and cotton ginneries. A tourist base for the Great Barrier Reef offshore, the city has botanic gardens and celebrates an annual eisteddfod, a Welsh cultural festival. In late 2010 and early 2011, unusually heavy rains caused the Fitzroy to overrun its banks, and the city was almost completely inundated. Pop. (2006) urban agglom., 68,837; (2011) regional council, 76,777.