Gin Gin, Queensland 5.06

Gin Gin is a small town and rural locality in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia.It is located on the Bruce Highway, approximately 51km west of Bundaberg and 370km north-west of Brisbane, the state capital. The town owes its existence to its strategic location about halfway between Brisbane and Rockhampton. It is often used as a stop-over point for drivers travelling between these two centres. In the 2011 census, Gin Gin had a population of 1,190 people.HistoryThe town name Gin Gin was derived from the original station name, which used a local Aboriginal word indicating "red soil thick scrub".The Gin Gin district was originally settled in 1847 when Gregory Blaxland and William Forster moved into the area with sheep and cattle. The site where the town now stands was once part of the sprawling Gin Gin Station owned by Sir Thomas McIlwraith, who was Premier of Queensland three times between 1879 and 1893.The Gin Gin district is nicknamed Wild Scotsman Country due to the capture of one of Queensland's few bushrangers, James Alpin McPherson, in the area on 30 March 1866. McPherson, who went by the same nickname, was captured at Monduran Station, 13km north of town.