page_title: Tregony, Queensland
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tregony, Queensland / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Memorial to explorer Allan Cunningham, Cunningham's Gap, ca. 1945. In 1827 Allan Cunningham discovered the Darling Downs and found the gap in the ranges, now bearing his name, which he thought would give access from Moreton Bay to the downs. He considered the fine grazing country of the Downs to be his greatest discovery.
context_page_description: Tregony is a locality in the Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It is one of the major gateways to the Darling Downs from the Queensland coast.
context_section_description: Although not called Tregony at that time, the area was of great interest to early explorers. The Darling Downs was seen as having great agricultural potential but initial access to the area was via an overland route through inland New South Wales, which would create an unreasonable time and cost barrier for trade. A faster route was needed to the coast, preferably via the newly developing towns of Ipswich and Brisbane, which were linked by the Bremer and Brisbane Rivers to Moreton Bay and then by sea to other parts of Australia and overseas. However, the Great Dividing Range separated the Darling Downs from the coast. On 11 June 1827, Allan Cunningham approaching from the Darling Downs identified a possible dray route (later known as Spicer's Gap) across the range. On 21 August 1828, travelling from Ipswich, Cunningham found a second pass, now known as Cunningham's Gap, but he thought (wrongly) that it was the same pass as he had found in 1827, but Cunningham's Gap is about 4 km north of Spicer's Gap. Cunningham reported to the New South Wales Government that the route should be via Cunningham's Gap.
  As the Darling Downs was being settled, finding a dray route across the range became increasingly important. The route via Cunningham's Gap was too steep for a dray, but it was not until April 1847, that Henry Alphen rediscovered Spicer's Gap. In August 1847, two dray successfully travelled via Spicer's Gap to Ipswich. This led to the establishment of Spicers Gap Road (modern spelling omits the apostrophe) over the range. In 1861 the telegraph line was built along Spicers Gap Road linked up the first telegraph station at Fassifern Reserve with the station at Tregony, on the Darling Downs side.
  Spicers Gap Road required extensive expenditure on maintenance and with the 1871 opening of the Southern railway line from Warwick (the major town on the Darling Downs) to Toowoomba  and then by the Main Line railway to Brisbane, Spicers Gap Road was virtually abandoned as rail transport was superior to drays.
  As automobiles started to become more widely available, it became realistic to create a road via Cunningham's Gap, which was built between 1925 and 1927. On 11 June 1927 (a century after Allan Cunningham discovered Spicer's Gap), the road was officially opened by the Acting Queensland Premier, William Forgan Smith, who also unveiled a monument to Cunningham. The plaque on the monument states that Cunningham found Cunningham's Gap in 1927 (perpetuating Cunningham's own confusion over the two gaps). In 1935, the road was upgraded to highway standard and was named the Cunningham Highway, and became the most direct route between Brisbane and Warwick.
caption: Allan Cunningham memorial, circa 1945
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