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Calliope is a rural town and locality in the Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia. Calliope is near the ‘cross-roads’ of the Bruce Highway and the Dawson Highway in Central Queensland, 20 kilometres from the port city of Gladstone. Industries of the town and surrounds have included gold mining, beef, timber, and more recently heavy industry, shipping and tourism.
Southern Cross Windmills have been supplying windmills Calliope families can count on for over 100 years.
With over 100 years of experience designing and manufacturing windmills, Calliope residents can be worry-free knowing they have the support of Australia’s oldest windmill manufacturer.
Queensland families know how important reliable water harvesting systems are in the Australian outback, and this is why people all across the nation continue to look to a Southern Cross windmill.
Our windmills are available in a range of sizes. The Southern Cross Windmill can be fitted with a windwheel between 6′ and 14′, and mounted on a tower between 20′ and 60′.
Our experts can help determine what wheel and tower sizes would best suit your windmill, based upon the landscape you wish to have it built on, and the amount of wind your property receives.
The Southern Cross “FA” Series Windmill Towers are available in the following heights:
The minimum recommended tower height for each windwheel size, is as follows:
For centuries, we have employed wind to power our boats, mill our grain and pump our water. Wind power is the first renewable energy to be harnessed by mankind.
Windmills have been a part of rural living in Australia for well over a century, and is a great renewable energy source, along with being an Australian icon. For well over a hundred years, rural Australians in towns like Calliope have relied on windmills as a renewable energy source, and the humble windmill has become an Australian icon.
Anywhere there is access to water, you can build a windmill, no matter if it’s a river, dam, bore or well, the windmill pump is one of the greenest and most effective water harvesting solutions.
More than 80% of Australians live within a mere 50km of the coast – a testament to how dry and harsh the Australian climate can be – and access to reliable water has always been a challenge for rural Australians.
The advent of the modern windmill, thanks to George Washington Griffiths, was a game changer for pastoralists and graziers, allowing them to move further inland for stock grazing, where land was more affordable and accessible.
Despite being mostly used to draw water from deep bores or wells linked to underground aquifers, windmills can also be used to pump from any body of water, such as dams or rivers.
The solar water pump has recently presented itself as the latest challenger to the windmill, as water harvesting technology looks to modernise.
Windmill pumps on some properties across the country have been reliably operating for over fifty years, and while solar looks promising, its life expectancy has not yet been confirmed.
Despite solar systems being advertised as a safer option, they may contain a potentially dangerous current, while the “dangerous” windmill accounts for less than 1% of all accidents on rural properties.
Southern Cross has been providing windmills that Australian families can rely on for over a century, and all of our windmills have a 30+ year design life.
With the backing of over a century of industry leading windmill design and Australian innovation, Southern Cross continue to increase on the over 250 000 windmills sold since 1903. All Southern Cross Mills are hot dip galvanised.
A 3 year warranty is included in every purchase of a new Southern Cross Windmill.
Southern Cross specialise in the design, manufacture, installation and service of windmills across Australia. We pride ourselves in the design and integrity of every Windmill we produce.
All of our windmills are designed and engineered in-house, and are durable enough to succeed in the harshest of Australian climates, rain, hail or shine.
Genuine Southern Cross parts for all current range windmills are available, in addition to other parts for A, J, R & Z Pattern Windmills”, “J” Series Windmill Pumps, Troughs, Check Valves, Pump Heads and Pump Jacks may still be available upon request.
From the very first Southern Cross windmill rolling off the Toowoomba Foundry line in 1903, nobody has experience like we do of dealing with Calliopeand Australia’s unique water harvesting needs.
The first windmills built by the Griffiths family in the Toowoomba Foundry were improved versions of blueprints designed by an American Engineer, Daniel Halladay, and these were produced well over a century ago, in 1876.
The introduction of windmills to the Australian outback allowed rural families and pastoralists to populate more arid areas of the country, causing towns and pastoral runs to begin growing across these areas.
One might never know if Lord Lamington ever sat near a Southern Cross Windmill, while enjoying a lamington at night under the light of the Southern Cross, but we do know that these things are iconically Australian. And unlike the lamington, we know the Southern Cross Windmill was born in Toowoomba.
Operating out of Queensland to this day – in our Withcott factory – Southern Cross is an Australian owned and operated brand, servicing Australians from all across the country, from irrigators and graziers to rural families and households.
This 7.3 m Southern Cross windwheel, now contentedly housed at the Gilgandra Museum and Historical Society was originally constructed by Southern Cross Windmills all the way back in 1924.
Before being donated to the Gilgandra Museum and Historical Society by the Payne family, this antique gentle giant dependably pumped water in Mendooran for over 73 years.
Now closing in on 100 years old, at its most recent service, all that was required was some oil in order to maintain it. While it may not get a letter from the queen, this windmill is a testament to the reliability and durability of Southern Cross Windmills.
The town gets its name not from the muse from Greek mythology, but the HMS Calliope, which served in the First Opium War.
More than 3 million fish have been released into the nearby Lake Awoonga – the result of the Awoonga Dam – which is now frequented by recreational fishers and holiday goers.
Have a look at the aforementioned Lake Awoonga, a beautiful spot where you can simply sit and relax and check out the wildlife, or even try your hand at a bit of fishing.
Not in Calliope? For Windmills Tannum Sands click here.
