The Boonarga Cactoblastis Memorial Hall was built in 1936 by local farmers, to recognise the success of the moth in eradicating the prickly pear plague throughout rural Australia.
You can read an excellent history of prickly pear, here).
Usually we spot the hall as we zip past but we were more on-the-ball this time.
We detoured into Chinchilla on the way home, keen to view the "Bug Farm" replica shed, which was detailed in our "Explore Chinchilla" brochure.
The two sites are quite separate from each other, about 17.5km apart.
It was such a great display and we were very happy to have made a visit.
(And there was a geocache nearby also - which was another bonus, bringing our tally to 677 finds)!
"The cactoblastis moth and its larvae eradicated the nuisance plant, the "prickly pear" which covered much of Queensland's farm land in the early 1900s. A monument and replica shed is located near the entrance to the property "The Shanti" on Clarkee's Road which operated as a Field Station to breed the moth in the early 1930s."
We hadn't previously visited Chinchilla, though we camped at the Weir on the way home from Roma in 2018. We had a bit of a wander around the town after leaving the bug shed. It seemed a good time to have lunch, so we did that under some trees near the art gallery - and then viewed the current exhibition when we finished our pastries. I'm thinking we'll return to Chinchilla for a few days, hopefully soon - and have a better look around the area.
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