About Woodford

Woodford is a small but pretty town steeped in history and retains much of its yesteryear charm. Located 20 minutes west of Caboolture on the D’Aguilar Highway, Woodford township oozes charm with its colonial shops offering a variety of goods from antiques, fashion, home wares and eateries.

The historic pub still stands proudly on the main road through town and a heritage railway and a historical museum proudly testify to the region’s diverse past.

Woodford is most known for the annual Woodford Folk Festival held every December over the New Year Holidays

Facilities in town

Woodford has a supermarket, a range of shops, a swimming pool, a modern hall next to the council run library, a community centre, a sports ground and associated facilities at the showground.

The town is home to one of Australia's largest collections of narrow-gauge steam locos. Members of the Australian Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Society have developed a museum off Archer Street and on the first and third Sunday of the month, volunteers run a restored steam loco through the town for visitors to enjoy.

Major Events in Woodford

Over the new year holiday period every year Woodford’s attracts tens of thousands of visitors for its annual Woodford Folk Festival, without a doubt the biggest event of the year for the small community.

Woodford Folk Festival embraces the diversity of world culture with over a thousand performances across the week by local, national and international artists. Woodford celebrates music, dance, theatre, comedy, arts and education, from political lectures to kids’ drumming workshops and everything in between.

The Woodford Show Society also host an annual Woodford Show, an agricultural show held every June over two days.

Things to see and do in Woodford

• Cruice Park
• Durundur Homestead Monument
• Windows of Woodford Art Trail
• Woodford Railway

History of Woodford

The earliest European settlement in the area was the Archer brothers' Durundur pastoral run (1840). After several changes of ownership, Durundur came under the management of Henry C. Wood in 1867. He lived at Durundur until 1891, was a member of the Caboolture local government division and was a Queensland parliamentarian 1886-1902. The suburb of Woodford was named after him, 'ford' referring to a crossing on the Stanley River.

The railway from Caboolture opened in 1909 and three years later the Woodford Agricultural, Industrial and Pastoral Show society was formed. It was during the 1920s and 1930s, however, that Woodford attained maturity as a town, with the opening of the Stanley River cooperative butter factory, a bush-nursing hospital (1922-63), a Catholic primary school and a Diggers memorial hall.

The closure of the bush-nursing centre and the railway in 1963 and 1964 signified a decline in the district's economy, but the building of the Woodford prison in 1973 produced an unexpected source of local employment.

Once home to thriving dairy and timber industries, Woodford is slowly becoming more urbanised as new housing subdivisions are developed. But it still feels like the country and is one of only a few towns that still have weekly cattle sales in the yards in the main street.