The Toowoomba–Karara Road (State Route 48) passes through the locality from north-east to south, running immediately to the east of the town. Tourist Drive 12 (the Sprint Route) follows Leyburn Cunningham Road to the outskirts of Warwick.[5]
Leyburn was named in the 1840s by William Gray, Snr., who came to the area by bullock dray from Pitt Town on the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales.[7] The first name for the locality was Canal Creek; the name was changed to Leyburn by Henry and Jane Kirby, Gray's son-in-law and daughter, and derives from the market town of Leyburn in the English county of Yorkshire.[7]
The site for the town was surveyed in November 1852. Henry Kirby and another man named Collins applied in 1854 for the licence of the Travellers' Home Inn at Leyburn.[7]
In 1858, James Murray erected his Coffee Room Inn and Boarding House (now the Granall Residence).[8]
The Rosenthal Division was established in 1889 and became the Shire of Rosenthal in 1903. Although Leyburn was the largest town within this local government area, it was not chosen as the administrative centre as Leyburn did not have a railway connection in 1889. Instead, offices were established in Warwick outside of the district.[18]
On Sunday 8 December 1901 Fathers Horan and O'Brien officially opened St Matthew's Catholic Church.[19][20] Fund raising for the church had commenced in 1871.[21] It has been suggested that the church was completed (but not officially opened) in 1897 with a wedding held there in September 1898.[22][23]
The Leyburn branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association was formed in 1924. They built their hall in 1928.[24]
There are no secondary schools in Leyburn. The nearest government secondary schools are Pittsworth State High School (to Year 12) in Pittsworth to the north, Clifton State High School (to Year 12) in Clifton to the north-east, Allora State School (to Year 10) in Allora to the east, Warwick State High School (to Year 12) in Warwick to the south-east, and Millmerran State School (to Year 10) in Millmerran to the north-west.[35]
In 1996 the Leyburn Sprints was established. Celebrating the 1949 Australian Grand Prix, historic racing cars and cars of special interest compete in numerous classes to compete in a short 1.0 kilometre (0.62 mi) course through the town. The event has become the town's biggest attraction.[40]
Notable residents
Australian rugby league player Shane Webcke grew up in Leyburn.
^ abcFrom series of articles published under the title Queensland place names and obelisks by Sydney May (formerly Honorary Secretary of the Queensland Place Names Committee) in Local Government, June 1957 – November 1964
^Tassell, Dominique (11 December 2021). "St Augustine's celebrates 150 years". Warwick Today & Stanthorpe Today. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
^"Rosenthal Shire". Queensland Places. Centre for the Government of Queensland, University of Queensland. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
^"Religious Notes". Warwick Examiner And Times. Vol. 35, no. 4595. Queensland, Australia. 14 December 1901. p. 7. Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Orange blossoms". Warwick Argus. Vol. XXXIV, no. 2756. Queensland, Australia. 3 September 1898. p. 7. Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.