Nerada, Queensland

Nerada is a rural locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the, Nerada had a population of 88 people.

Geography
The locality is bounded to the west, north-west, north, north-east, and east by the Johnstone River.

Palmerston Rocks National Park is in the south-east of the locality.

Apart from the national park, the land use is predominantly growing crops, including sugarcane and bananas with some grazing on native vegetation.

History
The locality takes its name from the former Nerada railway station (-17.55063°N, 145.88029°W) on the Innisfail Tramway. The name is believed to be an Aboriginal word from the Mamoo language meaning grass country.

In May 1936, the Queensland Government decided to construct a school at Nerada. Nerada State School opened on 11 February 1937. It closed in 1945. It was located at approximately 334 Nerada Road (-17.5486°N, 145.8703°W). About 1951, the school building was relocated to Woopen Creek State School.

In 1958, Dr Allan Maruff started the first commercial tea plantings in Australia since 1886 in the Nerada valley, south of Cairns, Queensland, using seedlings from the former Cutten brothers plantation at Bingil Bay. In 1969, Tea Estates of Australia (TEA) commenced tea planting adjacent to the Nerada plantation. In 1971, Nerada Tea Estates (NTE) opened Australia's first commercial tea factory. In 1973, TEA purchased NTE, ceased selling bulk tea and marketed the tea under the Nerada brand.

After a number of problems in the 1980s, the original Nerada tea plantation was sold to banana farmers.

Demographics
In the, Nerada had a population of 97 people.

In the, Nerada had a population of 88 people.

Education
There are no schools in Nerada. The nearest government primary school is Mundoo State School in Wangan to the east. The nearest government secondary school is Innisfail State College in Innisfail Estate to the north-east.