allotment was bought by Leslie. Warwick East State School opened on 4 November 1850. It is one of the oldest state primary schools in Queensland. In 1851 the first Presbyterian services were held in Warwick. Land was granted to build a Presbyterian church in 1857 and a slab church was built in 1858. The telegraph to Brisbane was operating by 1861. Warwick Central State School opened on 26 July 1865. Miss O'Mara opened a school on 27 January 1867 in the Oddfellows Hall. The 1870s were boom years for this new town. In 1871 the Southern railway line reached Warwick, a brewery was built in 1873, then a cooperative flour mill and brickworks were completed during 1874. On 29 October 1874, the Sisters of Mercy took over Miss O'Mara's school at the Oddfellows Hall renaming it St Mary's School. Warwick was the seat of a series of local government areas, the Borough of Warwick from 1861, Town of Warwick from 1903, City of Warwick from 1936, Shire of Warwick from 1994, and Southern Downs Region from 2008. In 1877, of land was resumed from the Canning Downs pastoral run to establish smaller farms. The land was offered for selection on 19 April 1877. In 1878 the Queensland Government raised a loan of £5,000 to build a new hospital in Warwick. However, it was not until September 1880 after considerable local agitation that the government called for tenders to build the hospital, resulting in a contract awarded to A.W. Doorey to build the hospital. However, by February 1881, tenders were being called for again, and in April 1881 the Queensland Government announced the hospital would not proceed. In June 1881, the government indicated that they would proceed if the local financial subscriptions to the hospital were increased. Tenders were called again in February 1882 resulting in a contract with Messrs Wallace and Gibson in March 1882. Finally on Thursday 19 June 1884, the patients were moved from the old hospital to the new hospital in Locke Street. In 1893, the Sisters of Mercy relocated their convent and St Mary's School to the newly constructed Our Lady of the Assumption Convent in Locke Street. The T J Byrnes Monument (a statue of the 12th Queensland Premier Thomas Joseph Byrnes) was built on the corner of Palmerin and Grafton Streets. The monument was built from 1901 to 1902 and was officially unveiled on