The first land owner in Kingston was James Trihey who selected land on what is now the Kingston Railway Station and Butter Factory site in 1868. Charles and Harriet Kingston moved to the area around 1872 after living at Tygum for about ten years where Charles had worked as an engineer at the sugar mill. The Kingstons built a slab house called Oakwood on the hill overlooking what is now Jacaranda Avenue. The first post office operated from this house until the railway went through in 1885. John and Emily Mayes selected land in 1873 immediately to the north of Kingstons land. They built a slab hut which remains today on the grounds of the second home of the Mayes family, Pleasant Place, also known as Mayes Cottage, in 1887. Charles Kingston also built a new house in 1890 and it stands today in Collin Court, on the hill overlooking the railway station. Timber was
an important industry, and once the land was cleared the Kingstons and
the Mayes began farming fruit crops.
The area was named Kingston after the railway went through in 1890. Dairying grew in importance from the 1890's and in June of 1907, the Southern Queensland Co-operative Dairy Company opened its butter factory in Kingston. The factory was upgraded in 1932 and operated successfully until after the war, when the dairy industry was being rationalized by the government. Peters bought the factory in 1958 and it ceased production in 1983. It now operates as a community arts centre.
The other major industrial activity of the area was the Kingston gold mine at Mt Taylor. Mining began in 1932 and continued until 1954, when the area became an unofficial waste dump. It was eventually backfilled and subdivided, along with much of the district, into a housing estate in the late 1960's. The reaction between the cyanide which remained from the gold mining days and the unidentified materials dumped in the old shafts formed toxic sludge which oozed from the ground during the 1980's. Eventually, the State Government resumed 46 properties and rehabilitated the area in the late 1980's, which is now open space.
