Surat
The district was first mapped by Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell in 1846. By the end of the 1840s pastoralists had penetrated the area, and in 1849 Mitchell directed a surveyor, Burrowes, to select a township site on the Balonne River. Burrowes did so and named it after the diamond-polishing city of Surat, after his former place of residence in present-day Gujarat state, then known as the Bombay Province, India.
There are oil fields further south.
Facilities
Surat has a public library, a Cobb & Co changing station, social history museum, theatre and shire hall and the Balonne gallery.