Australian town misses 150th anniversary by three years

Charleville in Queensland planned its 150th anniversary celebrations three years too late. Photo / Google Street View

An Australian town has missed its own 150th anniversary after planning the party three years too late.

Charleville in south-west Queensland had planned to celebrate next year, believing the town had been founded in 1868, the Daily Telegraph reports.

However, historians researching the exact date of Charleville's inception discovered the historic date was actually 1865.

Mayor Annie Liston admitted the town was "disappointed", blaming the confusion on a "conflict between two researchers".

"We had a couple of historians who were researching the history of Charleville, [one] told us it was 2018 and we believed them," she told Australian radio.

"The historians disagreed on the date, one thought it was next year and another thought it was 2015, so that's how it happened."

She said the town, which has a population of around 5,000, still plans to throw a belated party next year, which may be tied to another event.

"It was rather disappointing to think we were all geared up to do this 150 and we've already passed it," she added. "We had plans for 2018, we'd been working on that since about 2016.

"We'll still celebrate what we missed out on, the 150, so we'll have to do something around the 153rd … We don't really need an excuse for a party."