Proclaimed the “most ambitious land settlement project in Queensland’s history”, in 1923 the Queensland Government carved up three million acres in central Queensland’s Upper Burnett and Callide Valley lands for closer settlement. Promised exceptionally fertile soil and plentiful water, new settlers flocked to the area and the population grew in six years from 133 in 1923 to over 1000. Many had no farming experience, few had lived in subtropical Queensland. Drought set in, followed by a major flood in 1928, both of which challenged the government’s grandiose plans for a settlement of 30,000. On a macro level the Government declared the scheme a success, but at the personal level, for some individuals the environmental obstacles proved insurmountable, discrediting the promise of “immense opportunity”. This paper draws on the 1929 and 1934 government inquiries into Upper Burnett and Callide Valley Lands settlement scheme to explore the environment-settler relationship.