The place contains the remains of an electrolytic reduction plant comprising five groups of structures.
The primary crusher and ore dump group situated to the south comprise an ore dump site, earth loading ramp, concrete surfaces, tanks and building foundations. An iron flotation unit is located on the site (not in situ).
To the north are the concrete mounts and foundations of a wedge roasting furnace. These structures include a flue and iron chimney base and a vertical boiler alongside a concrete tank.
Adjacent to the west is a large concrete leaching vat 20m square and 3m in height, which was originally equipped with a gantry crane. The walls of the vat are supported by heavy concrete buttresses.
To the north are four circular leaching vats of concrete construction each 11m in width and 3m in height.
The northern group of structures is located alongside to south of the Cloncurry - Mount Isa railway. This group comprises concrete surfaces and foundations of the electrolytic works, a rendered brick flue and base of an iron chimney and three concrete tanks each approximately 15m² by 1.5m in depth.
The fifth component of the site is the foundations of a former laboratory building, constructed with mud brick walls with cement render on exterior and interior surfaces.
Plant equipment at the site includes a vertical boiler (no brand) and flotation unit (not in situ) (no brand).
","history":"During 1924-25 the Mount Elliott Company and Hampden Cloncurry negotiated a scheme of amalgamation but this fell through when Mount Elliott acquired the Mount Cuthbert properties. In 1926 Hampden Cloncurry conceded defeat and offered its assets for sale by tender, most being acquired by Mount Elliott, who finally gained control of virtually the entire Cloncurry copper field and belatedly fulfilled W.H. Corbould's vision of 1909 for amalgamation. But it was too late: funds were exhausted and prices were low (Hore-Lacey 1981:175). The company decided to use the English Mackay process to utilise the low-grade ores of the district. This was a new form of electrolytic smelting.
In 1926 the company started building the first 1,000 ton per year unit of a large electro-chemical copper treatment plant at Cloncurry on the outskirts of the town adjacent to the railway line. This comprised crushing, roasting furnace, leaching vats and a cell house section and was completed in April 1927.
The 6m diameter Mackay modified wedge furnace had seven roasting and one drying hearths. The furnace was connected to a Wilson pressure-type gas producer, which delivered gas to the roasting furnace as fuel to roast the ore. The furnace plant was enclosed in a steel building 11m by 11m and 12m high. In the leaching plant there were two reinforced concrete tanks 9m by 18m by 3m deep and four reinforced concrete solution storage tanks 9m in diameter and 3m deep. The plant for the electrolytic deposition of copper from the leaching solutions was in a two-storey steel building, 15m by 18m and 13m high. On the second level there were 24 wooded tanks 3.7m long, lined with lead, and containing electrolytic cells, cathodes, and anode bars. On the ground level were three wooden solution circulating tanks.
The power plant was located 4.5m from the electrolytic plant and housed in a steel building 9m by 18m by 9m high, with the boiler in a separate building. The plant included a Babcock and Wilcox boiler with a 37m steel chimney stack. A Belliss and Morcom compound engine was directly connected to a 400kw alternator. A spray cooling plant consisting of a concrete reservoir 18m by 18m and 1.5m deep with a series of spray pipes and nozzles operated from an electric centrifugal pump, was designed to cool 30,000 gallons of water an hour (QGMJ 15 Jan 1927:27).
However, before the plant was actually commissioned, instructions were received from London to close down without even a trial run. Apparently, the £128,000 construction expenses had been too high and it was considered that the capacity was insufficient for profitability (Hore-Lacey 1981:175).
It has been asserted (Blainey 1960:56) that the company had infringed a foreign patent, but cost factors may have influenced the decision to close the plant.
References:
Blainey, Geoffrey. 1960. Mines in the Spinifex, p.56.
Hore-Lacy, Ian (ed). 198 1. Broken Hill to Mount Isa, the Mining Odyssey of W. H. Corbould, p. 175.
Queensland Government Mining Journal, 15 January 1927, p.27.
","criteria":"Its construction testifies to the optimism held by the company for a centralised modern plant to service all their scattered ore reserves across the region.
|The Mount Elliott Company Metallurgical Plant is significant in Queensland's history as the only recorded surviving evidence of an early electrolytic plant.
The laboratory remnants associated with the plant are architecturally uncommon, being made of ant bed adobe bricks.
|(Criterion under review)
|The process was Mr H.S. Mackay's own invention and the plant was designed in London. It was the first plant of its kind ever built and Mackay supervised its construction at Cloncurry.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15190,"place_ref":600415,"name":"Cloncurry Court House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"42-48 Daintree Street","suburb":"CLONCURRY","lga":"CLONCURRY SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The 1897 section is a rectangular, two-roomed, timber-framed structure with exposed studwork, a hipped corrugated iron roof, and a 2.13 metre wide verandah to four sides, sections of which have been enclosed. Off the rear [eastern] verandah of the 1898 section is a hip-roofed 1953 block containing toilets and a strong room. The walls, ceiling and floor of the strongroom are constructed of reinforced concrete; the remainder of the building is constructed of timber.
Attached to the southwest corner of the 1898 section is the 1907 addition. This comprises a T-shaped timber-framed building clad with weatherboard, with a 2.43 metre verandah around 3 sides of the stem of the T [which contains the courtroom], and around the rear offices, permitting the verandah of the new building to link with that of the 1897 building. The entrance addresses Sheaffe Street, and is articulated by a gable roof to the verandah at this point. The roof of this section is also of galvanised corrugated iron. The 1907 courtroom has a coved ceiling of tongue-and-groove pine, and walls of vertical boarding.
Off the southeast corner of the 1907 section, at the rear, is a long hip-roofed wing constructed in two stages: 2 rooms in 1914 and 4 in 1961. Both sections are timber-framed with weatherboard cladding and have the same window hood detail over exposed windows and doors. Both open onto a north-facing verandah, joined to the 1907 section.
There is a two-roomed timber pavilion linked to the rear [eastern] verandah of the 1907 section by what was originally an 5.50 metre long covered way, which is now completely joined to the eastern verandah. This section is timber-framed with horizontal weatherboard cladding and sunshades over exposed windows and doors. There are 4 toilets, added in later stages, to the south of the covered way.
Apart from the strongroom, all sections of this building are raised on low concrete stumps.
","history":"The present Cloncurry Court House is the second on site and was erected in stages between 1897 and 1961.
The Cloncurry district was subject to pastoral settlement from the mid-1860s. Access to artesian water from the 1890s enabled the grazing of sheep and cattle to succeed despite severe drought and in what is essentially a semi-arid environment.
Mining also proved a significant activity in the district, although a less stable one than pastoralism. Gold was first discovered in the area in 1867, and from the late 1860s through the last three decades of the 19th century, gold was found and mined throughout the district, although as a series of short lived fields. In 1867 Ernest Henry, often referred to as 'the father of Cloncurry', discovered copper in the area, not far from the present town of Cloncurry, although the boom era for copper mining was not reached until the early twentieth century.
The township of Cloncurry was established in the early 1870s to serve a remote and isolated area in the far north west of Queensland. It was officially declared a Country Post Office in 1871, and in 1872 a general store and a hotel were opened. Early transportation was by horse, bullock and camel teams, and later by Cobb & Co coaches. A rail link to the east coast was not opened until December 1908. Cloncurry prospered in the 1880s, when prices for pastoral produce remained buoyant and mining activity increased.
A police contingent of 4 men and an Inspector had been stationed in tents at Cloncurry from 1870, but it was not until 1880 that a permanent Clerk of Petty Sessions was appointed, and Cloncurry's first Police Magistrate was appointed in 1882. At that time there were still no permanent police quarters, and the lock-up was a slab hut with a bark roof. In 1883 the Department of Public Works called tenders for a timber building to serve as a Court house, police quarters and lockup. This was completed in 1885, and the first Court sat in March 1900. From 1907 this building was used for police purposes only and was demolished in 1965.
The administration of justice was brought to sparsely settled and isolated areas by means of small court houses combined with, or attached to, police stations and served by visiting magistrates. Cloncurry was designated a District Court Area in 1889, but almost a decade passed before a new court house was completed in July 1898 by Murray and Litster at a cost of £728. This court house was a rectangular, two-roomed, timber-framed structure with exposed studwork and a wide verandah to all four sides.
In the first two decades of the 20th century, Cloncurry prospered with the boom in copper prices and the corresponding increase in copper mining activity in the district. In 1906 Cloncurry became a Circuit Court centre. In 1907 the size of the court complex was more than doubled with the addition of a new court room and offices for the judge, barristers, court warden and jurors. The existing court was shifted slightly to adjoin the new section and became offices for the Clerk of Petty Sessions and for the government surveyor. This addition gave the building a new elevation to Sheaffe Street.
In 1914 further alterations were made to provide for officers from other government departments, including the land commissioner, mining registrar and inspector of machinery. A new hip-roofed wing was constructed at the southern end of the building which contained two rooms and extended the western verandah. A separate, 2 roomed structure was linked to the rear verandah by a covered way and accommodated drafting and records.
In 1953 a toilet block and strong room was added and in 1961 the last major addition occurred when a four roomed wing was added to the 1914 section. This was built under the same roofline and continued the weatherboard cladding and existing window hood detail. The inspectorship of the police district was transferred from Cloncurry in 1963 as Mt Isa had developed to become the more important regional centre, however the court continues in use. In 1966 a new station, cells and quarters were constructed. Conservation work on the courthouse was undertaken in 1977 with state government funding. It continues to operate for its original purpose.
","criteria":"Cloncurry Court House is important in illustrating the development of Cloncurry and district, reflecting the importance of Cloncurry as a regional and administrative centre in the late 19th and early 20th century. This court house and the site on which it is located have been associated with the administration of justice in the region since the mid-1880s. The additions and adaptations also reflect the way in which provision has been made for increasing services to match the needs of the area with regard to mining and pastoralism.
|The Cloncurry Court house is a good example of a building serving a number of important governmental functions and extended over time while adhering to the original design principles. It provides a demonstration of building techniques within the traditional style between 1897 and 1961.
|The Cloncurry Court House has had a long connection with the people of Cloncurry and the surrounding district as the focus for a range of important government services.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15191,"place_ref":600416,"name":"Cloncurry Post Office","alternate_name":"Post Office Cloncurry","street_address":"47 Scarr Street","suburb":"CLONCURRY","lga":"CLONCURRY SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-05-27","description":"The post office is a single storey timber building set on low stumps and located prominently on the corner of Scarr and Sheaffe Streets. The original section is symmetrical in form with a projecting gable over the main public area between twin porches, the roof for which was an extension of the main roof. The porches are reached by low sets of timber steps and have timber balustrading. The roof is hipped and clad in clad in corrugated iron. A later extension with a gable roof is connected to this building and continues the materials and detail of the original.
","history":"The Cloncurry Post Office is a single storey timber building, which was built in 1906 and superseded an 1883 post office on site.
Land in the Cloncurry district was taken up by pastoralists from the mid-1860s. Access to artesian water from the 1890s enabled the grazing of sheep and cattle to flourish in what is essentially a semi-arid environment and pastoralism has been the major industry in this area.
Mining also proved a significant activity in the district, although a less stable one than pastoralism. Gold was first discovered in the area in 1867, and from the late 1860s through the last three decades of the 19th century, gold was found and mined throughout the district, although as a series of short lived fields. In 1867 Ernest Henry, often referred to as 'the father of Cloncurry', discovered copper in the area, not far from the present town of Cloncurry, although the boom era for copper mining was not reached until the early twentieth century.
The township of Cloncurry was established in the early 1870s to serve a remote and isolated area in the far north west of Queensland. It was officially designated a Country Post Office in 1871 and in June that year the first postmaster was appointed, operating from temporary accommodation. In 1872 a general store and a hotel were opened, forming the nucleus for a service township. Early transportation was by horse, bullock and camel teams. Mail contractors using pack horses operated mail runs along routes radiating from Cloncurry as the demand for postal services increased in subsequent years. Cloncurry prospered in the 1880s, when prices for pastoral produce remained buoyant and mining activity increased. The first Cobb & Co coach arrived in Cloncurry in 1884, and for almost a quarter of a century provided the district with both a passenger and a mail service in the absence of a railway. The railway reached Cloncurry in 1908.
The first purpose-designed Cloncurry Post Office was a small timber building comprising an office and post master's quarters, erected in 1883. In that year Cloncurry Post Office was made a Money Order Office and an official electric telegraph station. The first telegraph lines connected Cloncurry with Aramac and Boulia. In 1888 a line was established between Cloncurry and Normanton, and in 1890 Cloncurry was linked to Camooweal and Urandangie. Cloncurry had police stationed in the town from 1870 and was designated a District Court Area in 1889. The first Court sat in 1900 and in 1906 became a designated District Court. This important function could not have been carried out without the means of rapid communication provided by the post and telegraph service.
In the first two decades of the 20th century, Cloncurry prospered with the boom in copper prices and the corresponding surge in copper mining activity in the district. In 1906 a new post office was designed for Cloncurry and erected at a cost of £1375/15/-. It was a large office building for post and telegraph functions, connected by a covered way to a separate postmaster's quarters. These were in the old post office, which was turned to face Scarr Street and moved behind the new building.
The new post office was a standard T17 type of timber post office, with a twin porch and gable, designed by the Queensland Works Department. These were erected throughout Queensland in the period 1906-1921, although post and telegraph services became a Commonwealth responsibility after Federation. These buildings achieved a high standard of design and construction and architecturally, the T17 is the most significant of 20th century timber post office types for the quality of construction and detail, for the its resolution of climatic considerations, and for the visual appeal of its form. Many of the type have, however, been demolished or are no longer functional post offices. This post office has been extended at the side, the extension covering the area previously occupied by the old post office.
A new telephone exchange was opened at Cloncurry in 1912 and in the 1920s the establishment of QANTAS in 1922 and the Flying Doctor Service in 1929 at Cloncurry made the town an epicentre of the north west. By the 1950s Cloncurry was a centre for mail, telephone and telegraph services for huge area from Normanton to Boulia and west to Camooweal. A brick extension to the post office was constructed in 1954 to house these services as well as a the control station for north west Queensland's Auxiliary Radio network. This base was moved to Mt Isa in 1964 as that centre grew in importance.
The Cloncurry Post Office continues to operate as such.
","criteria":"Cloncurry Post Office illustrates the development of Cloncurry and district in the early 20th century and has been the focus of services which played an important part in allowing this geographically isolated town to become a major regional centre.
|It is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a timber twin porch and gable post office building of the period 1906-1921, designed by the Queensland Works Department, and has aesthetic value which contributes significantly to the Cloncurry townscape.
|It is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a timber twin porch and gable post office building of the period 1906-1921, designed by the Queensland Works Department, and has aesthetic value which contributes significantly to the Cloncurry townscape.
|The Cloncurry Post Office has had a long connection with the people of Cloncurry and the surrounding district as a provider of vital communication services which have been conducted from this site since 1883.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16390,"place_ref":601629,"name":"Mount Cuthbert Township and Smelter","alternate_name":"Mount Cuthbert Township and Railway Formation | Mount Cuthbert Mine and Smelter | Kalkadoon Mine and Winding Plant","street_address":"North-West of Kajabbi Township","suburb":"KAJABBI","lga":"CLONCURRY SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-05-25","description":"Mount Cuthbert Smelter
The place covers an extensive area of the Six Mile Creek valley with the main concentrations of features exceeding an area of 1km (east-west) by 2km (north-south). The smelter structure and a tranship stage form a closely integrated group of components. A large, well formed slag dump extends to the base of the smelter. The smelter remains are impressive, comprising three standing steel chimneys, blast furnace frame, elevated iron flues, flue dust bins, and two copper converters. The smelter floor is a raised earth platform with high concrete retaining walls each side. The blast furnace has been removed leaving the steel frame and furnace hood. Extending north-east of the smelter floor are the concrete foundations and earth bench surfaces of the power house. Storage hopper footings of a tranship stage are located along a rail spur line which terminates near the smelter floor. The tranship stage accommodates two rail alignments separated by a raised concrete platform. A line of reinforced concrete piers and headstocks remain standing as evidence of an elevated rail alignment.
Mount Cuthbert Township and Railway Formation
The railway spur line formation to Mount Cuthbert from Oona siding on the Kajabbi to Dobbyn line, generally follows the course of Six Mile Creek. Embankments, cuttings and bridgeworks occur through the range east of Mount Cuthbert. Sections of the railway formation now serve as the main access track. Timber sleepers survive on some sections where the formation has been bypassed. No bridges remain intact and all rails have been removed. Timber piers and stone pitched abutments of several bridges including the Six Mile Creek bridge east of Mount Cuthbert have survived. The formation passes through a series of curved cuttings and embankments on its final approach to the town. From a spur loop north of the smelter three rail formations are discernible to the smelter, tranship stage, and the Mount Cuthbert mine. The main formation turns north to Mount Cuthbert railway station by the Kalkadoon mine. The rail formation terminates about 400m north beyond the Kalkadoon. Surface evidence of the locations of the railway station building, platform and goods shed is still apparent on the east side of the formation.
On its final approach to Mount Cuthbert, the rail formation curves around the site of the township which is situated on a low rise east of the smelter. Surviving evidence of the main concentration of dwellings and commercial premises covers an area of 500m (east-west) by 400m (north-south). This area contains about 60 identifiable structural sites including stone fireplaces, stone-lined floor surfaces, retaining walls, and tank stands. The commercial precinct is clearly discernible by a grouping of cement rendered surfaces close to the railway on the eastern side of the settlement. A cellar, cement floor and ships tank bake-oven mark the site of a hotel. A smithy and stone yards are evident together with over six stores. Many smaller dwelling sites, some with stone fireplaces, are located on the western side of the township hill overlooking the mine and smelter. The company officer's housing precinct site is located away from the township to the north, in a small gully of Six Mile Creek between the smelter and the Kalkadoon mine.
Kalkadoon Mine and Winding Plant
The Kalkadoon is located on a hillside north of Mount Cuthbert smelter, overlooking Dollubeet railway siding and the railway terminus. The mine workings contain evidence of several periods of development. No surface evidence remains of the early main shaft that was serviced by the surviving winding plant. Two open cut workings are located either side of a recent open adit and shaft. Plant includes a winding engine on a concrete mount alongside a Cornish boiler. The winding engine retains asbestos lagged steam pipes. A second Cornish boiler is located (not in situ) in front of the winding plant. An egg-end air receiver tank is located between the winding plant and the early main shaft site.
The area immediately south of the plant has been extensively disturbed by bulldozing in recent months for use as a drilling pad. Likewise an area north of the winding plant. The remains of mullock dumps extend east from the early main shaft site and adjacent open cut workings. A stone fireplace and cement surface are located between the mullock and railway formation. A stone magazine is situated north of the mine close to a former siding area near the railway terminus.
Plant:
·\tCornish boiler - no brand.
·\tCornish boiler (not in situ) - no brand.
·\tTwo-cylinder twin drum steam winding engine - no brand.
·\tAir receiver tank (egg-ended) - no brand.
·\t3 Safety cages (not in situ).
","history":"Ernest Henry discovered copper in the general vicinity of Mount Cuthbert in 1867, but it was not developed further at that time. John Chapman investigated Mount Cuthbert, Excelsior and Mighty Atom copper claims in 1900 on behalf of Melbourne investors. Mount Cuthbert assayed the best at 6.5%.
The decision by the Government to extend the Townsville railway beyond Richmond stimulated further exploration in 1905-06. In 1907 the Mount Cuthbert Company had capital of £240,000 and its mines included Mount Cuthbert, Kalkadoon, Mighty Atom, Orphan (near Dobbyn) and Little Wonder. The company had major financial problems from 1909 because of the lack of rail freight and had to reconstruct its capital holdings in 1912.
In 1915, with the price of copper soaring, the company spent £120,000 constructing smelters and had already sent away copper matte by horse teams before the railway reached the mine in September 1916. William H. Corbould, who was appointed Mount Elliott mine manager in 1909 had a grand vision for rationalising the copper industry in the Cloncurry district but, while war delayed its implementation an arrangement was worked out with Mount Cuthbert whereby up to 150 tons of ore per day were to be treated at the Mount Elliott smelter at Selwyn until the Mount Cuthbert plant was completed. Then the situation would be reversed while Mount Elliott increased the capacity of its smelter. Accordingly, the Selwyn smelter ran for five months at the end of 1915 and into 1916 treating both companies' ore, including 13,000 tons railed from Mount Cuthbert.
The Mount Cuthbert smelter was designed by W.H. Corbould, who was also a noted metallurgist and its completion was delayed because of the war. The blast furnaces were eventually fired early in 1917 and the initial operation treated over 25,000 tons of ore which produced 1,804 tons of copper worth £202,350. The Mount Cuthbert Company also invested in a new winding engine and headframe, 200 ton capacity ore bins, extensions to the blacksmith's shop and electricity connected to all the surface buildings. The old equipment was removed and reassembled at the Orphan mine.
Mount Cuthbert township was surveyed by the Mines Department in 1916, but the nearby mines had been worked from 1908 which might explain the close proximity of the settlement to the mines and therefore the smelter.
At its peak Mount Cuthbert township had two hotels, a cordial factory, two stores, three fruiterers, a photographer, butcher, baker, fancy goods/barber, hospital, police station, boarding house and two railway stations (Mount Cuthbert and Dollubeet). A post office operated from 1908 to 1927. The mining company officers were housed in timber cottages and a barracks, while the majority of residents lived in tents or small corrugated iron shacks with earth floors and stone hearths.
Teamsters supplied logs to the sawmill operating to supply mine timbers from 1913. A school opened in 1917 with 30 pupils taught by Miss E Stapleton. At one point in 1917 the town was reported on the verge of starvation due to problems with railway freight operations.
Today the township area contains about 60 discernible building remains and stone footings, and a commercial area near the railway on the eastern side of the settlement. A cellar, cement floor and ships tank baking oven indicate the site of the hotel, which reputedly was moved to Kajabbi where it still serves as the Kalkadoon Hotel.
The railway arrived at Mount Cuthbert in October 1915 after taking two years to construct the section north-east from Dugald River. The curving alignment passes through narrow gaps in ridge spurs and follows the Six Mile Creek. Its formation features embankments, cuttings and bridgeworks. Without the railway, production from the smelters was hampered due to exorbitant freight costs. There were two wayside sidings, Mount Cuthbert and the terminus, Dollubeet, at Kalkadoon.
The Kalkadoon mine is part of the Mount Cuthbert mine group, situated about 2km north along the same geological formation. The earliest mineral lease to be granted in the Mount Cuthbert area was that of the Kalkadoon to Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh of Cloncurry who took up 4.05 ha from 1 August 1899. This mine was mentioned by William Lees in 1906 as the "old mine" and it had already produced 300 tons of high grade ore.
It was further developed by the Mount Cuthbert Company from about 1907. By 1912 temporary pithead gear was in place: a winch and boiler and a headframe from Charters Towers was installed the next year. By 1916 the main shaft was down 107m. Ore mined at the Kalkadoon was smelted at Mount Cuthbert from 1917 and sent to Britain as prime blister copper. It is presumed that the mine closed in 1920 when smelting ceased at Mount Cuthbert. Its manager, J. Delaney, was a well known football player in the district.
In 1918 there was a fatal accident in the Mount Cuthbert mine at the 107m level. By 1919 the main shaft was down to 148m. In 1918 the Mount Cuthbert smelters treated 36,500 tons of ore until November when the crankshaft broke on the blower engine and closed the smelters after a record run. They were not refired until August 1919 and continued smelting copper until the price fell in 1920. The smelters shut down on 19 June 1920 after a final run of only 63 days.
The company was forced into raising capital in 1919 and attempted a further financial reconstruction in 1922. However, continued annual losses, low metal prices and pressing debenture commitments forced its liquidation in 1923. In 1925 the Mount Elliott Company purchased the Mount Cuthbert properties and plant for an undisclosed sum, certainly much less than the £500,000 valuation.
The population rose from 50 in 1908, to a peak of 1,000 in 1918, then dropped to 750 in 1920 and to 400 in 1924, but Mount Cuthbert became a ghost town after the Mount Elliott Company bought the mine and plant in 1925.
In 1942 Mount Isa Mines bought the Mount Cuthbert smelters for £900 and plant and other machinery was railed through Cloncurry to Mount Isa's new copper smelter. The Kalkadoon was worked on tribute again in the 1960s before being abandoned.
","criteria":"The town typifies the short-lived (1915-25), capital intensive, copper mining towns that developed rapidly and then ceased almost overnight.
The Kalkadoon mine is significant as the earliest and one of the most productive components of the Mount Cuthbert mining operation. It was functionally and physically linked by the railway to the Mount Cuthbert smelter. The place is located above the valley floor with views south over the smelter.
|The Corbould design of the blast furnace, flue and dust retainers at the Mount Cuthbert Smelter appears to be unique among similar smelters in North Queensland.
The Kalkadoon Mine's winding plant, which is largely intact, is an atypical and now rare example of its type.
|In this case, the town's remote location and isolation have kept it relatively intact and preserved its archaeological values.
|Mount Cuthbert township and railway is significant as it provides a tangible demonstration of the close physical relationships and linkages between the mine and smelter, with the railway and township. Although this pattern can be observed in other mining settlements such as Mount Mulligan or Kuridala, the location of the elements here is physically close and aesthetically pleasing.
Mount Cuthbert Smelter is significant as the largest and most impressive early smelter remains in North Queensland. It is the last early phase smelter (1916-20) built in the Cloncurry district and - although among the least successful of the larger works - it has left the most structural evidence despite the stripping of its furnaces and parts to equip the new Mount Isa smelter in the 1940s. The works clearly demonstrate physical links with the company's mines - Mount Cuthbert, Kalkadoon, Mighty Atom and Orphan - and also with the adjacent township area and the rail route from Kajabbi.
The extent, diversity and concentration of associated features are unrivalled.
|The physical grouping of the smelter, slag dump, railway and township is unique. The natural environment of the Six Mile Creek valley is a most significant and distinguishing feature of the place giving it a picturesque setting. The place provides sweeping panoramas of the archaeology of early industry and settlement. The appearance of the smelter during the final approach along the railway cutting presents a reminder of the isolation of early mining settlements in remote regions of Australia.
The current access to the town via the picturesque railway alignment further heightens the visitor's appreciation of the large-scale early mining venture in the wilderness.
|The Corbould design of the blast furnace, flue and dust retainers at the Mount Cuthbert Smelter appears to be unique among similar smelters in North Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":24320,"place_ref":645612,"name":"Mount Elliott Mining Complex","alternate_name":"Selwyn | Mount Elliott Smelter | 700012","street_address":"Selwyn, via Cloncurry","suburb":"MOUNT ELLIOTT","lga":"CLONCURRY SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2011-09-16","description":"Mount Elliott Smelter
Mount Elliott Smelter is located in Cloncurry Shire, approximately one kilometre south of the former township of Selwyn, and 95 kilometres south of Cloncurry (MGA94 Zone 54 448390E, 7618080N). The main processing infrastructure and remains are centralised on the northern side of the low hill known as Mount Elliott.
Immediately north of the main processing complex is a shallow basin formed by natural rises in ground. Within this basin lay the powerhouse and boiler house machinery beds, ore tunnel, beehive kiln, the lower condenser area and railway embankments.
To the east of the central complex are the remains of an assay office, furnaces, one possible and one identifiable explosives magazine, the upper condenser bank, tank stands, and the remains of a substantial residence.
To the south-west, on the central low hill, are the remains of a winder engine machine-bed, a square brick stack that served the boilers of the winder complex, and the single remaining bed and footings of the primary ore crusher.
Further west on low ridges are the remains of a strong room, office, stone tank stand and smithy.
Selwyn Township
The Selwyn Township is located at the northern end of a valley running south to Mount Elliott Smelter which is about 1.5km distant. All buildings have been removed and the evidence of the township now comprises garden plots, cement surfaces and corrugated iron water tanks.
The site of the Union Hotel remains identifiable and the timber stumps of the stationmaster's house, the railway formation and surviving timber sleepers are among the most visible remains. The railway embankment follows the eastern side of the valley between the town and smelter passing several miners' hut sites comprising rough stone walls, and benched surfaces with stone retaining walls.
Identifiable sites in the valley include a cement surface formerly under the high-set school building, the police station site, and the original smelter site at the base of a hill on the western side of the valley.
The town cemetery, about 200m south-east of the town, contains about fifteen headstones in separate sections for Catholics and Protestants. All but one headstone are from Melrose & Fenwick of Townsville. The grave sites include three women, a returned Anzac accidentally killed in the mine, a man who died of injuries in the local hospital, and a miner from Mount Cobalt who was buried in 1925 after Selwyn was almost deserted (Lennon and Pearce 1996:653).
","history":"The Mount Elliott Mining Complex is an aggregation of the remnants of copper mining and smelting operations from the early 20th century and the associated former mining township of Selwyn. The earliest copper mining at Mount Elliott was in 1906 with smelting operations commencing shortly after. Significant upgrades to the mining and smelting operations occurred under the management of W.R. Corbould during 1909-10. Following these upgrades and increases in production, the Selwyn Township grew quickly and had 1500 residents by 1918. The Mount Elliott Company took over other companies on the Cloncurry field in the 1920s, including the Mount Cuthbert (QHR601629) and Kuridala (QHR700004) smelters. Mount Elliott operations were taken over by Mount Isa Mines in 1943 to ensure the supply of copper during World War Two. The Mount Elliott Company was eventually liquidated in 1953.
\nMount Elliott Smelter
\nThe existence of copper in the Leichhardt River area of north western Queensland had been known since Ernest Henry discovered the Great Australia Mine in 1867 at Cloncurry. In 1899 James Elliott discovered copper on the conical hill that became Mount Elliott, but having no capital to develop the mine, he sold an interest to James Morphett, a pastoralist of Fort Constantine station near Cloncurry. Morphett, being drought stricken, in turn sold out to John Moffat of Irvinebank, the most successful mining promoter in Queensland at the time (Blainey 1960:32-3).
\nPlentiful capital and cheap transport were prerequisites for developing the Cloncurry field, which had stagnated for forty years. Without capital it was impossible to explore and prove ore-bodies; without proof of large reserves of wealth it was futile to build a railway; and without a railway it was hazardous to invest capital in finding large reserves of ore. The mining investor or the railway builder had to break the impasse (Kerr 1992:4).
\nIn 1906-07 copper averaged £ 87 a ton on the London market, the highest price for thirty years, and the Cloncurry field grew. The railway was extended west of Richmond in 1905-06 by the Government and mines were floated on the Melbourne Stock Exchange. At Mount Elliott a prospecting shaft had been sunk and on 1 August 1906 a Cornish boiler and winding plant were installed on the site.
\nMount Elliott Limited was floated in Melbourne on 13 July 1906. In 1907 it was taken over by British and French interests and restructured. Combining with its competitor, Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited, Mount Elliott formed a special company to finance and construct the railway from Cloncurry to Malbon, Kuridala (then Friezeland) and Mount Elliott (later Selwyn). This new company then entered into an agreement with the Queensland Railways Department in July 1908 (Kerr 1992:4).
\nThe railway, which was known as the 'Syndicate Railway', aroused opposition in 1908 from the trade unions and Labor movement generally, who contended that railways should be State-owned. However, the Hampden-Mount Elliott Railway Bill was passed by the Queensland Parliament and assented to on 21 April 1908; construction finished in December 1910. The railway terminated at the Mount Elliott smelter.
\nBy 1907 the main underlie shaft had been sunk and construction of the smelters was underway using a second-hand water-jacket blast furnace and converters. At this time, W.H. Corbould was appointed general manager of Mount Elliott Limited.
\nThe second-hand blast furnace and converters were commissioned or 'blown in' in May 1909, but were problematic causing hold-ups. Corbould referred to the equipment in use as being the 'worst collection of worn-out junk he had ever come across' (Hore-Lacy 1981:148). Corbould soon convinced his directors to scrap the plant and let him design new works.
\nCorbould was a metallurgist and geologist as well as mine/smelter manager. He foresaw a need to obtain control and thereby ensure a reliable supply of ore from a cross-section of mines in the region. He also saw a need to implement an effective strategy to manage the economies of smelting low-grade ore. Smelting operations in the region were made difficult by the technical and economic problems posed by the deterioration in the grade of ore. Corbould resolved the issue by a process of blending ores with different chemical properties, increasing the throughput capacity of the smelter and by championing the unification of smelting operations in the region (Nexus Archaeology & Heritage 2009:48). In 1912, Corbould acquired Hampden Consols Mine at Kuridala for Mount Elliott Limited, followed with the purchases of other small mines in the district (Burke and Grimwade 2001:3).
\nWalkers Limited of Maryborough was commissioned to manufacture a new 200 ton water jacket furnace for the smelters (Hore-Lacy 1981:151-3). An air compressor and blower for the smelters were constructed in the powerhouse and an electric motor and dynamo provided power for the crane and lighting for the smelter and mine (Kerr 1992:4).
\nThe new smelter was blown in September 1910, a month after the first train arrived, and it ran well, producing 2040 tons of blister copper by the end of the year. The new smelting plant made it possible to cope with low-grade sulphide ores at Mount Elliott. The use of 1000 tons of low-grade sulphide ores bought from the Hampden Consols Mine in 1911 made it clear that if a supply of higher sulphur ore could be obtained and blended, performance and economy would improve. Accordingly, the company bought a number of smaller mines in the district in 1912 (Hore-Lacy 1981:159-61).
\nCorbould mined with cut and fill stoping but a young Mines Inspector condemned the system, ordered it dismantled and replaced with square set timbering. In 1911, after gradual movement in stopes on the No.3 level, the smelter was closed for two months (Hore-Lacy 1981:154, 157-9). Nevertheless, 5447 tons of blister copper was produced in 1911, rising to 6690 tons in 1912 - the company's best year. Many of the surviving structures at the site were built at this time (Kerr 1992:4).
\nTroubles for Mount Elliott started in 1913. In February, a fire at the Consols Mine closed it for months. In June, a thirteen week strike closed the whole operation, severely depleting the workforce. The year 1913 was also bad for industrial accidents in the area, possibly due to inexperienced people replacing the strikers. Nevertheless, the company paid generous dividends that year (Hore-Lacy 1981:163).
\nAt the end of 1914 smelting ceased for more than a year due to shortage of ore. Although 3200 tons of blister copper was produced in 1913, production fell to 1840 tons in 1914 and the workforce dwindled to only 40 men (Hore-Lacy 1981:165). For the second half of 1915 and early 1916 the smelter treated ore railed south from Mount Cuthbert. At the end of July 1916 the smelting plant at Selwyn was dismantled except for the flue chambers and stacks. A new furnace with a capacity of 500 tons per day was built, a large amount of second-hand equipment was obtained and the converters were increased in size (Hore-Lacy 1981:169).
\nAfter the enlarged furnace was commissioned in June 1917, continuing industrial unrest retarded production which amounted to only 1000 tons of copper that year (Hore-Lacy 1981:171). The point of contention was the efficiency of the new smelter which processed twice as much ore while employing fewer men. The company decided to close down the smelter in October and reduce the size of the furnace, the largest in Australia, from 6.5m to 5.5m. In the meantime the price of copper had almost doubled from 1916 due to wartime consumption of munitions (Hore-Lacy 1981:173).
\nThe new furnace commenced on 16 January 1918 and 77,482 tons of ore were smelted yielding 3580 tons of blister copper which were sent to the Bowen refinery before export to Britain (Kerr 1992:4). Local coal and coke supply was a problem and materials were being sourced from the distant Bowen Colliery (Hooper 1993:259). The smelter had a good run for almost a year except for a strike in July and another in December, which caused Corbould to close down the plant until New Year. In 1919, following relaxation of wartime controls by the British Metal Corporation, the copper price plunged from about £110 per ton at the start of the year to £75 per ton in April, dashing the company's optimism regarding treatment of low grade ores. The smelter finally closed after two months operation and most employees were laid off (Hore-Lacy 1981:173).
\nFor much of the period 1919 to 1922, Corbould was in England trying to raise capital to reorganise the company's operations but he failed and resigned from the company in 1922. The Mount Elliott Company took over the assets of the other companies on the Cloncurry field in the 1920s - Mount Cuthbert in 1925 and Kuridala in 1926. Mount Isa Mines bought the Mount Elliott plant and machinery, including the three smelters, in 1943 for £2,300, enabling them to start copper production in the middle of the Second World War. The Mount Elliott Company was finally liquidated in 1953 (Hore-Lacy 1981:174-5).
\nIn 1950 A.E. Powell took up the Mount Elliott Reward Claim at Selwyn and worked close to the old smelter buildings. An open cut mine commenced at Starra, south of Mount Elliott and Selwyn, in 1988 and is Australia's third largest copper producer producing copper-gold concentrates from flotation and gold bullion from carbon-in-leach processing (Kerr 1992:4).
\nProfitable copper-gold ore bodies were recently proved at depth beneath the Mount Elliott smelter and old underground workings by Cyprus Gold Australia Pty Ltd. These deposits were subsequently acquired by Arimco Mining Pty Ltd for underground development which commenced in July 1993. A decline tunnel portal, ore and overburden dumps now occupy a large area of the Maggie Creek valley south-west of the smelter which was formerly the site of early miner's camps.
\nSelwyn Township
\nIn 1907, the first hotel, run by H. Williams, was opened at the site. The township was surveyed later, around 1910, by the Mines Department. The town was to be situated north of the mine and smelter operations adjacent the railway, about 1.5km distant. It took its name from the nearby Selwyn Ranges which were named, during Burke's expedition, after the Victorian Government Geologist, A.R. Selwyn. The town has also been known by the name of Mount Elliott, after the nearby mines and smelter (Hooper 1993:259).
\nMany of the residents either worked at the Mount Elliott Mine and Smelter or worked in the service industries which grew around the mining and smelting operations (Hooper 1993:259). Little documentation exists about the everyday life of the town's residents. Surrounding sheep and cattle stations, however, meant that meat was available cheaply and vegetables grown in the area were delivered to the township by horse and cart (Hore-Lacy 1981:146). Imported commodities were, however, expensive.
\nBy 1910 the town had four hotels (Hooper 1993:259). There was also an aerated water manufacturer, three stores, four fruiterers, a butcher, baker, saddler, garage, police, hospital, banks, post office (officially from 1906 to 1928, then unofficially until 1975) and a railway station. There was even an orchestra of ten players in 1912 (Hooper 1993:259). The population of Selwyn rose from 1000 in 1911 to 1500 in 1918, before gradually declining (Hooper 1993:259).
","criteria":"The Mount Elliott Mining Complex, incorporating the remnants of the Mount Elliott Mine, Smelter, a range of associated infrastructure, scattered archaeological artefacts, the abandoned town of Selwyn and its associated cemetery, has the potential to provide important information on aspects of Queensland's history particularly early copper smelter practices and technologies, the full range of activities peripheral to those base operations and, importantly, the people who lived and worked in this complex historic mining landscape.
\nThe Mount Elliott Mining Complex has sufficient archaeological integrity and diversity in its assemblage to facilitate detailed studies which would reveal the largely undocumented social and cultural aspects of the occupation and use of the mine, smelter and Selwyn Township areas. Important research questions could focus on, but are not limited to, cultural identity and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, individual and collective living conditions, and individual adaptations to the remoteness and harshness of the local environment.
\nArchaeological investigations within the Mount Elliott Mining Complex have potential to reveal specific details about the function and use of the area that complement and augment archival records. Investigations of the remnant mining and smelting infrastructure may help answer important research questions relating to mining and smelting operations including, but not limited to:
\nThe Mount Elliott Mining Complex is an important component of a broader historic mining landscape as operations at Mount Elliott helped initiate extractive and primary processing industries in the Cloncurry region and north-west Queensland generally. The remnant infrastructure, mining artefacts, and the remains of the mining township of Selwyn have potential for important comparative material to other mining sites in the region, particularly the nearby Hampden Company Smelter at Kuridala (QHR 645604) and Mount Cuthbert Township and Smelter near Cloncurry (QHR 601629). Archaeological investigations at the Mount Elliott Mining Complex may reveal new information that expands our understanding of such enterprises and on the everyday lives of the people living and working at such sites across Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":30727,"place_ref":645604,"name":"Kuridala Township, Hampden Smelter and Mining Complex","alternate_name":"Friezeland Township | Kuridala Smelter | Hampden Township | 700004","street_address":"Located about 65km south of Cloncurry. Access by the Cloncurry-Dajarra Road","suburb":"KURIDALA","lga":"CLONCURRY SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-06-12","description":"Town area
The township site, with surviving foundations and archaeological evidence of commercial and residential buildings and activities, covers an area of approximately 1.5km (north-south) by 1.2km (east-west). The surveyed town site runs roughly parallel with, and on the eastern side of, the Hampden line of reef. Evidence of commercial buildings is present in the south-west corner of the town site between a stock bore east of the Hampden Consol chimney and an early town well. Foundations and concrete surfaces remain for the bakery, hotel/store, and butcher's shop and other unidentified premises (RCS 1989:7-8; JLA and Pearce 1996:563). The skating rink, police station, mine manager's house and hospital have also been identified archaeologically (RCS 1989:7-8). Residential sites generally appear as cleared earth surfaces with ironstone or white quartz edging. The hospital site is located on a small hill to the east and contains a large iron water tank base and cast iron oven (JLA and Pearce 1996:563). A wide range of domestic artefacts are in evidence across the town area. These include food containers such as glass bottles, ceramic tableware, and metal tins for products from kerosene and matches to sardines and tobacco (RCS 1989:appendix 1).
Cemetery
The cemetery is situated towards the southern end of the site, west of the Hampden line of reef. The cemetery is clearly marked and was re-fenced in 1988-89. There are two gazetted cemetery reserves adjacent to the township (Lots 3SW23 and 5SW25). The actual cemetery is located 400m east of Lot 5SW25, and is not located within the boundaries of either of the gazetted cemetery areas. There are over 360 graves which can be identified in the cemetery consisting of 18 rows with 20 graves per row. Many graves have headstones with 40 being marked and dating from 1909 to 1920. Most headstones are by Melrose and Fenwick, Townsville. Some graves have railings but lack identification of the person buried. Many grave boundaries are marked by early 20th Century cast iron beds with full or half testers. Smaller framed beds denote children's' or infants' graves. Several grave crosses have been fashioned from kerosene tins. Several graves were noted in 1989 as having dilapidated wooden surrounds. Other graves are visible only from soil disturbance, while it is possible there are still others which are not so clearly visible (RCS 1989:8; Grimwade 1995:19; JLA and Pearce 1996:563).
Railway Station and Railway Line
The railway station site is immediately north of the cemetery at the junction of the smelter spur line. The station office is identified by a cement rendered surface with other foundations and tank bases within a 30m radius. Timber sleepers are still in place along sections of the railway formation (JLA and Pearce 1996:563). Embankments and cuttings still identify the route of the Cloncurry-Kuridala railway line and there is a wide range of archaeological material associated with the station and the line still present (Grimwade 1995:19).
Other settlement and industrial sites
A wide range of other settlement sites outside the confines of the planned township occur across the landscape. There is an apparent randomness to the sites however it is likely that there was far more method in site selection than is presently apparent. Examples of these sites include deposits of bottle glass, ceramic vessel fragments, metal artefacts, bricks and other domestic material.
Smelter
The remains of the smelter-works includes a blast furnace, concrete engine mounts and an iron chimney. A large, well-formed slag dump extends northward from the smelter (RCS 1989:6; JLA and Pearce 1996:559). Adjacent to the furnace is a second iron chimney, powerhouse foundations and roasting furnace (JLA and Pearce 1996:559). The steel plate chimneys and parts of the smelter are all heavily rusted and the foundations are showing signs of heavy cracking (RCS 1989:5-6).
Mine areas
Foundations and remnants of four early mines occur along the north-south line of the Hampden reef. Northern-most is the Hampden No. 2 containing a multi-tube boiler, beam pump and waster material (Grimwade 1995:23; JLA and Pearce 1996:559). Logs remain at the former sawmill site south of Hampden No. 2. Further south and about 200m east of the smelter is the Hampden No.1 mine and plant foundations at the base of a high tailings dump. This mine contains the largest group of foundations including crusher and winch mounts. A beam pump arm is located at the collar of the main shaft (JLA and Pearce 1996:559). Further south, at the Hampden No. 3 shaft, remains include a headframe, winder house, waste heaps and boiler on a brick mounting. The bricks are manufactured from slag demonstrating an innovative and rare use of recycled slag (Grimwade 1995:234; JLA and Pearce 1996:559). The Hampden Consol mine to the south retains an iron chimney on a rendered brick base which is inscribed AD 1913. Evidence at the site includes engine house remains, foundations and waste heaps (Grimwade 1995:24; JLA and Pearce 1996:559). Other shafts and underground operations are likely to remain where there is the existence of shafts and levels. These remnants are likely to provide useful information on tunnelling techniques, the use of pit props, and design of ore hauling mechanisms (Grimwade 1995:25).
","history":"Copper was discovered at Kuridala in 1884 and the Hampden mine commenced during the 1890s. A Melbourne syndicate took over operations in 1897 and with increasing development of the mine in 1905-06 the Hampden Cloncurry Limited company was formed. The township was surveyed as Hampden in 1910 (later called Friezland, and finally Kuridala in 1916). The Hampden Smelter operated from 1911 to 1920 with World War I being a particularly prosperous time for the company. After the war the operations and the township declined and the Hampden Cloncurry company ceased to exist in 1928. Tribute mining and further exploration and testing of the ore body has continued from 1932 through to the present day.
\nThe Kuridala Township and Hampden Smelter are located approximately 65km south of Cloncurry and 345m above sea level, on an open plain against a background of rugged but picturesque hills.
\nThe Cloncurry copper fields were discovered by Ernest Henry in 1867 but lack of capital and transport combined with low base metal prices precluded any major development. However, rising prices, new discoveries in the region and the promise of a railway combined with an inflow of British capital stimulated development. Additionally, Melbourne based promoters eager to develop another base metal bonanza like Broken Hill led to a resurgence of interest, especially in the Hampden mines (Kennedy 1980:221-3).
\nThe copper deposits at Kuridala (initially named Hampden) were discovered by William McPhail and Robert Johnson on their pastoral lease, Eureka, in January 1884. The Hampden mine was held by Fred Gibson in the 1890s and acquired in 1897 by a Melbourne syndicate comprising the 'Broken Hillionaires' - William Orr, William Knox and Herman Schlapp. They floated the Hampden Copper Mines N. L. with a capital of £100,000 in £100 shares of which 200 were fully paid up (Kennedy 1980:223). With this capital they commenced a prospecting and stockpiling program sending specimens to Dapto and Wallaroo for testing. Government Geologist, W.E. Cameron's report on the district in 1900 discouraged investors as he reported that few of the lodes, other than the Hampden Company's main lode at Kuridala, were worth working (Kerr 1993).
\nA world price rise in copper in 1905 combined with a government decision in 1906 to extend the Townsville railway from Richmond to Cloncurry, stimulated further development. The Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited was registered in Victoria in March 1906 to acquire the old company's mines. However, the company only had a working capital of £35,000 after distributing vendor's shares and buying the Duchess mines. During this period there were over 20 companies investing similarly on the Cloncurry field (Kerr 1993).
\nThe township was surveyed by the Mines Department around 1910 and was first known as Hampden after the mines discovered in the 1880s. By 1912 it was called Friezland, however was officially renamed Kuridala in October 1916 to minimise confusion with another settlement in Queensland. The reason for this change was considered to be linked to German names being unpopular at the outbreak of World War I (Hooper 1993:251).
\nHampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Limited and its competitor, Mount Elliott, formed a special company in 1908 to finance and construct the railway extension from Cloncurry through Malbon, to Kuridala and Mount Elliott (Kerr 1993). The company reconstructed in July 1909 by increasing its capitalisation, and concluding arrangements for a debenture issue to be secured against its proposed smelters (Kennedy 1980:229). Its smelters were not fired until March 1911 and over the next three years 85,266 tons of ore were treated with an initial dividend of £140,000 being declared in 1913 (Kennedy 1980:230). In one month in 1915 the Hampden Smelter produced 813 tons of copper, an Australian record at that time.
\nConcern over the dwindling reserves of high grade ore led to William Corbould, the general manager of Mount Elliott mines, negotiating an amalgamation with Hampden Cloncurry to halt the fierce rivalry. But the latter was uninterested having consolidated its prospects in 1911 by acquiring many promising mines in the region, and enlarging its smelters and erecting new converters (Kennedy 1980:230). In 1913, following a fire in the Hampden Consol's mine, Corbould convinced his London directors to reopen negotiations for a joint venture in the northern section of the field which still awaited a railway. Although Corbould and Huntley, the Hampden Cloncurry general manager, inspected many properties, the proposal lapsed (Kennedy 1980:233).
\nThe railway reached the township by 1910. A sanitary system was installed in 1911, after a four month typhoid epidemic, and a hospital erected by 1913, run by Dr. Old (Hooper 1993:251). It was described as the best and most modern hospital in the northwest. At its height the town supported six hotels, five stores, four billiard saloons, three dance halls and a cinema, two ice works and one aerated waters factory, and Chinese gardens along the creek (Blainey 1970:50). There were also drapers, fruiterer, butcher, baker, timber merchant, garage, four churches, police station, court house, post office, banks and a school with up to 280 pupils. A cyclone in December 1918 damaged the town and wrecked part of the powerhouse and smelter (Blainey 1970; Hooper 1993:251).
\nA comprehensive description of the plant and operations of the Kuridala Hampden mines and smelters was given by the Cloncurry mining warden in the Queensland Government Mining Journal of 14 September 1912 (QGMJ 1912:470-1). Ore from other company-owned mines (Duchess, Happy Salmon, MacGregor and Trekelano) was railed in via a 1.2km branch line to the reduction plant bins, while the heavy pyrites ore from the Hampden mines was separated at the main shaft into coarse and fine products and conveyed to separate 1,500 ton capacity bins over a standard gauge railway to the plant.
\nA central power plant was installed with three separate Dowson pressure gas plants powered by three tandem type Kynoch gas engines of 320hp and two duplex type Hornsby gas engines of 200hp. Two Swedish General Electric Company generators of 1,250kw and 56kw running at 460 volts, supplied electricity to the machines in the works, fitting shops and mine pumps. Electric light for the mine and works was supplied by a British Thompson-Houston generator of 42kw, running at 420 volts. The fuel used in the gas producers was bituminous coal, coke or charcoal, made locally in the retorts (QGMJ 1912:470-1).
\nThe reduction plant consisted of two water-jacket furnaces, 2.1m by 1m and 4.2m by 1m, with dust chambers and a 52m high steel stack. There were two electrically driven converter vessels, each 3.2m by 2.3m. The molten product ran into a 3.7m diameter forehearth, while the slag was drawn off into double ton slag pots, run to the dump over 3 foot gauge, 42lb steel rail tracks. The copper was delivered from the forehearth to the converters. A 1.06m gauge track ran under the converters and carried the copper mould cars to the cleaning and shipping shed, at the end of which was the siding for railing out the cakes of blister copper (QGMJ 1912:470-1).
\nThe war conferred four years of prosperity on the Cloncurry district despite marketing, transport and labour difficulties. The Hampden Cloncurry Company declared liberal dividends during 1915-18: £40,000, £140,000, £52,500 and £35,000 making a total disbursement since commencing operations of £437,500. Its smelters treated over a quarter of a million tons of ore in this period, averaging over 70,000 tons annually. The company built light railways to its mines (e.g. Wee MacGregor and Trekelano) to ensure regular ore supplies and to reduce transport costs (Kennedy 1980:239-41). In order to improve its ore treatment, Hampden Cloncurry installed a concentration plant in 1917 (Kennedy 1980:249). In 1918 an Edwards furnace was erected to pre-roast fine sulphide concentrates from the mill before smelting (QGMJ 1918:106).
\nThe dropping of the copper price control by the British government in 1918 forced the company into difficulties. Smelting was postponed until September 1919 and the company lost heavily during the next season and had to rely on ores from the Trekelano mine. Its smelter treated 69,598 tons of ore in 1920, but the company was forced to halt all operations after the Commonwealth Bank withdrew funds on copper awaiting export (Kennedy 1980:239-41).
\nCompanies and mines turned to the Theodore Labor Government for assistance but they were unsympathetic to the companies, even though they alone had the capacity to revive the Cloncurry field (Kennedy 1980:242). More negotiations for amalgamation occurred in 1925 but failed, and in 1926 Hampden Cloncurry offered its assets for sale by tender and Mount Elliott acquired them all except for the Trekelano mine. The company was de-listed in 1928 (Kennedy 1980:243-4).
\nThe rise and decline of the township reflected the company's fortunes. In 1913 there were 1,500 people increasing to 2,000 by 1920, but by 1924 this had declined to 800. With the rise of Mount Isa, Kaiser's bakehouse, the hospital, courthouse, one ice works and picture theatre, moved there in 1923 followed by Boyds' Hampden Hotel (renamed the Argent) in 1924 (Hooper 1993:251; Blainey 1970:150-1). Other buildings including the police residence and Clerk of Petty Sessions house were moved to Cloncurry.
\nIn its nine years of smelting Hampden Cloncurry had been one of Australia's largest mining companies producing 50,800 tons of copper (compared with Mount Elliott's 27,000), 21,000 ounces of gold and 381,000 ounces of silver. A more permanent achievement was its part in creating the metal fabricating company, Metal Manufacturers Limited, of which it was one of the four founders in 1916. Much of the money which built their Port Kembla works into one of the country's largest manufacturers came from the now derelict smelters in north-west Queensland (Blainey 1970:54).
\nIn 1942 Mount Isa Mines bought the Kuridala Smelters for £800 and used parts to construct a copper furnace which commenced operating in April 1943 in response to wartime demands (Blainey 1970:187-8). The Tunny family continued to live at Kuridala as tributers on the Hampden and Consol mines from 1932 until 1969 and worked the mines down to 15.25m (Fitton 1989:9). A post office operated until 1975 and the last inhabitant, Lizzy Belch, moved into Cloncurry about 1982 (Hooper 1993:251).
\nFurther exploration and testing of the Kuridala ore body has occurred from 1948 up until the present with activities being undertaking by Mount Isa Mines, Broken Hill South, Enterprise Exploration, Marshall and James Boyd, Australian Selection, Kennecott Exploration, Carpentaria Exploration, Metana Minerals, A.M. Metcalfe, Dampier Mining Co Ltd, Newmont Pty Ltd, Australian Anglo American, Era South Pacific Pty Ltd, CRA Exploration Pty Ltd, BHP Minerals Ltd, Metana Minerals and Matrix Metals Ltd (RCS 1989:app 3).
\n\n
References
\nBlainey, G. 1970 Mines in the Spinifex: The story of Mount Isa Mines. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
\nFitton, A. 1989 Chronology of Events in the Kuridala Area, 1867-1988, Appendix 3, in Resource Consulting Services Pty Ltd (ed.), Environmental Impact Study, Archaeology, MLA9357 Cloncurry. Unpublished report to Metana Minerals N.L., Cloncurry.
\nGrimwade, G. 1995 Kuridala: Heritage Assessment. Unpublished report to Majestic Resources N.L., Brookfield.
\nHooper, C. 1993 Angor to Zillmanton: Stories of North Queensland's deserted towns. Mundingburra: Colin Hooper.
\nJane Lennon and Associates and Howard Pearce 1996 Mining Heritage Places Study, Northern and Western Queensland: Identification, assessment and documentation of cultural heritage significance; Volume 4: Mount Isa District. Unpublished report to Department of Environment, Brisbane.
\nKennedy, K.H. 1980 The Cloncurry Copper Companies, in K.H. Kennedy (ed), Readings in North Queensland Mining History, Vol 1, pp.221-250. Townsville: James Cook University.
\nKerr, R. 1993 Queensland Historical Mining Sites Study, Vol 4. Unpublished report to the Department of Environment and Heritage, Brisbane.
\nQueensland Government Mining Journal
\n15 May 1911, pp.214-215
\n14 September 1912, pp.434-5, pp.470-1
\n14 March 1918, p.106
\nResource Consulting Services Pty Ltd 1989 Environmental Impact Study, Archaeology, MLA9357 Cloncurry. Unpublished report to Metana Minerals N.L., Cloncurry.
\n","criteria":"
The Kuridala Township, Hampden Smelter and Mining Complex has the potential to reveal important information about Queensland's history including a better understanding of copper mining practices and the pattern of settlement in North Queensland. The Kuridala complex was one of the first of a cluster of significant copper mining interests in the rich mineral field near Cloncurry.
\nKuridala Township, Hampden Smelter and Mining Complex features extensive archaeological evidence relating to a wide range of mining activities. The early smelter works are the most complete works of this type in North Queensland. The Hampden Smelter is equipped with a rare, early water-jacket blast furnace, which is now unique as the only surviving example of its type in Queensland. A large, intact and well-formed slag dump at the site is second only in size to the dump at Chillagoe Smelters (QHR 600675). Archaeological examination of the smelter works will provide an understanding of the technology and practices in early copper processing in Queensland.
\nArchaeological investigations of the township area of Kuridala will provide answers to a range of questions relating to the social dynamics of the community and its establishment, development, interaction, and decline. Analysis of the archaeological artefacts particularly in domestic contexts will provide information on issues such as ethnicity, gender and the daily lives of the residents of Kuridala. The remains of the township will provide information on the pattern and spatial organisation of the settlement, and have the potential to answer questions about the isolation and integration of communities and of community identity. An understanding of the collective experiences of isolated mining communities may also be gained through further research into the site, particularly given the level of intra-site complexity.
\nThe cemetery, one of the largest with mining associations in North Queensland, has the potential to provide further information about the community. Analysis of the types and styles of burials and grave markers, the layout and organisation of the cemetery, and the information from the grave markers about those individuals buried, has the potential to reveal information on such research questions as ethnicity, religion and social division within the community. Archaeological analysis of the remains of those buried in the cemetery also has the potential to reveal details of the health and living conditions of the residents of the township.
\nGiven the isolated nature of the community and its distance from established centres of regulation, examination of the archaeological evidence may shed light on disparities between what was regulated or documented and what actually occurred at the site. For example, as identified during previous archaeological surveys of the site in 1989 and 1995, the town plan shows neat streets to the east of the mines and smelter and southwest of the Hampden consol, but the archaeological evidence shows domestic settlement extending to the south, in isolated pockets to the north of the smelter and west of the mines.
\nThe association of the township and industrial areas at the Kuridala complex also provides for comparative and complementary research into other copper mining operations with associated township remains in North Queensland, including Mount Cuthbert Township and Kalkadoon Mine (QHR 601629) and Mount Elliott Mining Complex (QHR 645612).
\nArchaeological investigations at the former Kuridala Township, Hampden Smelter and Mining Complex also have potential to answer important research questions including but not limited to labour relations, class, and capitalism.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":null,"place_ref":650084,"name":"Wee MacGregor tram and rail complex and the former towns of Ballara and Hightville","alternate_name":null,"street_address":null,"suburb":"KURIDALA","lga":"CLONCURRY SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2019-03-01","description":"The Wee MacGregor tramway and rail complex and the former towns of Ballara and Hightville (c1909-1929), is located approximately 17km south of the Barkly Highway, roughly halfway between Mt Isa and Cloncurry. The place comprises the ruins of the:
\nSet in the Argylla Ranges, the terrain varies from south to north, being relatively low and flat around Ballara and increasingly hilly, steep and elevated towards and beyond Hightville, with expansive views offered from vantage points at Hightville and north of the tunnel. The rocky landscape is traversed by dry creeks and gullies, and vegetation includes Spinifex, Acacia and Eucalypt species.
\nWhile the ruins have been subject to deterioration and some disturbance, they continue to illustrate characteristics of their former functions and relationships. Collectively the remnant earthworks, structures, archaeological features and artefact scatters are a physical legacy of early 20th century mining transport infrastructure and associated occupation in the area. The place has the potential to reveal important information about the construction and operation of remote mining transport infrastructure, and the people who lived and worked there.
\nThe following description identifies significant features evident along the former tramway formation, and at the railway terminus and town sites, and is based on a site visit undertaken by DES in October 2018. Refer to place maps 1-9 for feature locations, areas of archaeological potential and previous surface disturbance.
\nBallara railway terminus
\nLocated north of the former town of Ballara, the railway terminus comprises: the former railway line, which aligned approximately east-west, and continued west from the former Ballara Station, past the freight platform and to just west of the ore transfer stage; and a former turning triangle formed by sidings that curved north from both the tramway and the railway towards former maintenance buildings.
\nFormer railway line and turning triangle
\nThe route of the former railway line (tracks removed 1929) is evidenced by a cutting, at and west of the former station, and several culverts between the turning triangle and ore transfer station. From near the freight platform and westwards has been graded for use as a modern dirt road.
\nThe former turning triangle is evidenced by earthworks including: a 50m long curved embankment, aligned northwest to southeast and located approximately 80m northwest of the railway station; and a 65m straight embankment, aligned north-south and located 140m north of the freight platform, with a culvert midway.
\nFormer Ballara Station and freight platform
\nThe former Ballara Station (east) and freight platform (west) are of similar construction and situated approximately 110m apart; both are positioned on the south side of the railway line and aligned east-west. Along with the maintenance buildings, they retain concrete building footings with 150-205mm thick off-form concrete wall bases that have rebated tops and embedded metal bolts, to which the (possibly prefabricated) building superstructure was fixed. Platforms have 600mm x 65mm thick precast concrete bullnose capping in 1.2m lengths.
\nFormer Ballara Station:
\nFormer freight platform:
\nFormer maintenance buildings
\nA collection of footings from former maintenance buildings are aligned north-south and located either side of the northern end of the former turning triangle:
\n
Other archaeological features and artefacts
A range of metal artefacts including rail wagons / ore bins are scattered around the terminus, and evidence of occupation includes sites to the west and northwest of the turning triangle.
\nOre transfer stage
\nThe ore transfer stage aligns east-west and comprises parallel stepped cuttings from the former railway (south, lower - recently graded) and tramway (north, upper) alignments, separated by a substantial concrete and earth platform that is flanked by a drystone retaining wall (east) and a curved embankment (west).
\nBallara to Wee MacGregor tramway formation
\nThe overall trajectory of the winding tramway formation between Ballara and the Wee MacGregor Mine is southeast to northwest (as constructed). From the ore loading stage the formation continues west approximately 400m, through relatively low, flat terrain. After a tight curve, the formation winds north, following and crossing a creek line, then to the east of the Hightville Cemetery (not part of QHR place), and includes the abutments of several bridges. The formation continues through the increasingly steep and elevated terrain, around the eastern and northern sides of Hightville, where the former Wallaroo Mine line branched to the northeast. North of Hightville, the formation passes through a tunnel and a series of tight curves form a loop around a hilltop at the northern end, finishing to the east of the former Wee MacGregor Mine.
\nWhile the tracks are no longer extant (removed 1921), the tramway formation is evidenced by earthworks including over 40 embankments and cuttings, drystone walls, culverts and eight bridge abutments. The scale, design and construction of these features ranges in response to the varying terrain, maintaining an optimal tramway gradient.
\nModern graded roads follow and cross parts of the formation, and have disturbed the surface in some areas.
\nCuttings, embankments and drystone retaining walls
\nCuttings and embankments along the tramway generally comprise straight and curved linear alignments, cut into and built up from the rocky contours and approaches to creek crossings. Relatively shallow cuttings and low earth embankments, some with local drystone pitching, are prevalent in the southern half of the formation, where there are numerous former bridges, while earthworks responding to the steeper terrain to the north combine more substantial cuttings, embankments and drystone retaining walls. Most embankments, and some cuttings, incorporate concrete culverts, often with stonework surrounding the outlets.
\nDeep, straight cuttings, through bedrock, approach the north and south tunnel entrances; erosion has raised the ground level of the southern cutting.
\nDrystone retaining walls are generally constructed of random-coursed local stone. In the tight curves of the northern loop they are several metres high and retain the benched earth formation.
\n\n
Former bridges
\nBridge remnants generally comprise off-form concrete winged abutments and rectangular concrete pier footings, with rebated edges (abutments only) and exposed metal bolts for fixing the timber structure. Abutment walls are generally 2.7-2.8m wide (plus angled wing walls of varying lengths) and spans range from 4.67m to 26.2m. The concrete has aggregate of varying size, including smooth creek pebbles. Former bridges from south to north include:
\nTunnel
\nAlong the tramway between the Wee MacGregor Mine and Hightville, the 77m long unlined tunnel through MacGregor Hill is orientated northwest-southeast and has rough-finished off-form concrete portals at both ends.
\nCulverts
\nConcrete culverts are evident along the length of the tramway formation. The majority are pre-cast concrete pipe culverts, some with stone surrounding the outlets, of varying sizes (approximately 300mm-750mm diameter) and single and double-pipe configurations.
\nTwo substantial off-form box culverts are located at the railway turning triangle and near the approach to Wee Macgregor Mine. They have rectangular openings flanked by angled concrete wings and a drystone retaining wall surround (northern culvert only).
\nFormer store and office
\nA former store and office is located east of the tramway formation, at Hightville, near the branch line to Wallaroo. Aligned north-south, it comprises a rectangular 13.5m x 6.3m two-tier building footprint of earth platforms surrounded by stone that is loosely coursed in some areas. The lower tier (west) is 2.5m wide, and the upper tier (east) is 3.8m wide and divided into two (7.2m and 6.2m) rooms; it is 400mm high, with several courses of stone at the southern end.
\nOther associated features and artefacts
\nEvidence of occupation dotted along the tramway includes a possible well, earth / stone platforms and hearths, and associated artefacts.
\nFormer town of Ballara
\nThe surveyed (1914) town site of Ballara comprises former Ainscow Street, which is orientated approximately east-west, and former Peberdy and Knox streets running perpendicular to the south. A Police Reserve (gazetted 1915) was located at the western end of former Ainscow Street. Evidence of domestic and commercial premises, concentrated along former Ainscow Street, includes earth, stone and concrete building foundations and platforms, and associated glass, metal and ceramic artefacts.
\nThe site of the former manager’s residence, on the northern side of former Ainscow Street, comprises concrete building footings for an L-shaped building core, with verandah post footings on the northern, eastern and southern sides. All footings are off-form concrete, with embedded metal bolts and brackets for fixing the superstructure. The core is 12.8m x 4.7-5.5m, and has a concrete slab floor and 230mm high wall bases that outline four rooms. Concrete steps, offset by 5.7m at the eastern end, are 650mm high and have evidence of light green paint.
\nA row of apparent shops and/or dwellings, visible along the southern side of former Ainscow Street in historical photographs of the town, are evidenced by an alignment of building footings and associated artefacts. From west to east they include:
\nFormer town of Hightville
\nLocated to the west and southwest of the tramway, the mining town of Hightville included: former Fountain Street, which followed a ridge in a north-south then northwest-southeast alignment; former Warrick Street, which zig-zagged to the northwest around a Police Reserve (gazetted 1918) and partly followed Wattle Creek; and Knox Street, which ran southwest off Warrick Street.
\nIn contrast with Ballara, Hightville was surveyed (1913) several years after it was established (c1909) and evidence of occupation can be found both within and to the north of the surveyed town; it includes earth and stone platforms, hearths and footings, and associated artefact scatters from domestic and commercial premises, as well as a town dump to the south. The building remnants appear less formal than those at Ballara and are constructed using predominately locally sourced materials.
\nOccupation sites located within the surveyed town, in the vicinity of former Fountain and Warrick streets include:
\nSeveral former dwelling and nearby dump sites are located west of the intersection of Warrick and Knox streets:
\nOccupation sites located to the north of the surveyed town include:
\nThe town dump comprises a collection of four distinct deposits (3.2m x 6.4m, 4.8m x 5.5m, 2.6m dia., and 2m x 3.3m) of predominantly green glass bottles and tin cans. There is some evidence of recent disturbance from shallow excavation. A survey cairn is located on a hill to the west of the dump.
\nFeatures not of State-level heritage significance
\nModern graded road surfaces, concrete slabs, fencing and interpretation signage are not of State-level cultural heritage significance.
","history":"‘The Wee MacGregor tram and rail complex and the former towns of Ballara and Hightville’ is located in the Argylla Ranges between Cloncurry and Mount Isa in North West Queensland, in the traditional country of the Kalkadoon people.[1] Constructed during an early 20th century boom in copper prices, the place includes the sites of two abandoned mining towns, Hightville and Ballara (surveyed in 1913 and 1914 respectively); the former western terminus (near Ballara) of a private 3ft 6in (1.1m) narrow gauge railway line, constructed 1913-14; and the route of an associated private 2ft (0.6m) gauge tramway, constructed 1914-15, between Ballara and the Wee MacGregor mine. The complex includes a 48m long ore transfer stage (c1914), and a 77m long tunnel (1914-15).
\nThe town of Cloncurry was surveyed in the 1870s to support the local mining and pastoral industries. Pastoralist Ernest Henry had discovered copper nearby in 1867 and established the ‘Great Australia’ (or Great Australian) mine. Part of the area was proclaimed a goldfield in 1874, and the Cloncurry Mining District (later the Cloncurry Gold and Mineral Field) was proclaimed in 1883.[2] Copper was discovered south of Cloncurry in 1884, and a town was formed in 1898 called Hampden (later called Kuridala) [QHR645604]. At Mount Elliot [QHR645612], south of Hampden, copper was discovered in 1899 and mining commenced in 1906.[3]
\nThe absence of a railway initially hampered the effective exploitation of Cloncurry’s mineral resources. The closure of the Great Australia mine in 1887 meant a proposed railway from Normanton was diverted to Croydon (1888-91), but when copper prices rose in 1905 the Queensland Government decided to extend the Great Northern Railway west from Richmond, and the first construction train reached Cloncurry in December 1907. [4]
\nMining activity was increasing on the Cloncurry field even before the railway arrived. By March 1906, copper had been discovered as an outcrop at the Wee MacGregor lease, west-southwest of Cloncurry.[5] The Leichhardt Development Syndicate was formed in October 1906 to develop the Wee MacGregor ‘group’ of mines, which included the Wee MacGregor, Grand Central, Wattle, and Wallaroo leases, and two months later MacGregor Cloncurry Copper Mines (the MacGregor Company) was floated in London. Hampden Cloncurry Copper Mines Ltd, and Mount Elliot Limited, two companies which later dominated the Cloncurry field during World War I (WWI), were also floated in 1906. [6]
\nBy October 1907 there were three prospecting shafts on the Wee MacGregor lease. That year, with a population of 650 miners (almost double that of 1906), the Cloncurry field produced 5.6% of Queensland’s copper.[7] By July 1908 the MacGregor Company was employing 70 men, not including mine officials, and during 1908 a telephone link with Cloncurry was established and tenders were called for a mail service.[8]
\nBy 1909 a settlement, including company offices and a store, was developing near the Wallaroo mine, located about 1km southeast of the Wee MacGregor mine. That year John Frost constructed the MacGregor Hotel on the site of Hightville. The hotel was listed under ‘Hightville’ in Wise’s Post Office Directory of 1911, although the town of Hightville was not surveyed until November 1913.[9]
\nIsolation threatened the economic viability of the Wee MacGregor group of mines. Ore was first drayed to Cloncurry along a rough road in May 1909, but this form of transport was uneconomic.[10] One option for the MacGregor Company was to build a private mining railway, as had been done elsewhere in Queensland.[11] Such railways were part of a wider pattern in Queensland during the late 19th-early 20th century: the construction of private and local government railways and tramways to transport the products of primary industry.[12] However, the MacGregor Company could not afford a private railway to the closest point on the Mount Elliott Railway, 39km away.[13]
\nAnother option was for the company to contribute towards a state-owned railway, as had occurred with the railway from Cloncurry to Mount Elliott, via Hampden. The cost of this railway, which opened in 1910, was split 50/50 between the Kidston Government and The Mount Elliott Company.[14] In September 1910 the MacGregor Company proposed a branch line from Malbon, on the Mount Elliott railway, under similar terms, and the government agreed to split the cost of a line survey and plans.[15]
\nIn June 1911 the MacGregor Company sought government support for a shorter branch line, this time linking to the state railway being built southwest from Malbon towards Sulieman Creek. Government officials were sceptical about the profitability and lifespan of the Wee MacGregor group of mines, despite the company estimating reserves of 100,000 tons of ore (most from the Wee MacGregor mine). Instead of a 50-50 funding arrangement for a state owned branch line, the government agreed to rent the MacGregor Company the rails they needed to construct a private line.[16]
\nQueensland’s Railways Commissioner, Charles Evans, inspected the proposed route to the Wee MacGregor mine in July 1912, and the Railway Department’s Engineer, Percy Ainscow, proposed a ‘no-frills’ railway, with a 10ft (3m) wide formation, reduced earthworks, less side drainage, cheap concrete culverts and the minimum of bridges.[17]
\nThe company’s branch line was proposed at an opportune time. In 1912, the Cloncurry field produced 45% of Queensland’s annual production of copper, with annual copper earnings now exceeding gold’s earnings. There were 1485 copper miners on the field, which was the ‘foremost producer of copper in the State’.[18]
\nThe Wee MacGregor Tramway Agreement Bill was introduced to Parliament in November 1912. It proposed that the MacGregor Company pay for the construction and maintenance of a private 3ft 6in ‘tramway’ (actually a narrow gauge railway), 24 miles and 40 chains (39.4km) long, from the Malbon to Sulieman Creek Railway to a terminus at or near the Wee MacGregor mine. The Commissioner for Railways would provide steel rails, fish plates, fastenings, sleepers and other permanent way materials. The company would pay 5% per year ‘rent’ on the cost of the materials supplied by the government, which had the power to acquire the line.[19] By 2 December 1912, the company involved in the proposal had become the Hampden Company, which purchased the Wee MacGregor group of mines from the Macgregor Company for £108,750.[20]
\nDespite the Labor Party’s concern about a company gaining a competitive advantage from a private railway line, The Wee MacGregor Tramway Agreement Act 1912 was passed on 4 December 1912. Walter Paget, Minister for Railways, noted the difference from previous private sector-government railway agreements, with less government exposure to risk.[21]
\nWork started on the 3ft 6in railway in early 1913, supervised by Ainscow. MacGregor Junction (Devoncourt), on the Malbon to Sulieman Creek railway, was the location of the main construction camp. The steepest grade for the railway was 1 in 40, with a minimum curve radius of 5 chains (100m). By April 1913 about 200 men were employed on the project.[22]
\nThe railway was planned as far as the Wallaroo mine, located east of the town of Hightville,[23] but in late 1913 the Hampden Company decided that, due to the steep, difficult terrain near Hightville, the railway would be shortened, with the terminus now 22 miles, 49 chains (35.9km) from MacGregor Junction. The remainder of the route to Hightville, and beyond to the Wee MacGregor mine, would now be traversed by a 2ft gauge tramway, which could accommodate tighter curves and steeper grades than the railway. [24]
\nA railway station and goods shed were constructed on the northern side of the town of Ballara, where a triangular junction was located. Ballara, situated at ‘Lady Lease Flats’, was surveyed in June 1914. A sale of town lots was scheduled for 14 August 1914, with upset prices for the quarter acre (0.1ha) lots ranging from £10 to £30. The outbreak of WWI led to the sale’s cancellation, and by the time a sale of 36 lots was held on 24 February 1915, prices had trebled.[25] Facilities at Ballara included a Post Office, established in late 1914, and a police reserve was gazetted at the west end of the town in 1915.[26] A district hospital was established by August 1918, on 5 acres north of the turning triangle. The Ballara Hotel existed by 1918, although it burnt down on 27 April that year, and again in April 1919. A state school was approved in May 1919, and opened in July 1919. A cemetery reserve was also gazetted, northeast of the hospital reserve, replacing the previous cemetery south of Hightville.[27]
\nHightville slowly declined after the 1913 decision to shorten the railway and relocate its terminus to Ballara, although a sale of 45 town lots still occurred in May 1914, with prices for a quarter acre (0.1ha) ranging from £5 to £25. As well as the Macgregor Hotel, Hightville had a butcher by 1913; a storekeeper and postmaster by 1914; and a boarding house by 1915. A state school was also approved in May 1917, and sites were reserved for the school and police in 1918. By 1917, however, Hightville listings were included under ‘Ballara’ in Wise’s Post Office Directory.[28] When the MacGregor Hotel burnt down in 1914, its replacement, the former Cosmopolitan Hotel from Ravenswood, was moved to Hightville, and later to Ballara. The school and its pupils moved to Ballara in 1919.[29]
\nThe 2ft tramway ran west from the triangular junction at Ballara, over a raised concrete ore transfer stage, past the terminus of the railway, and then curved north. It passed between Hightville and the Wallaroo mine, and proceeded to the Wee MacGregor mine – a total route of about 3.8 miles (6.1km). A short branch tramway ran to the Wallaroo mine. Ore was transported via the tramway from the mines to the ore transfer stage, where it would be tipped from trucks on the tramway down into trucks on the railway. The railway would then convey the ore to the Hampden smelters (operational 1911). As the tramway was not part of the 1912 agreement, the company funded construction and purchased its 28 pound rails and steel sleepers.[30]
\nBy 5 May 1914 all earthworks, bridges, drains and rails for the railway were completed to the terminal yard at Ballara, although the station building and earthworks beyond the station weren’t finished.[31] The railway was operational during May 1914 and was officially opened to the public in July 1914, yet it was of little use for moving ore until the tramway was completed.[32]
\nThe tramway was under construction in early 1914, with earthworks extending for two miles (3.2km), and the ‘first five bridges and drains’ nearing completion, by 5 May 1914.[33] Between Hightville and the Wee MacGregor mine a 77m long unlined tunnel, with concrete portals, and a 1 in 22 grade towards the mine, was constructed through MacGregor Hill. The tunnel was nearly completed by January 1915, with rails laid 5 chains (101m) through it by 11 March 1915. [34]
\nThe tramway was transporting ore by 31 May 1915.[35] It had cost £11,005, and had curves as tight as 2 chains (40m) radius.[36] The tunnel remains the most westerly railway tunnel in Queensland, and the 47.9m long, 2.65m high ore transfer stage is unique as the only recorded tramway-to-railway ore transhipment platform in Queensland.[37]
\nThe Annual Report of the Under Secretary of Mines for 1915 stated that ‘a 2-ft gauge tramway, four miles [6.4km] in length, from Ballara, connects the MacGregor and Wallaroo Mines with the main line, and carries 50 tons of ore per day in three train loads to Ballara, conveying firewood, mine timber, and general stores as return loading’.[38]
\nThree trains a week had run along the railway from 25 May to 15 June 1914. However, the start of WWI on 4 August 1914 led to a temporary halt to mining, as German buyers held the contracts for the sale of copper. Only one supply train a week was run to Ballara until early 1915, when the Allied demand for copper revived mining and railway activity.[39] Around 300 tons of ore was railed from Ballara each week during the war, and annual passenger numbers peaked at 4533 in 1916.[40]
\nWartime copper prices boosted the fortunes of the whole Cloncurry Gold and Mineral Field. The London market price for copper rose from under £60 a ton to £84 10s during 1915, and the Cloncurry district produced 53% of Queensland’s copper that year.[41] During 1916, copper prices rose from £85 to £150 a ton, and in September 1917 British Munitions authorities fixed the price at £110 5s. The Cloncurry field produced 63.2% of Queensland’s copper in 1918, when the total population of the field reached 7795.[42]
\nCopper prices dropped after the end of WWI, falling from £112 per ton in December 1918 to £75 per ton in April 1919. By March 1919 it was reported that the price slump and a scarcity of workers had ‘dealt a knockout blow to all’, although a new shaft was still being sunk on the Wee MacGregor mine. [43] Copper production on the Cloncurry field fell in 1919, and only one train a week ran to Ballara, with 2170 tons of freight carried during the year – a 90% reduction from 1918.[44]
\nCopper prices were £72 a ton at the end of 1920.[45] This, along with high overheads, caused the closure of the Wee MacGregor mine in November 1920. Tenders were invited in December 1920 for purchase of the ‘MacGregor Mines tramway’, including ‘about 4 miles of 2 foot gauge tramway, built of 28lb. steel rails, iron sleepers, locomotive and ten bogie trucks’. The tramway’s rails were removed during 1921 and stacked at Ballara. The train service to Ballara dropped to once a month from February 1921, when there were still 17 families in the town, plus ‘copper gougers’ (small mine operators) in the area. During 1921 the railway only carried 199 tons of freight.[46]
\nTrain services to Ballara were maintained by the government throughout most of the 1920s. In October 1922 a service from Cloncurry to Ballara ran on alternate Wednesdays. The discovery of a large silver-lead deposit at Mount Isa in 1923 raised hopes that the railway could be extended from Ballara to Mount Isa, but the line was constructed from Duchess instead. Services to Ballara alternated between a weekly and a fortnightly schedule until early 1927, when regular services ended.[47]
\nThe MacGregor Junction to Ballara railway survived for a short while longer, as 38 tons of minerals and 10 tons of other goods were carried in the 1928-29 financial year, from Pindora siding.[48] The rails between MacGregor Junction and Ballara were removed in 1929, and were stacked at Malbon. There were complaints that a final train was not even sent out to evacuate 30 copper gougers and their families.[49]
\nAfter the mine’s closure in 1920, Ballara’s decline was inevitable. In 1920 Wise’s Post Office Directory listed a district and a maternity hospital at Ballara; plus a school teacher; butchers; refreshment rooms; stores; a boarding house; a station and post master; and the MacGregor and Ballara Hotels. By 1927 no names or institutions were listed under Ballara.[50]
\nAlthough the tramway and railway had closed, and Hightville and Ballara were abandoned, copper gougers retained an interest in the Wee MacGregor area over the following decades. In 1954, prospectors also discovered uranium deposits at Ballara. Several concrete slabs at the site of Hightville date from the early 1970s, during a period of renewed mining activity at the Wee MacGregor mine, and in 2018, exploratory drilling work was underway at the mine.[51]
\n","criteria":"
The Wee MacGregor tram and rail complex and the former towns of Ballara and Hightville (c1909-29), which includes the well-engineered route of a 2ft (0.6m) gauge tramway and the terminus of a 3ft 6in (1.1m) narrow gauge railway, is important in demonstrating the major role of copper mining in the Queensland economy in the early 20th century, and the importance of railways to the economic viability of remote mines.
\nThe place demonstrates the pattern of primary industry-based, private and local government railway and tramway construction, which flourished in 19th century and early 20th century Queensland. The construction of the 3ft 6in railway from MacGregor Junction (Devoncourt) to Ballara was an early example of government-private sector co-operation in building mining railways.
\nThe short lifespans of the tramway (1915-21), the railway (1914-29), and the towns of Hightville (c1909-20) and Ballara (1914-26) are representative of the temporary nature of many mining towns and associated railways in Queensland, and their vulnerability to fluctuating commodity prices.
|In its form, layout and materials, the ore transfer stage, an integral element in the operation of the complex, is rare as the only known historic tramway-to-railway ore transhipment platform constructed in Queensland.
|The Wee MacGregor tram and rail complex and the former towns of Ballara and Hightville has the potential to reveal important information about early 20th century remote mining transport infrastructure, activities associated with its construction and operation, and the people who lived and worked in this ephemeral mining landscape.
\nArchaeological investigations of the extensive tramway formation and adjacent railway terminus may address important research questions relating to: layout, design, material and construction responses to the remoteness and physical challenges of the local environment, including comparison between the surveyed and constructed tramway route; and the design and operation of dual-gauge mining transport networks.
\nThe Ballara and Hightville town sites may facilitate detailed studies relating to the social dynamics of the community and its development, interaction, and decline. Archaeological investigations, including comparative studies, can inform understandings of domestic and commercial activities, living conditions, the layout of the settlements, construction methods and the use of materials.
|The place is an example of an early 20th century Queensland mining railway complex. In its surviving fabric the place retains: evidence at Ballara of railway buildings, a triangular junction, and the terminus of a railway line, with cuttings, embankments and culverts. It also retains the route of a tramway, from the triangular junction to the Wee MacGregor mine, and its associated infrastructure, including: an ore transfer stage; a tunnel, which is the most westerly railway tunnel in Queensland; plus bridge abutments and piers, culverts, cuttings, embankments and stone retaining walls.
|The ruinous nature of the Wee MacGregor tram and rail complex, set in a remote, sparsely-vegetated and rocky landscape, evokes a sense of isolation, abandonment, and the hardship of the lives of those who lived and worked there. The picturesque qualities of the ascending formation can be experienced from a range of vantage points along the tramway route.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"} ]}