Overview
The Einasleigh Copper Mine site is a mix of very early workings and those of the exploration crews in the 1970s and the past year or so. Concrete engine mounts, the mill, a slag 'floor', ore dumps, steel framed sheds and evidence of the change rooms and toilets from the 1970s are intersected by drill pads from exploration in 2005.
In the grass beyond the main mine site are traces of the 1970s work camp: a concrete slab floor and a power pole. They are adjacent to an elaborate concrete fountain derived from an earlier occupation period.
Sitting out on the flats are the remains of a stonewalled building, which retained its corrugated iron roof into the 1960s. It is presumed to have been an explosives store.
The mine was serviced by the rail link from Almaden and there is limited evidence of the line between Einasleigh rail station and the mine itself. This is due to a combination of events: removal of the rail track, the construction of an airstrip at some stage west of the mine, frequent grass fires and souveniring of the sleepers. However, a trail of dog spikes once used to secure the line is discernible along part of the east west access that presently passes the isolated multitubular boiler.
Within Copperfield Gorge, the foundations of a water pump, a boiler mounting and water pipe securing saddles have been recorded.
Main Shaft
The main shaft was originally developed as a three-compartment shaft: one manway and two for skips. Although the original size is not stated they were commonly about 6 feet by 18 feet (1.8m x 5.4m). Due to collapses during the period between WWl and 1970 the actual opening is now substantially larger. There is a section of concrete collar on the east side of the shaft extending down about 2.5 metres. The shaft is blocked about 9 metres below ground level.
Parts of the steel headframe erected in 1971 remain: a rudimentary structure above the shaft with one leg proud of the ground and another loosely positioned. A post and wire fence has been erected around the shaft for safety.
Traces of some of the original headframe's footings are evident. Two sheave wheels, 1120mm diameter with a 120mm diameter and a 120mm deep rim lie on a nearby rubble heap. Both have sections of rim missing and some buckled spokes.
Winding Engine
The original winding house is identifiable by its foundations. It would seem probable that the footprint of the building could be identified if surface deposits were carefully cleaned back. The chimney at 7951211N 193762E (by GPS) is probably part of that structure. Photographs from around 1910 show that the foundations supported a steel chimney. The chimney is no longer extant.
Primary Crusher
The concrete mounts for the crusher are immediately north of the main shaft.
Blacksmith shop and tanks
The original blacksmith's workshop floor was a 7 x 7 metre slab. It appears to have been partially capped with additional concrete at some later stage, or stages, possibly when modified as a workshop in the 1970s. This structure is steel framed and sheeted with corrugated iron. It is currently used for storing hay.
Stone magazine
A drystone building is located just below the cliff top SSW of the former blacksmith shop. It is assumed to have been an explosives magazine. The building stands around a metre high. Several rocks lie adjacent and downhill suggesting a significantly higher building initially. The wall thickness ranges from 600 to 750mm thick with an internal space of about 2 x 2.9 metres. This was accessed via a doorway 850mm wide. The floor appears to have been built out from the cliff and levelled using a mix of basalt boulders (the whole site is strewn with large quantities) and soil. Neither evidence of an access to the doorway nor of the roofing remains.
Mill
The former mill is located north of the main shaft, beyond the crusher, and is now represented by a series of engine mounting blocks and a concrete floor. A discarded 4 x 4 truck tray has been dumped on part of the floor.
The Mill chimney base, a ring of clay bricks at ground level, has a base diameter of 3600mm.
Part of a disintegrating corrugated iron shed, possibly from the 1970s, stands on the southern end of the mill foundations. Debris is scattered in the adjacent area.
Smelter
The vicinity of the smelter has been severely impacted on by drilling rigs and the 1970s mining activities. Some smelter equipment and parts of the foundation remain intact and, significant among them, are parts of a poured slag floor. It extends NE to the edge of the slag dump itself. Carefully pouring the slag, so that it retained a smooth top, ensured that the hot slag could be moved rapidly across the dump as required. Drums related to the process are scattered in adjacent areas.
Assay Lab
The former assay laboratory stood southwest of the main shaft. A stone chimney and associated brickwork remain amidst a scatter of crucibles and other material.
South Shaft
The south shaft is situated at the edge of the riverbank overlooking the Copperfield River. The shaft appears to have collapsed at about 25 metres down. The timber pigsty collar is intact but skewed toward the river. It measures about 1200 x 2400 mm suggesting it was a two-compartment shaft. Timbers were all about 400mm diameter. Corrugated iron sheets were attached to the external wall of the pigsty to retain soil and rock. Machined wire nails were used to secure many of the timbers suggesting that it probably dates from the early - mid 20th century.
There appears to be a rough track along the cliff top developed by clearing basalt boulders that scatter the surface of most of the site. This may have been a pedestrian access or a tramway for hauling to the mill.
North Shaft
A small shaft is located 25 metres north of the main shaft. Its purpose is unclear but may have served as a ventilation and supply shaft. It is fenced and appears to have collapsed internally.
Fountain and caravan site
The fountain was presumably built in the early 20th century but is adjacent to a caravan parking area probably used in the 1970s. A concrete slab and a nearby power pole and metre box identify the caravan pad. There is a short length of steel picket fencing to the south of the fountain.
The fountain is 1100mm high x 1600mm diameter. It comprises a base section of concreted basalt rocks concreted in as a 720mm high dished receptacle from which the central fountain-stem 580mm rises. There are pipes present that suggest it was a low-pressure system relying on water cascading from the upper to lower bowl.
Limited stonework is visible in the area suggesting that there were garden beds around the water feature.
The power line appears to have run to this site from a route possibly passing the old Assay Lab. There is one power post still standing.
Stone building
A large stone building is situated 350 metres NNW of the main shaft. While its function is unclear it is generally accepted that this windowless structure was probably the main explosives magazine. The building apparently retained a corrugated iron roof until the 1960s.
The floor area is 3.7 x 4 metres and has a 1 metre wide doorway on the SW wall. One section of the NW wall has collapsed to 1.4 metres above floor level (plus 410mm above ground level) but for the most part it varies between to 2 to 2.1 metres high. The walls are about 500mm thick. The upper course is recessed to hold the roof frame.
Multitubular boiler
A solitary multitubular boiler with no distinguishing marks, lies in bushes about 150 metres from the main shaft. The key measurements are: diameter 1.7 metres; length 4.06 metres; central valve 850mm high x 750 mm; and 41 tubes in 7 rows (11 x 1, 4 x 2, 3 x 2, 3 x 2, 2 x 2, 2 x 2, and 1 x 2).
Its original location may have been at the smelter or mill although its size suggests it would have only been a medium capacity unit.
Survey mark and cattle yard
Within about 4 metres of the northwest corner peg for Lot 2 and the southwest corner of Lot 1 and within Lot 1, is an old survey blaze reading vertically 'MHL 1893 (?) 420, on a large tree. The scar has substantially healed suggesting it relates to early 20th century mining activity.
The tree is within a small set of post and rail yards with a small loading ramp facing east. These yards appear to have been constructed around 1920 to 1940.
There is a scatter of domestic refuse in an area to the south and within Lot 2. The scatter appears to contain a mix of material from the early 1970s and earlier with at least one bottle appearing to date from the 1920s.
Railway line
A branch line from the Einasleigh Railway Station to the mine site was in existence in the late 1970s. After cutting across the plain west of the town it runs directly to the mine roughly parallel and south of the boundary of Lots 1 and 2. It then curves slightly, passing south of a bulldozed mound (circa 1970) and terminates at the extant buffer stops just to the north of the north shaft.
Within the rubble mound there are still several posts in situ that probably relate to the railway bin ore bin site. Between there and the buffers are traces of railway sleepers and dog spikes. The latter are found at intervals along the route outlined above. Currently it is a vehicle track that leads towards the fountain. Its actual route is less identifiable as one leaves the mine site.
Pump station, Copperfield Gorge
A pump mount and former boiler mountings within and to the west of the Copperfield Gorge. Several concrete pipe, hold-down footings exist at various locations on the gorge bank. They were probably supplying water to the mill and railway station. The steam water tower was sited near the Einasleigh station but there is no indication of the water source.
The boiler mounting site is located at 7950826N 193503E, being about 470 metres from the main shaft on a 29° MN bearing.
'Eastern shaft'
A small shaft, about 2 metres square, was identified on the eastern side of Copperfield Gorge. While there is no reference to it in the historical material, it was extant before the 1970s mining activity in the area. It is partially fenced with pickets and barbed wire. There is a length of bush timber lying over the top. The shaft has water at about 8 metres and there is solid material at around 12 metres.
","history":"The Einasleigh Mine and Smelter is located in Etheridge Shire, some 360 kilometres from Cairns. The site is an area of around 4 ha, situated 1 kilometre north of Einasleigh Township, on the west bank of the Copperfield River at its junction with the Einasleigh River. It is located about 500 metres north of the Copperfield Gorge.
Australia's copper industry was in its infancy when Richard Daintree discovered the copper deposit near the basalt wall at the head of the Copperfield River watershed in 1867. He secured a freehold title over 120 acres. The lode was stripped by open-cut where it protruded from the river bank and 31 tons picked ore was sent to smelters at Cockle Creek for a return of 22% copper with 3 ounces of silver and 12 dwt of gold per ton.
Although located adjacent to the confluence of the Copperfield and the Einasleigh Rivers this mine was initially known as the Lynd Copper Mine as Daintree believed that the adjacent river was the Lynd.
The Lynd Mine was a small operation. According to one account a shaft was sunk in 1867 and 'a drive at he 30-ft level showed the lode to be 23 feet in width and to consist of spongy metallic copper.' Daintree and his partner William Hann worked the mine in a 'desultory fashion' for a few years but by 1898 the site was reported as deserted by surveyor Robert Logan Jack.
By 1900 the mine was back in production when William Woodhead from Broken Hill acquired freehold title and floated it publicly. Now known as Einasleigh Freehold Copper Mines Ltd, development of the mine began with a new shaft sunk to 61 metres. A new headframe was erected, along with a 24m-boiler stack and gantry. Machinery including winding gear and a water-jacket blast furnace at a cost of 12,517 pounds was brought from Mareeba. The smelter's furnace was blown-in in 1901 but the operation was soon closed down because of the siliceous nature of the ore, transportation costs and the high cost of fuel. Prior to the opening of the rail line in 1910, fuel for the smelters was brought in by camel trains.
The mine reopened in 1906 as the New Einasleigh Copper Mine, a subsidiary of the Chillagoe Company. Number 3 level was developed in 1908 and 50 men were employed on the mine site. Employee numbers doubled in 1909 to 105 men and productivity leapt to an impressive 10,913 tons of ore.
The isolation of the mine again made the operation marginal. All supplies had to come either 462 kms overland from Townsville or via Cairns for 192 km along the Chillagoe line to Almaden, and then carted by bullock team another 190 kms to the mine. Coke, which was vital for smelting cost from 12 to 14 pounds to land at the mine and limestone had to be carted for over 48 kms. After treating 860 tons of ore, smelting was abandoned even though 191 tons of copper matte had been produced.
The Mines on the Chillagoe field had proved inadequate even to keep the smelter supplied, let alone make a profit, and it became increasingly urgent that the Chillagoe Company obtain ore supplies elsewhere. In 1907 construction began on a railway to the Etheridge field, principally to bring ore from the Einasleigh mine and tap known copper deposits around Charleston (later Forsayth). Once the railway was opened in 1910 Einalsleigh ore could be railed directly to Chillagoe.
The opening of the new Etheridge railway to Forsayth in 1910 allowed for the daily transportation of ore to Chillagoe as the route passed by the Einasleigh Mine. This boosted development of the site: new offices and houses were built. The main shaft was extended to 119m and worked from 4 levels by 87 men, while a further 30 men were employed above ground. A change-house with a concrete floor was erected. Machinery was upgraded, including a new Babcock and Wilcox boiler, and construction of a concentrating plant large enough to deal with the expected 150 tons of ore a day, was started.
By 1911 ore production was not meeting expectations and the Chillagoe Company bought out the mine from its subsidiary and installed an Elmore flotation unit. Until the invention of the floatation process, the extraction of metal depended upon being able to handpick the material in order to be economical.
The flotation process depends on the properties of minerals surfaces and the manner in which they differ in the degree by which their surfaces can be wetted. It takes best advantage of such differences by suitable choice of the solution. Ore is first ground to a powder, which is introduced to a series of tanks (known as flotation cells) holding a solution containing oils. This solution is constantly agitated and air is pumped through. In the resulting froth the particles of copper minerals adhere to the raft of air bubbles on the surface, while the majority of worthless rock (gangue) sinks. The material is skimmed from the surface froth.
Lionel Ball, assistant government geologist, deemed the installation of the floatation unit a 'complete failure'. Mine development continued in an unsystematic manner and the quality of the ore produced declined. Untreated ore was sent direct to the Company's smelter, 120 miles away, and in 1911 the Company had to reduce railway freight on ore by 50% to keep the mine working. This seemingly uneconomical and inefficient practice was, according to Ball, due to the Mine's small reserves and the great expense of erecting smelters at Einasleigh. The Chillagoe Company's motives were largely due to its need for the Etheridge's ore and railway revenue, and to further open up the Etheridge field. Whatever the case, by 1913 the Einasleigh Mine was the main supplier of copper ore to the Chillagoe Smelters.
Development of the mine continued to progress throughout 1913 in most levels of the mine and the mineshaft was being extended. Below ground, No. 1 level (120 ft) extended beneath the river and was stulled to reduce the risk of ingress from the river. No. 2 level (170 ft) had various drives linked to the south shaft and included the 'Big Stope' (120 ft long and up to 40ft wide) below this level with copper contents as high as 10%. No. 3 level (269.5 ft) had five almost continuous stopes in one formation. The ore-bodies at No. 4 level were below payable limit and at No. 5 level (482 ft) the 'Big ore-body' was 300 ft distant from the shaft. No. 6 level (582 ft) was under development.
The Chillagoe Smelters closed in February 1914 along with the Einasleigh Mine.
In 1919 the Queensland Government took over the Chillagoe Smelter and reopened the Einasleigh Mine under the terms of the Chillagoe and Etheridge Railways Purchase Act of 1918, at a cost of 100,000 pounds. By December it was at full output, providing three-quarters of the copper ore treated at the smelters thereby keeping the Chillagoe Smelters going. By 1920 the mine employed 100 men and was producing 450 - 500 tons of copper ore per week. However, the drop in metal prices in 1920 from 120 pounds to 72 pounds per ton, and the drain on the mine's reserves, led to the mine being closed in 1922.
At this time the whole of the Chillagoe Field, the Chillagoe Smelter and mining operations generally in State-owned enterprises were losing considerable amounts of money. The election of a conservative government in 1923, opposed to State owned enterprises led to the closure of the Smelter until 1926 when a Labor government was returned to power.
Mining on the Etheridge as a whole generally declined after this time despite the reopening of the Chillagoe Smelter. While other mines on the Etheridge were rejuvenated periodically after this time, no attempts to mine the Einasleigh occurred until the early 1970s. This was due to the heavy depletion of its reserves in the 1920s by the Chillagoe Smelters.
In the early 1970s Combined Mining and Exploration N.L conducted operations at the Einasleigh Mine to reinitiate earlier mining works. By the end of 1970 the Mine had produced 134,257 tons of ore returning 8,107 tons of copper (overall grade 6.04%), 131,284 oz of silver (0.98oz per ton), and 22,288 oz of gold (0.34 dwt per ton). Maximum staffing during this period was 16 employees, and a manager, W.J. Collins.
Development of the mine by Combined Mining and Exploration was undertaken over a 13 month period from October 1970 to November 1971, including 'mine rehabilitation and exploration' and activities which were regarded as rectifying the site. Due to more stringent occupational health and safety measures much of the site had to be upgraded to comply with safety standards. Where suitable foundations were already present from previous operations, structures were built over the top, thus reusing existing infrastructure.
During the early part of 1971 activities included the installation of bearers for an air winch, installation of 3,000 ft of polythene plastic water liner to work as a reticulation system for the camp, and a concrete floor for the power house being poured to the south of the main shaft and an area cleared for a garage/workshop. The workshop/storeroom area was completed and an ablution block was adapted from concrete engine beds remaining from previous operations. Mullock, soil and oxidised material were spread over much of the site during this time to provide a safer working surface. Mullock was also spread out between the main shaft and river, covering the Daintree shaft mouth.
In February 1971 the steel tripod was put over the main shaft, and in March a tramway was installed between the main shaft and the river bank. A flat-top trolley was acquired to run on the railway.
In June 1971, a new steel headframe was built over the shaft collar with a cross head made up to run in the main shaft. It is not known what the cross head was supporting. The air winch was repositioned and a winch house almost directly west of the main shaft was made. Extra timber and lagging was placed at the entrance of the mine shaft due to fears of falling rocks. Safety concerns also led to replacement of the old pulley-sheave with a new gin-wheel. Ladder ways and timbering in the shafts were substantially upgraded as most had split due to water logging. Most of the metal infrastructure such as pipe work and bolts had corroded due to their long period of saturation, and were replaced.
From March to November 1971, the mine was continuously dewatered in stages, ultimately down to 700 ft, No. 6 level. Water samples taken from 300 ft showed very low copper content, and when "two diamond-drill holes directed to intersect the main ore body at approximately 700 ft failed to intersect ore," operations at the mine ceased.
Today, an area including the site of the former Einasleigh Mine is leased by Copper Strike Ltd. The Company proposes to develop a new mine.
","criteria":"The Einasleigh Mine and Smelter is significant in Queensland history as the first base metal mine in Queensland and the first mine in the rich mining province of North Queensland. It was the only copper smelter on the Etheridge mining field and it became one of only three base metal mines owned by the State during the period of State enterprises. It was essential to the operation of the Chillagoe Smelters under the ownership of the State and the Chillagoe Company, and the Etheridge Railway was built primarily to link it with the Chillagoe Smelters.
|Although the surface elements have been adversely impacted upon during the late 20th century it is expected they are still of sufficient standard to be able to yield information that will contribute to an increased understanding of early mining and smelting history.It is highly likely that sub-surface workings could provide some indications of any special techniques adopted when working beneath two large rivers.
|The Einasleigh Mine, apart from being one of the earliest copper mines in Queensland, can still demonstrate the industrial processes associated with, in particular, copper extraction in a remote location. Although most buildings and plant have been removed or renovated, the site still explains the copper extraction process. The slag dump, blast furnace mount and associated artefacts are significant, while the stone magazine and one room stone hut are noteworthy.
|The mine is the reason Einasleigh township came into being and is important to that community.
|The early association with Richard Daintree is particularly significant as he is regarded as an important administrator, explorer and photographer in Queensland. It is also important for its association with the Chillagoe Company, as the railway to Einasleigh was one of the solutions to the shortage of ore on the Chillagoe field.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | 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 has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15280,"place_ref":600505,"name":"Station Master's Residence, Einasleigh (former)","alternate_name":"Station Masters Residence","street_address":"Railway Reserve","suburb":"EINASLEIGH","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Station Master's Residence is a single storey timber building set on concrete stumps. It has a roof comprising three parallel gables clad in corrugated iron. There are fixed louvred vents below each gable and the core section has a verandah to three sides. A separate roof supported on timber posts shades this. The house has sash windows and French doors opening onto the verandah, part of which has been built in. The interior is lined with horizontal beaded boards.
The detached kitchen shown on the original drawings is not present. A mature mango tree at the side of the house is an important visual feature of the site.
","history":"The Einasleigh Station Master's Residence was constructed around 1909 as part of a private railway linking the mines and smelters of the Chillagoe Company to the state railway network. The mining company's Engineer-in-Charge, A. S Frew, designed this and two other similar residences at Almaden and at Forsayth on the line.
The important mining entrepreneur, John Moffat, prospected for copper in the Chillagoe area from the late 1880s and in the 1890s formed a syndicate with Melbourne investors to build a private railway linking Chillagoe with the government railway network at Mareeba. The bill to approve this project was passed in Parliament in 1897 and A S Frew surveyed the line. Archibald Smith Frew was employed as an engineer by the Queensland Railways Department from 1879, was second in charge at the construction of the Croydon railway in 1890-91, and constructed much of the Cairns railway network in the early years of the 20th century. He also designed the structures needed to service the Chillagoe line. Many of the buildings, since vanished, displayed the distinctive multiple gabled roofs seen on this residence.
The Etheridge railway was built between 1906 and 1910 and the principal towns along the line were Almaden, Einasleigh and Forsayth, which was the terminus. A S Frew designed Station Master's residences at each of the service towns as part of the overall provision of facilities that included a station building, cattle yards, turning fork, loading bank and goods shed. The siding to the mine at Einasleigh was reported completed in March 1909 and trains of ore are likely to have commenced running shortly afterwards.
The Station Master's houses at each town are similar in plan and all feature a distinctive roof arranged in three parallel gables, which indicate the room arrangement. The central room was a dining room flanked by pairs of bedrooms. The Einasleigh and Forsayth houses were larger than that at Almaden and were originally designed with lattice at each end of the dining room, allowing this to operate as a central breezeway. However, they may not have actually been constructed in this way and are enclosed at each end. The house was designed with a detached building at the rear of the house incorporating a kitchen, store and servant's room with the roof extended at the back to cover a laundry.
The Chillagoe Company experienced considerable difficulties, undergoing several financial reconstructions. Although it was not profitable, it nevertheless survived until 1923, and had an important influence on the mining and railway industries of North Queensland. There is evidence of its operations in the ruined smelter at Chillagoe, and abandoned mine sites at Mungana, Einasleigh, Mt Mulligan and elsewhere. However, the railway lines built by the company from the government railhead at Mareeba to Mungana in 1901, and to Forsayth in 1910, have survived in use. When constructed, they were part of the longest privately owned railway network in Australia, but were incorporated into the Queensland Government rail system in June 1919 when most of the Chillagoe Company's assets were purchased by the State.
Einasleigh had a stationmaster until 1927 when the line was closed by flooding. After the line was reopened, a Gatekeeper - probably a station mistress as it was in later years - was appointed as from 1928. After a new house was built in the 1970s, maintenance fettlers occupied this house. The line is now chiefly a tourist attraction.
","criteria":"The former Station Master's Residence at Einasleigh is one of three such residences built as part of the infrastructure servicing the private railway of a major mining company. They express the dominance of the Chillagoe Company in the economy of North Queensland, 1898-1914. The line was a vital link in the Company's operations, bringing in fuel for the smelters and taking out minerals, but it also worked as a community railway servicing the needs of those living on the line and in the service towns.
The Etheridge line is rare as a private railway and the provision of Station Master's residences demonstrates the quality and importance of the facility to the Chillagoe Company.
|The Etheridge line is rare as a private railway and the provision of Station Master's residences demonstrates the quality and importance of the facility to the Chillagoe Company.
|The former Station Master's residence has aesthetic value as a well-executed variation of a traditional dwelling within the Queensland vernacular tradition and makes a substantial contribution to the built character of Einasleigh.
|It is important for its connection with the life and work of the prominent engineer, A S Frew, who designed both the line and the structures along it, endowing them with a personal interpretation of the established local tradition in domestic architecture.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","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 is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15281,"place_ref":600506,"name":"Kidston State Battery & Township","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Georgetown Mining District","suburb":"KIDSTON","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Located on the west bank of the Copperfield River in North Queensland, Kidston State Battery and Township lies approximately 50 kms south of Einasleigh. It includes the remnants of the Kidston State Battery, including its plant, and the Kidston township.
\nKidston State Battery
\nThe battery contains three components, the battery shed, an associated battery manager’s house and a water pump. The battery shed is constructed on a bush timber frame with heavy bush timber uprights. The shed is clad in corrugated iron. Components of the crushing plant include timbered ore chutes to two primary crusher pits (one jaw crusher remains insitu), connected by two external ore bucket elevators to the ore bins, self-feeding 3 five-head stamp batteries The two bucket elevators have been removed however their vertical housings form a distinctive external feature. The battery launders are intact but there are no copper amalgam plates. Only one of three slimes tables remain. A gas engine which formed the main power plant has recently been removed. Two berdan pans and a grinding pan remain insitu. A lean-to section alongside the battery building contains a smithy and a small workshop.
\nTwo large elevated iron tanks (riveted fabrication) alongside the battery are fed by pipes connecting with a partly intact twin cylinder pump which is mounted beside the river. A corrugated iron clad cottage above the pump may have been the battery manager's house. The house is in fair condition and contains garden plots and buildings.
\nPlant
\nJaw crusher - no brand visible.
\nFive-head stamp battery - Maryborough Tooth & Co Vulcan Foundry Queensland (on mortar box), Tooth & Co (on iron standards).
\nFive-head stamp battery - Stuart & McKenzie Croydon Union Foundry (on mortar box), Tooth & Co (on iron standards).
\nFive-head stamp battery - (no brand on mortar box), Tooth & Co (on iron standards).
\nSlimes separation table.
\n2 Berdan pans.
\n2 Grinding pans (one insitu).
\nGas producer plant (not isitu).
\nTwo-cylinder ram pump - no brand (power unit removed).
\nKidston Township
\nThe surveyed portion of the town reserve that lies west of the old Gilberton road contains surface remains of former buildings including stone surfaces, timber stumps and garden areas. The grave (with headstone) of Edward Albert Martel who died in 1908, is also located in this area. The grave pre-dates the 1917 establishment of Kidston cemetery about 2 km north. In 2017, it is understood that Martel's grave has since been covered by waste dumps.
\nThe built portion of the town reserve occupies the eastern side of the old Gilberton road, north of the Kidston State Battery through to the western bank of the Copperfield River. This precinct contains six early buildings which remain roofed, but abandoned and derelict, and surface evidence of at least three other buildings. A recent demountable house was unoccupied at the time of survey. The largest structure in the town is the recent Kidston Gold Mines core store which is housed under an expansive steel skillion roof. The early police station group alongside the core store includes a derelict weatherboard courthouse and station office, an adjacent corrugated iron (c.g.i.) clad house (temporarily occupied), and a weatherboard lock-up and cottage at the rear. About 60 m south of the police station is a c.g.i. clad building with a detached outhouse that may have formerly been a hotel (possibly the Shamrock Hotel). The Battery Manager’s House is located on the bank of the Copperfield River, south of Poverty Gully.
\nAnother group of abandoned buildings, including three timber-frame houses, are located about 250 m south of the battery. This group has a cohesive layout, resembling a homestead. An airstrip, which is not of cultural heritage significance, has been graded over the northern section of the town site.
","history":"The Kidston State Battery and Township, located beside the Copperfield River in North Queensland, about 50 km south of Einasleigh and approximately 283 km eastnortheast of Townsville, comprises the Kidston township established in 1907 and the State Battery (stamper, manager’s house and pump), which commenced operations in 1922.
\nPayable gold was discovered on the Copperfield River in September 1907 leading to the Oaks Rush as the field was initially known. The Oaks Goldfield was declared in April 1908 and had a peak population of 1700 by June 1908.
\nThe township of Kidston developed on the west bank of the Copperfield River. The mining warden noted in August 1908 that tents were being replaced by wood and iron buildings. By the dry season of 1909 the population had fallen dramatically to about 100 alluvial miners using dry blowers, but reefers had started work on the quartz veins. W Brown's Pioneer mill with five heads was erected in May 1909 and W Suhle and Archbold's large Enterprise mill of five 1000 lb (453 kg) stamps was transferred from Georgetown and was operating by April 1910.
\nKidston was unusual for a North Queensland goldfield in that the citizens at first successfully excluded public houses and grog shops. However, despite the temperance movement there were two hotels by 1909 and Kidston developed the usual rowdiness of a bush mining town. There were two halls, a school and police station. A Kidston citizen's band was formed in 1912. Union activity was more evident and Kidston became more radical than other gold-mining towns in the Etheridge.
\nKidston settled into systematic mining and was not directly effected by World War I or the closure of the Chillagoe smelters from March 1914 until January 1920. Water supply problems were alleviated in 1915 when a government dam was built on Butchers Creek. A period of high gold prices (1920-24) may have influenced the decision to build the Kidston State Battery, but the gradual decline of the field and the inadequacy of existing crushing equipment also added pressure. In May 1920, the Government Geologist, Dr H I Jensen, recommended that a modern battery be constructed at Kidston. By September the Union Battery at Percyville was being dismantled and the machinery moved to Kidston, while other machinery was obtained from the Big Reef (Castleton). Between 11 and 18 men were employed establishing a sawmill, supplying the timber and constructing the battery, which commenced operations in May 1922.
\nIn 1915 TJ Ryan's Labor government had won office in wartime Queensland on the strength of promises to improve living standards – principally by addressing the problems of high commodity prices, price-fixing and the emergence of monopolies. The Labor party in general and Ryan and his Treasurer, EG Theodore, in particular, advocated public ownership of key economic activities, in competition with private enterprise, but at fair prices. They argued that by operating at a reduced profit margin the cost of goods and services provided by State-run enterprises would be reduced, and that the flow-on effect would be to reduce and stabilise prices for similar goods and services provided by the private sector. Labor politicians regarded State enterprise as 'State capitalism' rather than 'State socialism'.[1]
\nIn the period 1915-25 the Queensland Government, as part of this broad, pragmatic Labor platform that advocated State intervention in the private sector to protect individuals against capitalist exploitation, instituted or acquired a diversity of business enterprises. These included the Kidston State Battery, a State Insurance Office, a Public Curator's Office, the Golden Casket State Lottery, sawmills and joinery works, mining and fishing ventures, a hotel, a sugar mill, cold stores, plant nurseries, cattle stations and a network of butcher's shops, the process being formalised with the passing of the State Enterprises Act 1918. [2]
\nDuring the 1920s, the Oaks Goldfield reached a stage where the large, low grade deposits were becoming too poor to work in bulk. Consequently, most miners developed smaller, richer reefs that produced low tonnages of ore, but were insufficient to keep the battery fully engaged.
\nIn 1923 the battery treated 57 parcels of ore totalling 2611 tons yielding 880 oz of gold. In 1924 a number of improvements were made to the battery but owing to wet weather, which cut off the battery from the mines, 781 fewer tons of ore were treated but the output rose to 1391 oz of gold. The battery operated from January to November 1925 treating 27 parcels of lower grade ore totalling 1601 tons producing 760 oz of gold. Mining quartz in bulk was unprofitable so only small rich leaders could afford to be worked. In 1926 only nine parcels of ore were treated - 500 tons yielding 456oz of gold. The battery was only working intermittently during the year owing to the lack of supplies.
\nIn 1929 the battery operated efficiently for 78 days. It treated 14 parcels of ore totalling 428 tons in 1930 with a yield of 231.5 oz of gold. Crushing was only done intermittently. Two additional berdan pans were added in 1930. The introduction of motor transport to the field in 1931 enabled larger amounts of ore to be hauled in to the battery. Water for the battery had to be obtained by sinking in the riverbed. 350 tons of stone were crushed for a yield of 156 oz of gold. The school closed in 1930, but 15 buildings still remained in the township.
\nThe battery operated from January to June 1932, when it stopped for lack of water. 2310 tons of low grade (4.5 dwts per ton) stone were crushed for a yield of 491 oz of gold. The battery operated almost continuously in 1933. A box race brought water to the battery from the Copperfield River. Although 4,420 tons of ore were treated it was of a much lower quality (surface loam) than previously, being only of 3 dwt average per ton. There were many machinery breakdowns in the battery in 1934. Considerable repairs were necessary including replacement of the Ackroyd wood producer gas generator by a No.6 Hornsby producer gas generator to operate on either coke or charcoal. 5677 tons of stone (much of it surface loam) were crushed for a yield of 756 oz of gold (3 dwts per ton).
\nThe cam shaft of the battery broke and the box drain for water from the river was insufficient in 1935, closing it down for repairs. The Hornsby engine was installed in February. 4560 tons of stone were treated for a yield of 663 oz of gold. The battery operated 4,094 hours in 1936 producing 980 oz of gold from 6,951 tons of stone. G Price at the Town View open cut had 750 tons treated at the Kidston battery for a yield of 55.77 oz of gold. The box water race from Copperfield River worked well as did the new Hornsby gas producer. 57 parcels were dealt with during the year. 66 parcels of ore were treated in 1938. In 1940 8020 tons of ore from 22 mines were crushed in 3648 hours of running time for 1201 oz of gold.
\nThe Kidston Battery did not operate during 1942 as miners had left the district and there was no ore available. It was decided to close down the battery for the duration of the war and a caretaker was placed in charge of the battery. There was movement in 1946 to reopen the battery which attracted some prospectors back to the Oaks field. The battery was reopened in 1947 with Alf Hooley as manager and 1,238 tons of stone were treated for a yield of 94 oz of gold. Most of the stone treated was bulk samples obtained by H Dickinson from the surrounding hills. Crushing ceased early in 1949 and the battery did not operate after 1950.
\nThe late development of the Oaks Goldfield meant that Kidston did not experience the evolution of building styles shown at earlier mining towns, but was able to take advantage of the ready accessibility of corrugated iron, going straight from tent settlement to iron-clad buildings. Other ’imported‘ building materials were also well represented, there being five weatherboard clad buildings surviving compared to eight iron buildings. The presence of an operating sawmill during the construction of the State Battery in 1921-2 may also explain the reason for the unusual number of weatherboard buildings. While iron buildings are common in many inland towns of Australia, there are surprisingly few surviving in great numbers in mining towns of North Queensland. Thus the existence of the group of buildings still making up Kidston is more unusual than might appear at first.
\nKidston cemetery is located about 2 km north of the township and contains 25 identifiable graves, including 10 with headstones.[3] The earliest headstone marks the grave of John Joseph Hall, who died on 28 January 1917 at 4 years 3 months. The latest headstone marks the grave of Theodore Lindner, who died in 1939 aged 53 years.
","criteria":"The Kidston State Battery (including the manager's house and pump) is significant because of the role it played in supporting and extending the life of gold mining in North Queensland after what became the second last major alluvial gold rush in Queensland's history (the Oaks Rush of 1907). Its development and maintenance as a State battery from 1922 to 1950 is significant as demonstrated government support for regional employment and industrial development.
\nKidston Township is significant through its association with the Oaks gold rush of 1907, the second last major alluvial rush in Queensland's history. Kidston, through the operation of the State Battery, supported the continuation of gold mining on the Etheridge field until the mid-20th century.
|The survival of a 15-head battery is rare in North Queensland and only the Venus State Battery at Charters Towers has more stamps (20) surviving. The combination of the battery manager's house and pump in relation to the battery and the surviving buildings in the township contribute added significance to the complex and its rarity.
\nThe Stuart & McKenzie 5-head stamp battery manufactured by the Union Foundry, Croydon, is the only surviving stamp battery from this local company to be recorded in North Queensland.
\nThough now reduced in components and form, Kidston is a rare survivor of a once-common pattern of Queensland settlement.
|Because little subsequent development has disturbed early parts of the settlement, which once had houses and tent dwellings, the potential exists to conduct archaeological survey work to detail the history of the township's development.
|The Kidston State Battery demonstrates standard technology of the period and the high degree of self-sufficiency common to most isolated and remote mining operations in North Queensland.
\nKidston Township demonstrates the characteristics of a small but persistent goldfield town. Some of its built characteristics reflect its 20th century origins and distinguish it from earlier counterparts with evolved vernacular building forms. The earliest grave (1908) is in the township while later burials are in the cemetery north of the town.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15282,"place_ref":600507,"name":"Station Master's Residence Forsayth (former)","alternate_name":"Station Masters Residence","street_address":"Fourth Street","suburb":"FORSAYTH","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The former Station Master's Residence is a single storey timber building set on concrete stumps and has a detached kitchen. The core of the building is clad in weatherboards and has a roof comprising three parallel gables clad in corrugated iron. It is encircled by a verandah with a separate roof supported by timber posts. It has sash windows and French doors opening onto the verandah at the front and rear.
At the rear of the house is a rectangular timber building linked to it by a walkway. This building has exposed studs and a single gabled roof clad with corrugated iron. The roof is extended at the rear and supported on timber posts. A small extension has been made at the side of the building to accommodate a bathroom.
The buildings are surrounded by timber post and chain wire fence.
","history":"The former Forsayth Station Master's Residence was constructed around 1910 as part of a private railway linking the mines and smelters of the Chillagoe Company to the state railway network. The mining company's Engineer-in-Charge, A. S Frew, designed this and two other similar residences at Almaden and at Einasleigh on the line.
The important mining entrepreneur, John Moffat, prospected for copper in the Chillagoe area from the late 1880s and in the 1890s formed a syndicate with Melbourne investors to build a private railway linking Chillagoe with the government railway network at Mareeba. The bill to approve this project was passed in Parliament in 1897 and A S Frew surveyed the line. Archibald Smith Frew was employed as an engineer by the Queensland Railways Department from 1879, was second in charge at the construction of the Croydon railway in 1890-91, and constructed much of the Cairns railway network in the early years of the 20th century. He also designed the structures needed to service the Chillagoe line. Many of the buildings, since vanished, displayed the distinctive multiple gabled roofs seen on this residence.
The Etheridge railway was built between 1906 and 1910 and the principal towns along the line were Almaden, Einasleigh and Forsayth, which was the terminus. Forsayth was originally called Charleston, but the name was changed on 15 December 1910 to honour the Commissioner for Railways, James Forsayth Thallon. A S Frew designed Station Master's residences at each of the service towns as part of the overall provision of facilities that included a station building, cattle yards, turning fork, loading bank and goods shed.
The Station Master's houses at each town are similar in plan and all feature a distinctive roof arranged in three parallel gables, which indicate the room arrangement. The central room was a dining room flanked by pairs of bedrooms. The Einasleigh and Forsayth houses were larger than that at Almaden and were originally designed with lattice at each end of the dining room, allowing this to operate as a central breezeway. However, they may not have actually been constructed in this way and are enclosed at each end. A detached building at the rear of the house incorporated a kitchen, store and servant's room with the roof extended to the back to cover a laundry.
The Chillagoe Company experienced considerable difficulties, undergoing several financial reconstructions. Although it was not profitable, it nevertheless survived until 1923, and had an important influence on the mining and railway industries of North Queensland. There is evidence of its operations in the ruined smelter at Chillagoe, and abandoned mine sites at Mungana, Einasleigh, Mt Mulligan and elsewhere. However the railway lines built by the company from the government railhead at Mareeba to Mungana in 1901, and to Forsayth in 1910, have survived in use. When constructed, they were part of the longest privately owned railway network in Australia, but were incorporated into the Queensland Government rail system in June 1919 when most of the Chillagoe Company's assets were purchased by the State. At this time Forsayth became a Queensland Railways station. The Station Master was withdrawn after floods closed the line in early 1927. When the line reopened for rail motor traffic (hauling one or two goods wagons for freight) a Porter in Charge was appointed. This remained the position until the 1990s when the Porter was withdrawn and a local agent appointed to handle the small remaining railway business for QR. The line is now chiefly a tourist attraction. Queensland Rail subdivided the land and sold the house as a private residence in 1991.
","criteria":"The former Station Master's Residence at Forsayth is one of three such residences built as part of the infrastructure servicing the private railway of a major mining company. They express the dominance of the Chillagoe Company in the economy of North Queensland, 1898-1914. The line was a vital link in the Company's operations, bringing in fuel for the smelters and taking out minerfals, but it also worked as a community railway servicing the needs of those living on the line and in the service towns.
The Etheridge line is rare as a private railway and the provision of Station Master's residences demonstrates the quality and importance of the facility to the Chillagoe Company.
|The Etheridge line is rare as a private railway and the provision of Station Master's residences demonstrates the quality and importance of the facility to the Chillagoe Company.
|The former Station Master's residence has aesthetic value as a well-executed variation of a traditional dwelling within the Queensland vernacular tradition and makes a substantial contribution to the built character of Forsayth.
|It is important for its connection with the life and work of the prominent engineer, A S Frew, who designed both the line and the structures along it, endowing them with a personal interpretation of the established local tradition in domestic architecture.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion E | Criterion H","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 is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16389,"place_ref":601628,"name":"Antbed House","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"South Street","suburb":"GEORGETOWN","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-11-26","description":"The Antbed House is rectangular in plan and approximately 8 metres by 9 metres with a steeply pitched pyramidal corrugated iron clad roof with a convex unframed corrugated iron verandah which sits about 0.4 metre below the roof eaves and is supported on timber posts.
The walls of the house are about 3.5 metres high and are made from earth bricks which have standard dimensions 0.2 metre long X 0.09 metre high X 0.11 metre wide. The external walls are two standard brick lengths thick and the internal walls are one brick thick. The bricks are laid in the English bond pattern with alternate layers of headers and stretchers. Longer bricks are used at the corners and openings of the building. The bricks are rendered with a lime coating, which is scored externally to resemble ashlar stonework and has black tuck pointing added. The bricks appear to have been constructed locally from a termite mound known as 'Ant Bed'.
The timber verandah floor has been replaced with concrete and concrete is used for flooring throughout the house except in one room which retains a timber boarded floor. Several layers of early linoleum survive on this floor. The interior is open to the underside of the roof and it is unclear whether a ceiling was removed although this seems unlikely.
","history":"The Antbed House was erected in c1890, probably as a mine manager's residence. It is the only surviving adobe house identified in North Queensland towns, and is constructed of bricks made of antbed from termite mounds. Antbed was used more commonly for floors, tennis courts, and mortar or to seal slab buildings, but rarely for bricks.
Georgetown was established as the township of Etheridge, following the discovery of the Overland Telegraph reef near the Etheridge River in 1870, and was renamed by the Mines Department in honour of the Etheridge goldfields first Gold Commissioner, Howard St George, who was appointed in 1872. Initially it was just one of several shanty town which mushroomed on the huge Etheridge goldfield following publication early in 1869 of geologist Richard Daintree's discoveries of gold on the Gilbert River. A rush began immediately, and by July 1869 there were 3000 men on the field. By late 1871, the township of Etheridge (Georgetown) had a population of 600, and emerged as the field's administrative centre. From the early 1870s, both the police and the mining warden (who usually was the police magistrate as well) were located at Georgetown; the town was serviced by the Bank of New South Wales and the overland telegraph from Normanton to Cardwell from 1872; and a state school opened at Georgetown in July 1874. Timber was scarce, and most of the buildings were constructed of timber frames clad with corrugated galvanised iron.
Georgetown was a mining township, subject to the Gold Fields Act of 1874, and sections 1 to 20 of the township of Georgetown were surveyed in mid-1874 by mining surveyor EA Kayser. His survey plan, dated 25 July 1874, indicates buildings already erected in the township, including structures outside of the surveyed sections. The Antbed House is not indicated on this plan.
The population and fortunes of Georgetown fluctuated in the 1870s, following the discovery in 1873 of the rich Palmer River Goldfield to the east of the Etheridge, and the Hodgkinson rush of 1876. However, by mid 1878 miners were returning to the Etheridge, and Georgetown settled into an administrative and commercial role, serving Etheridge pastoralists and a number of London based mining companies. Between 1880 and 1900 Georgetown, with an average population of around 300, experienced something of a building boom, with a new court house, school, post office, and bank, and the hotels re-built as more substantial structures. These buildings were of timber and iron.
Increasing demand for Gold Field Homestead Leases at Georgetown resulted in a Mines Department survey of Sections 21 to 26 of the town of Georgetown, late 1888 early 1889, as residential allotments. The site of the Antbed House (allotments 1 and 2 of Section 22, parish of Georgetown, county of Gilbert) was included in this survey, and there is no indication on the plan, dated 1 February 1889, that there was any structure on the site at the time of survey.
In July 1889 application was made by the British mining company, the Goldfields of North Queensland Limited, for a Gold Fields Homestead Lease on allotments 1 and 2 of Section 22, at the corner of South and Haldane Streets, Georgetown. The area comprised 2 roods, and at the time of the application, there were no prior claims to this ground. Lease No.257 was prepared by the Mines Department and forwarded to the mining warden at Georgetown in September 1890. It was delivered the same month to the applicant company but appears to have been returned to the mining warden in December 1890 by William Kirby, the new manager for The Goldfields of North Queensland Limited mining company.
The Goldfields of North Queensland Limited mining company had been incorporated in London in March 1888 and was registered in Queensland on 25 July 1888, with the company office registered at Georgetown. On that same date the company purchased the leases, plant, buildings etc of The Mining and Prospectus Company Ltd (also London based), which incorporated the following Etheridge claims and leases: Melbourne Exhibition, Spiro (or Spero) Meliora, Caledonia (Lanes Creek), International (Donneybrook), Rocky, Stonewall Jackson, Ann Day, Havelock Block and Reef, Captain Townley, and King William. On paper the company was a substantial enterprise, with capital of £100 000, but it appears to have became defunct in the early 1890s. The only crushings recorded under the name of The Goldfields of North Queensland Limited were made in July 1889, but output records of individual crushing mills within the consortium, particularly Lanes Creek and Donneybrook, were recorded through the 1890s.
It is likely that the Antbed House in Georgetown was erected in 1889 or 1890 for the Georgetown manager of The Goldfields of North Queensland Limited mining company, prior to the lease instrument having been issued. The adobe brick building was rendered externally to resemble stonework, and was a substantial residence comprising a large parlour, wide hallway and two bedrooms in the main house, with wide verandahs on all sides and a detached antbed kitchen house at the rear. Of more imposing appearance than the usual timber and iron Georgetown dwelling, this house could well have been erected for the manager of what started out as a substantial mining enterprise.
In April 1896, the Georgetown mining warden reported that Gold Fields Homestead Lease No.257, Georgetown, had been forfeited and written off, and that Etheridge grazier Marmaduke Curr of Abingdon Downs had applied that month for a new lease (No.545) of the site. The warden, reporting on the application on 19 May 1896, recorded that improvements consisted of a dwelling house valued at £200, and this is likely to be the Antbed House.
The new lease instrument was received by the Georgetown mining warden in September 1896 and forwarded to Mr Curr's agent in early November that year. However, the lease was transferred on 7 November 1896 to Louisa Boyle, wife of Vicars William Boyle, manager of the Queensland National Bank at Georgetown until its closure in July 1894, and a mining manager at Georgetown by 1896. It is not known whether Curr ever used the Antbed House as his town residence, nor for how long the Boyles occupied the residence (if at all) until the lease was transferred to newspaper proprietor Thomas Everett in February 1902.
By 1901, Everett had joined John Phair as co-proprietor of Georgetown's local newspaper, The Mundic Miner (first issued 1889), and by 1904 was the sole proprietor. A photograph of the Everett family in front of their Georgetown residence, the present Antbed House, appeared in The North Queensland Register of 16 September 1907, and the lease was transferred into Mrs Everett's name in 1914. The Everetts left Georgetown c1917, when the newspaper was taken over by Arthur Gard, and it is understood the Antbed House changed hands a number of times in the next three decades, although no transfer of the lease was recorded at Georgetown. Under the provisions of the Gold Fields Leases Act of 1886, rents could be paid up to 30 years in advance. It would seem that this was the case with lease No.545, with the final payment made up to 1927.
In 1946 the Aylett family, occupants of the house since c1944, enquired about obtaining a lease on the property, in consequence of which in 1947 the lease, then still in the name of Eleonore Claudine Helene Everett, was declared forfeited by non-payment of rent, and was re-issued to Hedley Raymond Aylett and Isabell Glenalbion Maud Aylett on 5 January 1950, as Miner's Homestead Perpetual Lease No.1441. In 1948 the warden's report on the Aylett's application listed improvements comprising a four-roomed house and fencing to the value of £150.
The Aylett's maintained the lease until 1978, when it was transferred to John Henry Butler and Christine Joy Butler. In 1987 the lease passed to Gordon Charles Bunch and Leanne Marie Bunch, then to Georgetown grazier Ian Benjamin Pedracini in November 1993. On the 1 December 1994, Mr Pedracini freeholded Miner's Homestead Perpetual Lease No.1441 as Lot 13 on MPH14038, parish of Georgetown.
","criteria":"The Antbed House at Georgetown was erected as mine manager's residence c1890 and survives as important evidence of Georgetown's role as the administrative centre of one of Queensland's earliest goldfields. In this, the Antbed House is important in demonstrating in part the pattern and evolution of Queensland's history.
|The Antbed House is a rare adobe residence which survives as an important illustration of 19th century difficulties experienced in Queensland's far northern goldmining towns in obtaining available, affordable and appropriate building materials. It is the only substantially intact 19th century adobe house identified in north Queensland towns, and is even more rare for its use of antbed (from termite mounds) rather than mud. Adobe houses were rare for both the place and the period, most remote Queensland goldfields buildings being constructed of less substantial and more transportable timber and/or galvanised iron.
|The Antbed House is significant for its potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history particularly in the area of early adobe construction.
|The Antbed House has aesthetic significance as an unusual north Queensland building, the design of which has been well considered.
|The Antbed House has a special association with the Georgetown community, which considers the place to be an unusual and historical feature of the town to which visitors are directed.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion E | Criterion G","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 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":16398,"place_ref":601637,"name":"Etheridge Railway","alternate_name":null,"street_address":null,"suburb":null,"lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2009-02-16","description":"The Etheridge Railway line runs for about 230km from Almaden to Forsayth, and the section from Mount Surprise to Forsayth (included in the heritage boundary) is about 121km long. Built cheaply, the line rarely uses metal ballasting under the railway sleepers, and most sleepers are set directly onto the soil. Half of the sleepers are timber, and half are steel, due to a recent replacement project. Soon after heading south from Almaden, the rails change from 60 pounds per yard to 41¼ pounds per yard, with a noticeable increase in noise and vibration. The line tends to follow the lie of the land, with small cuttings and embankments, although there are larger earth embankments and cuttings on the Newcastle Range section of the line, between Einasleigh and Forsayth. The formation of the line between Almaden and Mount Surprise (not included within the heritage boundary) does not follow its original gradient, due to its reconditioning between 1949 and 1951.
The surviving railway buildings, rails, sidings, turning forks, cattle yards, loading banks, stone pitched bridges and culverts, stone cuttings, sandboxes (for refilling the sand-dispensing units in front of train wheels), water tank, signage, and signals and points infrastructure at the Mount Surprise, Einasleigh and Forsayth railway stations and along the Etheridge Railway between Mount Surprise and Forsayth are significant.
Mount Surprise Station:
The significant elements of this station include: a steel semaphore signal frame and signal arm at the northeast end of the yards, west of the line; a turning fork southwest of the signal and to the north of the line (and associated points levers); a trolley shed south of the fork; two railway houses southwest of the fork and north of the line on Lot 73 SP127336; a metal sandbox, large water tank, tank stand and shower to the north of the modern carriage shelter built over the main line southwest of the fork; a siding south of the main line (and associated points levers); a goods shed on the south side of the siding; a station building southwest of the goods shed and north of the main line; and a timber shed southwest of the station building, on the north side of the main line. Non significant elements include: modern demountable buildings and a shelter shed at the apex of the fork; a modern highset house north of the main line on Lot 73 SP127336; the steel framed, gable roofed, corrugated zincalume-clad carriage shade over the main line, and the skillion roofed, steel framed and corrugated zincalume-clad interpretation shed northeast of the station building; a small timber shed just southwest of the water tank; and a QR telephone box southwest of the station building.
The passenger station is a lowset timber-framed building, with chamferboard-clad walls and a skillion corrugated iron roof that has been extended to form an awning supported by straight timber brackets. The central waiting area has a picket fence and gate, toilets are on the left hand side of the building, and an office with a stable style door is on the right. Some original sash windows survive. There is a modern plastic water tank to the rear of the station building (not significant). The goods shed is a lowset, timber-framed building clad in corrugated iron. Its gabled corrugated iron roof has an awning over a loading platform on the north-west elevation which is supported by curved timber brackets. The goods shed has timber doors on its north-west, south-west and south-east elevations, and narrow windows on the north-east and south-west elevations. A plastic water tank on the north-east elevation is not significant. The small, gable-roofed timber shed south-west of the station building is clad in chamferboard, with an exposed stud to the exterior. It stands on a recent timber and steel platform, has a single timber door on its south-east elevation, a double timber door on its north-west elevation, and fixed timber louvers at each end. The area between the above three buildings has been turfed, up to and between the rails, which gives the appearance that the train is running on grass.
The large riveted iron water tank on a timber stand provided water for engines and the station complex. There is an unused corrugated iron-clad shower room underneath the tank stand, which contains the remains of plumbing fittings. The five-bay trolley shed is clad in corrugated iron, with a skillion roof, and gates of timber battens. The two lowset, gable-roofed houses north of the line are timber-framed, and clad in timber and fibrous cement sheeting. Their yards have gates opening into the railway station area.
Einasleigh Station.
The significant elements of this station include semaphore signal frames (no signal arms) and sand boxes at the approaches to each end of the station; a siding north of the main line and a small siding south of the main line (and any associated points levers); the station building to the south of the main line; a small shed to the north-east of the station building; a loading bank south-west of the station building; and a loading bank on the north side of the northern siding (site of the removed goods shed), to the south-west of the station building. The fork line north of the station, and the cattle yards at the apex of the fork, are also significant, although they are outside the railway reserve. The nearby station master's residence is already on the Queensland Heritage Register [600505]. Non-significant elements of the station include: a modern metal-clad storage shed to the north of the northern siding, to the northeast of the station building; a QR telephone box and a communications tower behind the station building; two concrete water tanks southwest of the station building; and a recent metal clad three-bay trolley shed at the southwest end of the station, south of the main line.
The skillion-roofed passenger station is lowset, and is clad with weatherboards over a timber frame. Straight timber brackets support the awning, and there is a picket fence to the waiting shed section at the south-west end of the building. An office is at the centre of the building, with toilets at the north-east end. The small gable-roofed shed is clad in corrugated iron, and is set on concrete stumps. It has double timber doors and a small timber loading platform on its north-west elevation, which is reached by modern steel steps with a steel balustrade. The loading banks are made of earth, with retaining walls made with a combination of concrete, steel and timber.
Forsayth Station:
The significant elements of Forsayth Station include: a semaphore signal frame with signal arm at the east end of the yards, south of the main line; a trolley shed south of the line at the east end of the station; a siding north of the main line, and a turning fork north of the main line; another trolley shed south of the main line near the start of the east arm of the fork; a sandbox and a points lever to the east of the second trolley shed; loading bank and a signal lever south of the main line; a station building to the south of the main line and west of the loading bank; a goods shed north of the siding and west of the station building; cattle yards west of the fork; a loading bank east of the apex of the fork; and a framed tent quarters east of the apex of the fork. The nearby station master's residence is already on the Queensland Heritage Register [600507]. Non-significant elements include: modern demountable buildings east of the station; modern toilets east of the fork line; a shelter shed for a DR2 diesel locomotive (one of a number which hauled stock on the Etheridge line) south of the main line; and a large modern steel shed on the west side of the cattle yards.
The station building is a lowset, chamferboard-clad, timber-framed building standing on concrete stumps. It has a skillion roof clad in corrugated steel with modern gutters and downpipes, and the building has been partly reclad in Hardiplank. The original windows have been replaced. The building has been modified internally, and now consists of a women's toilet and an office, the shelter section having been enclosed. Two plastic water tanks to the south of the building are not significant. The gable-roofed goods shed is clad with corrugated iron, and the awning over the small timber loading dock on the southern elevation is supported on curved timber brackets. There is a concrete loading dock on the east elevation of the goods shed, which has timber doors on its north, south and east elevations. The two skillion roofed, two-bay trolley sheds are clad in corrugated iron, with corrugated iron sliding doors. The loading bank near the station building is made of earth, with concrete retaining walls, as is the loading bank near the tent quarters.
The framed tent quarters consist of two gable-roofed structures and a skillion-roofed bathroom. The northern structure is clad with corrugated iron and has a skillion-roofed stove recess to the north, and the southern structure is clad with chamferboard with timber studs exposed internally. Just to the east of the northern structure is a small bathroom clad with fibrous cement sheeting. All three elements of the quarters are linked by an open timber deck. The two main structures stand on concrete stumps, while the bathroom stands on metal stumps. The roof of the southern structure used to be supported independently on freestanding timber posts and over-sailed the ceiling line in the form of a tent. This has collapsed to the ground, although the roof of the southern structure is still clad with timber boards. There are two tank stands, to the east and west of the quarters, although only the east stand still has a corrugated iron tank. A corrugated iron-clad earth closet is located to the north of the quarters. The cattle yards are steel; with a loading ramp to the fork, and the northern section of the yards is made of timber.
The Newcastle Range and Delaney Gorge section of line.
The section of the Etheridge Railway over the Newcastle range and through the Delaney Gorge has more earthworks than the rest of the railway. The railway track runs along the north face of the Delaney Gorge and along the bed of the Delaney River for a short distance. The significant elements within this section of the railway include any stone pitched bridge piers and abutments, stone pitched culverts, and stone cuttings. A large stone pitched culvert is located near Native Well, east of Wirra Wirra. A bridge over Starlight Creek, just east of Delaney Gorge, has stone piers and abutments, and a small bridge just east of Wirra Wirra has stone abutments. Bridges constructed with stonework are significant due to their rarity on the Etheridge line.
There is a siding at Wirra Wirra (208.5km from Almaden), on the tableland of the Newcastle Range. Within the rail reserve there is a remnant of the east branch of the fork; and concrete slabs and concrete water tank footings south of the main line. Outside the railway reserve, near the location of the removed western arm of the fork, there is an earth and steel loading bank and some timber cattle yard posts. The modern QR telephone box and its supporting infrastructure are not significant.
Non-significant elements
The line has a large number of short timber trestle bridges with concrete abutments, along with a smaller number of medium-size timber trestle bridges, such as the High Bridge in the Delaney Gorge. Longer bridges on the line include those at Junction Creek, Lighthouse Creek, the Einasleigh River and the Copperfield River. Some bridges have one or more concrete piers, and some timbers have been replaced with steel. The bridges without stonework are not of cultural heritage significance, as they were designed to be cheaply replaced if damaged during floods, and the larger bridges have been replaced at various times; for example the Copperfield Bridge was destroyed in 1927, 1980 and 2002.
There are a number of small concrete culverts and open drains, concrete retaining walls in the Delaney Gorge, and modern QR communications installations at the stations and Wirra Wirra siding which are not significant. The sleepers of the main line within the railway reserve are not significant.
","history":"The Etheridge Railway line, which branches off the Mareeba-Chillagoe line at Almaden and heads south for 142 miles (229.5km) to Forsayth via Mount Surprise and Einasleigh, was built between 1907 and 1910 by the Chillagoe Railway and Mining Company as a private railway line. The same company constructed the railway line from Mareeba to Chillagoe and Mungana between 1898 and 1901. The Etheridge line was built cheaply, with lighter rails and fewer earthworks than the Chillagoe line, to supply ore to the Chillagoe Company's under-utilised smelters at Chillagoe. The Chillagoe Company was part of the business empire of John Moffat, and between 1880 and 1914 much of the economic activity of North Queensland was driven by the railways and mining towns created by Moffat's enterprises. The remaining built infrastructure at stations along the Etheridge Railway provides examples of the type of buildings erected by the Chillagoe Company for its railway network.
John Moffat arrived in Brisbane from Scotland in 1862, and in 1872 he opened a general store in Stanthorpe with Robert Love, to take advantage of tin mining in the area. By 1880 Moffat decided to expand his tin-buying business to North Queensland, and that year his prospectors marked out a mineral freehold at the head of the Wild River, near Herberton. Battery machinery was erected in 1881 at "The Great Northern" mine, and the Herberton Tin Company was formed. In 1884 the Loudoun battery was established at Gibbs Creek and "Irvinebank" became Moffat's permanent headquarters. A tin smelter was also erected at Irvinebank in 1884, next to Moffat's residence Loudoun House. The Loudoun mill held a pivotal position in the North Queensland economy when Irvinebank was booming in 1899, and at its peak was the largest tin battery and smelter in Australia.
As well as mining and smelting tin, Moffat was also interested in silver and copper. He opened a silver smelter at Montalbion in 1886, and silver deposits were located at Muldiva in late 1889. In 1888 Moffat sent his prospectors to William Atherton's property at Chillagoe to look for copper, and Moffat soon monopolised the new field. The first copper smelter on the Chillagoe field was erected near the Boomerang mine at Calcifer in 1894, and by 1897 there was also a copper smelter at Girofla (Mungana). However, Moffat had plans for a central ore smelter which would replace the Loudoun smelter and the small primitive mills located near individual mine groups.
To supply a central smelter, Moffat needed a network of railways to his mines. He had commissioned the survey of a railway route to Chillagoe in 1892, hoping for a land-grant railway, but the depression had stifled the proposal. The Queensland Government's railway from Cairns reached Mareeba in the early 1890s and Moffat hoped to build a railway inland from this point. However, he needed capital for such a venture, and in 1897 he went to Melbourne to find investors, where he gained the attention of Charles William Chapman and James Smith Reid. In 1897 the Chillagoe Proprietary Company was formed. Reid and Chapman accompanied Moffat to Brisbane in November 1897 to present their railway proposal to the government. The resultant Mareeba to Chillagoe Railway Act of 1897 empowered the Chillagoe Proprietary Company to build a 95 mile railway for £431,000, subject only to a government right of purchase after 50 years. In 1898 a new company, Chillagoe Railway and Mines Limited, was formed to take over the assets of the Chillagoe Proprietary Company.
The 1897 Act also approved a central smelter site at Barron Falls, but a short-lived Labor Government quashed the project in December 1899. The Chillagoe Railway and Mines Company was forced to develop its central smelter inland, accruing high transport costs. A central smelter site was selected at Chillagoe Creek, and smelters were constructed during 1900 and 1901. From 1902 the smelters extracted gold, silver and copper from ore which was supplied from Redcap and Calcifer, and they also treated lead ore from the Girofla mine and Torpy's Crooked Creek silver lead mine. In 1901 a copper smelter was also built at Mt Garnet, where copper had been discovered in 1882, but this was not linked to the Company's rail network (at Lappa) until 1902.
Construction of a 3'6" (1.06m) gauge railway with 60 pound per yard steel rails was supervised by AS Frew, the Chillagoe Company's Engineer-in-Charge, who had worked as an assistant to George Phillips on the Normanton-Croydon Railway, built between 1888 and 1891. Construction of the Chillagoe line began in August 1898, and it opened to Lappa on 1 October 1900 and to Chillagoe and Mungana in 1901. Labourers were hired on piece-work, and substantial work was sub-contracted. Stone and concrete culverts and drains were inserted in all embankments over 3 feet high, and steel and masonry bridges were constructed.
In an attempt to obtain more copper ore for the Chillagoe smelters, since ore reserves around Chillagoe had been overestimated, the Chillagoe Company sought to build a branch line from the Chillagoe Railway, south to the Etheridge goldfield and the Einasleigh copper mine. There had been a proposal by John Robb for a private railway to Georgetown in 1890 and in 1902 the Einasleigh Freehold Mining Company proposed a tramway from Almaden to Einasleigh, but nothing eventuated. Negotiations between the Chillagoe Company and the government occurred from 1904, and approval was finally given to build the railway subject to the provisions of the Etheridge Railway Act 1906. The Chillagoe Company agreed to build a railway to a point near Georgetown, for a cost not exceeding £450,000. The government would operate and maintain this private line for 15 years, guaranteeing the company a profit of 2.5% on its outlay, and then purchase the line. It was the first step towards the present system under which mineral railways are government owned and operated but built with private capital repaid out of profits.
The railway construction project was again overseen by AS Frew, and began in 1907, branching off south from Almaden. The station at Almaden (not included within the heritage boundary of the Etheridge line) was opened in 1901. It became a busy centre for trucking cattle and servicing locomotives.
The Etheridge Railway was constructed in the most economical way possible using timber for the bridges, sharp curves, steep grades and light (41¼ pound per yard) rails. There were fewer earthworks than on the Mareeba to Chillagoe line, and minimal ballast was used under the sleepers. Despite controversy, the Chillagoe Company changed the line terminus from Georgetown to Charleston (Forsayth) because it was thought that the mines near Charleston were more promising than those near Georgetown.
By 31 August 1907 the railhead was at 12 miles (19.3km). The line was opened to Mount Surprise in May 1908, and the railway station at Mount Surprise (108.5km from Almaden) was named in December 1909. In 1916 Mount Surprise station had a gate, siding, telephone, scales, fork, cattle yards, and a horse and carriage loading bank. By 1932 it had a station building, closet, goods shed, loading bank, motor shed, camping quarters, two fettler's quarters, enginemen's quarters, coal stage, and cattle yards. Mount Surprise became an important cattle trucking centre after 1951, with the reconditioning of the line from Almaden for steam locomotives. In 1970 approval was given to erect the railway station building from Tumoulin at Mount Surprise as a cottage (removed 2008). A repair shed for the Savannahlander tourist railmotor and an interpretation centre were built in the mid-1990s.
Although construction was delayed by strikes in mid-1908 over the pay rate for railway workers, the line was opened to Einasleigh (165.5km from Almaden) by February 1909. The Einasleigh copper mine was originally discovered by Richard Daintree in the mid 1860s, but the cost of transporting ore from the site made it uneconomic and it soon closed. The location was lost until the 1890s and a renewed interest in copper on the Etheridge field. A township known as Copperfield was established on the banks of the Copperfield River to service 12 copper mining leases extant by 1899, and this was surveyed as Einasleigh in 1900. The mine was reopened that year by the Einasleigh Freehold Mining Company, in which John Moffat had acquired an interest. By 1901 copper matte from a smelter at Einasleigh was being transported to Almaden by camel. The coming of the Etheridge Railway in 1909 allowed Einasleigh to boom, and it was the largest centre on the Etheridge between 1907 and 1910. By 1910 six ore trains a week were running from Einasleigh to the Chillagoe smelters, and in 1911 the mine was purchased by the Chillagoe Company. It closed in 1914, and was reopened by the government between 1920 and 1922.
By 1916 Einasleigh station consisted of a station building, siding, telephone, scales, fork, cattle yards, and a horse and cart loading bank. By 1935 it also had a goods shed (not extant). As both Einasleigh and Forsayth were expected to provide substantial amounts of copper ore, the importance of the towns' railway terminals meant that station master's houses, designed by Frew, were built at both towns (QHR 600505, 600507). A branch line to the Einasleigh copper mine forked off to the north of the station, and today the remaining section off this line leads to cattle yards.
By July 1909 a train was running from Almaden to Reedy Springs (Wirra Wirra), and by the end of August 1909 cuttings and embankments had been made to within 7 miles (11.2km) of Charleston, with stone culverts and drains complete to 2 miles (3.2km) from Charleston. More earthworks were required on the Newcastle Range and Delaney Gorge sections than elsewhere on the line. Ore trains were running to Chillagoe from a terminus just short of Charleston by January 1910, and the terminus (229.5km from Almaden) was renamed "Forsayth" in December 1910. The regular mixed train ran from Forsayth to Almaden three times a week, returning the next day, although there was only one train a week during World War I. By 1916 Forsayth station had a station building, siding, phone, scales, turning fork, cattle yards, and horse and cart loading bank. By 1935 it also had a gate and a goods shed. The cattle yards were rebuilt in 1970, but no cattle have been handled from the station since January 1993. The framed tent quarters date from about 1914, with 1930s additions.
The working and maintenance of the Etheridge railway was taken over by the government from 5 February 1911. From the beginning, cattle were transported from the various stations and sidings along the line, but this traffic increased in importance with the decline of mining. Apart from the main stations on the line there were a number of sidings, the majority situated between Almaden and Mount Surprise. Little survives at these sidings today, other than siding tracks, concrete slabs, some signals and points' equipment, loading banks and cattle yard remnants.
Around 1917 a lime burning business started at Ootann (13 km south of Almaden), using old kilns used during the construction of the railway, and a siding was installed about 1918. Ootann was the limit of steam operation from 1927 to 1951. It had a shelter shed by 1935, and an overhead gantry for loading lime. The present main line was originally the siding, as the main line was moved to install the gantry. Gelaro (30km) had a crossing loop, levers and a shelter shed by 1969. Bullock Creek (52km) had a siding and railway phone by 1916, and was the site of a permanent fettler's (rail line maintenance worker's) camp by 1932. There was a side loading bank and shelter by 1935, and private cattle yards by 1951. A 30,000 gallon (136,383 litre) water tank was present, although this no longer exists. The loading of cattle at Bullock Creek ceased in late 1991.
In 1908 Lyndbrook (69km) had a goods shed, engine shed, station house and forkline. It was named Lyndbrook in December 1909, and by 1935 it consisted of a siding, telephone, fork, side loading bank, shelter, and goods shed (the latter was removed that year). Private cattle yards existed by 1954, but no cattle have been loaded since January 1993. Fossilbrook Creek (77km) consisted of a telephone in 1950. Nearby Fossilbrook was a busy tin-mining town in 1905, with two hotels, but nothing remains of the town. Frewhurst (88km) had a sawmill about 1908, and was named in 1909. By 1916 it had a gate, siding, telephone and loading bank. It had a shelter by 1935, and a private cattle yard by 1951, which was enlarged in the mid 1970s. Livestock has not been handled from Frewhurst since late 1991.
South of Einasleigh, there was a siding (178.6km) at Teasdale (Teesdale) adjacent to the Teasdale Mine. There was a hotel here in 1909, but nothing remains of this siding today, or of a sawmill siding (198km). A siding at Reedy Springs (208.5km) was renamed Wirra Wirra in December 1910. In 1916 it consisted of a gate, siding, telephone, and fork. By 1935 it also had a side loading bank and a shelter. A new stock yard was built in 1960.
The railway extension did not make a great deal of difference to the financial stability of the Chillagoe Company. The high cost of fuel for the smelters, a lack of ore, increasing wages, low metal prices and over-capitalisation on railways and smelters all contributed to the closure of the Chillagoe smelters. The Company asked for a government loan in February 1914 and when this was refused the company shut down its smelting and ore-buying operations. Ironically, the price of metal rose during the course of World War I, while the smelters were idle.
Protracted negotiations between the government and the Chillagoe Company led to the passing of The Chillagoe and Etheridge Railways Act 1918 and the resumption of the company assets, including the Etheridge Railway, on 20 June 1919. The Almaden to Forsayth line was purchased for £225,000 pounds. The Chillagoe smelters were reopened in January 1920, and were operated by the government until 1943.
John Moffat retired in 1912, and died in June 1918. He helped develop North Queensland by bringing both public and private capital into the region, and from 1880 he had built up mining as the key foundation of the region's economy. His railway lines also assisted pastoralists, as railways resulted in cheaper rates for transporting supplies, and cattle could be sent to meatworks in better condition. Although gold mining briefly revived mining traffic on the Etheridge line in the 1930s, it was pastoralism that kept the towns of the Etheridge alive.
In January 1927 six bridges along the Etheridge line were destroyed by floods and the government sought to close the line beyond the lime works at Ootann, just south of Almaden. Due to public pressure the line was reopened in 1928, after the building of low-level bridges, but it was only maintained to standard suitable for use by railmotors. Steam trains did not operate on the line again until after the section from Almaden to Mount Surprise was reconditioned between 1949 and 1951 to allow the transport of heavier loads of cattle than could be pulled by diesel engines. This included adding 60 pound per yard rails on corners, regrading in six places, and one deviation. From the 1950s diesel-mechanical locomotives operated in multiple south of Mount Surprise to allow larger loads of cattle to be moved on the section of line to Forsayth. They were followed by diesel electric locomotives. This work assisted the cattle industry but the building of a bituminized "Beef Road" from Georgetown to Cairns reduced the use of the Etheridge line for cattle from the late 1960s. The use of steam locomotives to Mount Surprise ended in 1969.
The Etheridge line was closed again after floods in 1974, but reopened in December that year. In late 1994 and early 1995 the local community protested against the proposed ending of the Cairns to Forsayth freight and passenger rail service, which would leave only the Mount Surprise to Forsayth section of the Etheridge line operating as a tourist railway. Einasleigh's population blockaded the railway for four days in late December 1994, holding the "Last Great Train Ride" hostage. During this period the locals fed and housed the train passengers and crew until the blockade was lifted after negotiation with the police. The line from Mareeba to Mount Surprise was closed and the Savannahlander tourist railmotor started operation from Mt Surprise to Forsayth in April 1995. However, after an upgrade of the line for sugar syrup trains from Cairns to Arriga, and limited restoration of the rest of the line, the Savannahlander started travelling from Cairns to Forsayth in September 1998. Over four days the Savannahlander, operated by Cairns Kuranda Steam, travels to Mareeba, then west on the Chillagoe line as far as Almaden, before heading south to Forsayth on the Etheridge line and then returning to Cairns. It uses three railmotor units, including two 2000 Class PD cars (1963) and one 2051 class PLDT car (1971). The Etheridge line is currently maintained by Queensland Rail, on a contract basis for Queensland Transport. During 2007 and 2008 many of the Etheridge line's timber sleepers have been replaced with steel sleepers, leaving a 1:1 ratio of timber to steel.
","criteria":"The Etheridge Railway was an essential element of the business empire of John Moffat and the Chillagoe Company. Between 1880 and 1914 much of the economic activity of North Queensland was driven by the railways and mining towns created by Moffat's enterprises.
|The tent quarters at Forsayth is a rare surviving Queensland example of its type, and provides evidence of the amenities considered appropriate for railway workers in the early twentieth century.
The large iron water tank at Mount Surprise is a good example of a type now becoming rare.
|The surviving railway buildings, rails, sidings, turning forks, cattle yards, loading banks, stone pitched bridges and culverts, stone cuttings, sandboxes, water tank, signage, and signals and points infrastructure at the Mount Surprise, Einasleigh and Forsayth railway stations and along the Etheridge Railway between Mount Surprise and Forsayth all demonstrate the principal characteristics of a railway line that was used for mining and pastoral purposes.
The route and formation of the line between Mount Surprise and Forsayth, with its steep gradients and sharp curves and accompanying lack of earthworks, along with the relative lack of steel, stone or brick bridge piers and abutments, demonstrates the nature of a railway line that was built as economically as possible. The section of the railway over the Newcastle Range and through the Delaney Gorge, although it has more earthworks and stone cuttings than any other section of the railway, also demonstrates a cheap form of railway construction, due to its sharp curves and steep gradients.
The Mount Surprise station complex has the most intact group of railway buildings, and its station building, goods shed, small timber shed and water tank are all good examples of their type. Other elements, such as two railway houses, a trolley shed, sandbox, sidings, turning fork and signals and points levers all contribute to an understanding of how a rural railway station functioned. The shower under the water tank illustrates the past lifestyle of railway workers.
|The Etheridge Railway, constructed by John Moffat's Chillagoe Railway and Mines Company between 1907 and 1910, was a significant component of an important, large-scale, privately built mining railway network in North Queensland and is important in demonstrating the wide-spread development of mining and transport infrastructure in this part of the State.
The railway stations at Mount Surprise, Einasleigh and Forsayth and the route of the Etheridge Railway between Mount Surprise and Forsayth, including surviving railway buildings, rails, sidings, turning forks, loading banks, stone pitched bridges and culverts, stone cuttings, sandboxes, water tank, signage, and signals and points infrastructure, are important surviving evidence of the efforts of the Chillagoe Railway and Mines Company to supply copper ore to its smelters at Chillagoe.
The arrangement under which the State government maintained and operated the Etheridge Railway initially as a private line - with an option to purchase after 15 years - was the first step towards the present system under which mineral railways are government owned and operated but built with private capital repaid out of profits.
The station complexes at the mining towns of Einasleigh and Forsayth demonstrate the economic importance of these locations to the Chillagoe Company. Both stations have impressive triple-gabled station master's residences (QHR 600505, 600507) designed by AS Frew.
The Mount Surprise railway station complex and other remaining evidence of cattle transportation at the main stations along the Etheridge Railway, such as cattle yards and loading banks, are important in demonstrating the role that the railway played in maintaining pastoral activity in the area before the construction of the bitumen "Beef Road" in the 1960s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion H | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16592,"place_ref":601855,"name":"Joseph Morris Mine","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Georgetown Mining District","suburb":"GILBERTON","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2004-04-05","description":"The mine workings are located immediately on top of a steep bank overlooking a creek. They comprise an open-cut shaft or collapsed stope with a drive extending along the strike of the reef which is about 8m in depth. A mullock dump descends from the shaft to the creek bed. A portable engine and a portable boiler are aligned to the mine workings. The boiler is a wet bottom type constructed with early conical pointed rivets and possibly manufactured in the United States. Remnants of a stone mount for a Cornish boiler, located alongside the portable plant, are also aligned towards the mine. A Cornish boiler, which was still on site (though not in situ) in the mid 1970s, has since been removed. South of the machinery area is a rock scatter associated with a stone and mud mortar flue and chimney base, which may have also been foundations for a second Cornish boiler. Further south is an iron lined assay furnace of stone construction, and a small top-fed retort kiln. \t\t\t\t\t\t
There is no definite evidence of a battery, such as discarded stamps, cams or tailings. The only likely battery foundations are two short vertical iron bolts, 1.6m apart, aligned with the portable engine. However these were more likely tension bolts for an engine or winch. An extensive area on the opposite bank of the creek extending west to the main road has been subjected to recent tree clearance and surface bulldozing. If a battery was located on the west side of Sandy Creek then all evidence of foundations and dumps would have been lost.
Plant:
·\tOne-cylinder portable steam engine - no brand (R. Hornsby or Ruston Hornsby?).
·\tPortable wet bottom boiler - no brand.
","history":"The Etheridge Gold Fields were discovered in 1869, with the first findings along the Etheridge River. By 1885 the Etheridge field, was the second most important in Queensland after Charters Towers, producing upwards of 20,000 ounces of gold.
Gilberton township was founded in the 1870s, in a remote area some 110km south of the principal township of Georgetown. The gold found around Gilberton occurred in a free state and was erratically distributed. Sometimes almost barren quartz yielded phenomenally rich patches of gold. For example, 2 tons of ore from the Joseph Morris field returned 48.23 ounces after rich specimens had been removed.
Although the nearby Cosmopolitan line of reefs was worked from 1871, the Joseph Morris reef was not worked until 1903. The Joseph Morris mine was sunk to 60m on a reef striking north. The remaining workings consist of a timbered shaft, open to the water level of about 30m and situated in the middle of a line of collapsed stopes.
A 60 ounce nugget is reported to have been found near the Joseph Morris mine. The reef was well noted for its sometimes extremely rich returns. The mine was worked in 1903, 1907 and 1910, producing 403.2 ounces of gold from 37 tons of ore.
Local information claims that the mine was named after the son of an early owner, though this has not been able to be confirmed.
","criteria":"The Joseph Morris mine is important in demonstrating the evolution of the gold-mining industry in Queensland, particularly in the remote Gilberton field, a part of the Etheridge Gold Field.
The Joseph Morris mine is significant for demonstrating a range of gold yields in quartz ore from barren to exceedingly rich.
|A portable steam engine and portable boiler on site are now the only such surviving examples recorded in the Gilberton locality. The wet bottom portable boiler is possibly of United States origin and is early and rare. It is the only wet bottom boiler recorded in North Queensland, and was probably used to power winding gear.
|(Criterion under review)
|The Joseph Morris mine is significant as it is representative example of the human effort and those technologies employed in gold mining operations during the second period of early mining on the Gilberton field at the beginning of the 20th century.
The place contains a range of plant and structural features that were once representative of the second period of early mining on the remote Gilberton field.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16593,"place_ref":601856,"name":"Ortona Mine and Battery","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Forsayth-Agate Creek - Ortona (Iona) Station Road","suburb":"GEORGETOWN","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-08-25","description":"Ortona Mine and Battery is situated on the banks of the Percy River on a large area of land that crosses a series of small seasonally active creeks. The place comprises early mine workings and the surviving components of a mill and mining camp. All of the components are located in close association.
\nThe mine workings comprise three groups of shallow open workings and a shaft. Surviving crushing and concentrating plant located on the site of the mill shed includes a jaw crusher, jigs, tables and a flat bed steam engine. The mill shed has mostly collapsed, although some of the bush timber uprights and part of the roof frame, with corrugated iron sheets, remains standing. The nearby workshop, which is similarly constructed, has partly collapsed around a tractor with a front loading scoop.
\nA boiler and a compressor are located in association with shafts and workings at the western end of the place. Adjacent are the remains of two small buildings constructed with flagstone surfaces and stone pitched wall sections. The purpose of these structures is not evident, although they may have been lock-up stores. The camp comprises the remains of a corrugated iron shed and a stove and fridge.
\nSeveral graves, including one with a headstone, are located in the proximity of the camp.
\nArtefacts and cultural features are numerous in both amount and variety. Bottle fragments are extremely common but occur in definite concentrations. Most bottles appear to be crown seal and are machine made. Bottles from Australian Glass Manufacturers (AGM) appear with some regularity. Three AGM base marks have been identified, one used between 1922-29, a second between 1929-33 and a third between 1934-48.
\nThere are brick fragments throughout the site. Oral evidence suggests that a Mr Brown made the bricks on site. The kiln for the manufacture of the bricks was destroyed in the 1960s when work was conducted on the dam.
\nTo the east of the main mine complex are the ruins of two dry stone wall structures. The structure closest to the mine complex has a ground surface area of 8 m2 and has a slate floor with an obvious edge. Remnants of two exterior corner walls survive and are constructed by embedding slate into antbed. The extant walls are approximately 2 m high. Oral evidence indicates that this building was the manager's residence, the last known manager being Anthony Linedale.
","history":"The Ortona Mine and Battery is located 100km south of Georgetown and is the most isolated copper mine and treatment plant in the Georgetown Mining District. The Mine appears to have operated only briefly, from 1899 to 1908. The remote location of Ortona Mine created difficulties with developing the ore reserves.
Gold was discovered in the Georgetown Mining District in 1868 and a series of other gold and base metal discoveries followed. The region became known as the Etheridge Gold and Mineral Field. The field peaked as a gold producer in the 1890s but was in decline by World War I. High base metal prices turned attention to lead, silver and copper and the field boomed until the onset of the Depression in the late 1920s again caused prices to drop. A brief revival in gold mining followed but the labour and materials shortages of World War Two ended all mining.
The Ortona Mine copper lodes were discovered in 1899 by Scarden and Smyth, two prospectors. In 1901 Scarden and Smyth sold the mine to Anthony Linedale. Linedale was reportedly working in association with John Moffat and the Irvinebank Mining Company. Cartage and treatment costs were very high and many mines starting up in the early 1900s could not afford to stay in business. Linedale, however, was able to make a profit by sending copper ore to Townsville by teams and then transported the copper on to London.
Between 1899 and 1908 about 145 tons of rich ore was sent for smelting. Records of 1908 show that 2,345 tons of ore were stacked ready for treatment, waiting for the completion of a reverberatory furnace. The mine was exploited to the water level by shafts and drives. With the use of an engine and baling tank one shaft was extended to 47m below water level. A crushing plant was later erected. However, there is no evidence of a furnace or any slag in the area so it is not known whether the furnace did become operational, or even for how long the mines operated. However records show that in 1910. Linedale's company constructed a road from their Ortona mine to Forsayth to connect with the Etheridge Railway.
An undated map of Ortona shows a cottage and office with a well and another office nearby, on the bank of the Percy River. On the same side of the river, further south, a hotel and kitchen apparently owned by August Kremens are located. On the opposite bank another hotel and kitchen, under the name of George Daly Ryan and next to it, a butcher shop with the name John Henry Clarke are also marked.
A brief revival of the Ortona Mine in 1919 was prompted by new gold finds. Although this engendered some activity, miners were by then deserting the area. Later prospectors and fossickers were discouraged by a lack of available explosives, as well as ongoing drought conditions, and seemed unprepared to work such an isolated area.
","criteria":"The Ortona Mine and Battery is significant demonstrating the effort employed in the early exploration and development of mineral deposits, in this case, copper. The place is the most isolated copper mine and treatment plant in the Georgetown Mining District. It contains historical landscape qualities and demonstrates a combining of natural and cultural heritage values.
|(Criterion under review)
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16657,"place_ref":601921,"name":"Mount Moran Battery","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"New Woolgar Road","suburb":"FORSAYTH","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2000-09-22","description":"The Mount Moran Battery contains the remains of a five head stamp battery including mortar box, stamper rods and belt wheel. The battery frame has been removed. A colonial boiler, the remains of a steam engine with fly wheel and several berdan pans are located alongside the stamp battery. A collapsed corrugated iron camp is located across a gully to the west of the battery. A small steam pump is located near a well on a watercourse east of the battery. The place includes several early open workings.
","history":"Mount Moran Battery is situated on a sloping ridge above the seasonally active Agate Creek, west of Forsayth. The isolated five head stamp battery was erected in 1924 to crush ore won from the three reefs worked in the area - the Mona, Iona and Bosker.
Gold was discovered in the Georgetown Mining District in 1868 and a series of gold and base metal discoveries followed. The region became known as the Etheridge Gold and Mineral Field. The field peaked as a gold producer in the 1890s but was in decline by World War I. High base metal prices turned attention to lead, silver and copper and the field boomed until the onset of the Depression in the late 1920s again caused prices to drop. A brief revival in gold mining followed but the labour and materials shortages of World War Two ended all mining.
During the early years of gold discoveries on the Etheridge field small amounts of alluvial gold were found in gullies around Mount Moran. Although it was not until the 1920s that the area produced three working gold reefs. Between 1922 and 1936 the three mines, the Mona, Iona and Bosker, yielded 1,033 ounces of gold. Ore from the area was first crushed at the Ortona battery. By 1924 Mount Moran required its own crushing facilities. The ten head battery at Ortona, situated about 3 miles from Mount Moran field, was relocated from Ortona to its present site.
In 1924 there was increased prospecting in the area with satisfactory results. Several new gold-bearing lodes were discovered, however most of the work was confined to the Finger Point mine. Here, the principal owners formed a syndicate and amalgamated their holdings in a 16 acre lease. The claims in the area were the Blue Spec, Bosker, Brown Hill, Dinkum, Finger Print, Lucky Hit, Iona and Peg Leg, with the deepest shafts of 22metres and 27metres being sunk on the Peg Leg and Finger Print respectively.
The 1930s saw a brief revival in the area then known as 'the Mount Moran group of gold mines'. In 1936 the Mount Moran Battery crushed 157 tons of ore to yield 58 ounces of gold. However, there appears to have been no activity after this date. The Mount Moran Battery presumably ceased operation as the mines in the area closed.
","criteria":"The Mount Moran Mine is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's mining history, in particular the Etheridge Gold and Mineral Field. It contributes to an understanding of ore crushing technology utilised on a marginal lode and is an example of a small battery which was set up to crush ore for a few small mines in an isolated area of the remote field.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17044,"place_ref":602232,"name":"Quartz Hill Coach Change Station Site and Cemetery","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Via Mount Surprise","suburb":"MOUNT SURPRISE","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-07-04","description":"The site is on the western bank of Elizabeth Creek, approximately 10km downstream from Mount Surprise. On the opposite bank of the creek stands the natural feature called Quartz Hill. Apart from the trees alongside the creek bed, the site is sparsely vegetated, and the bare soil is scattered with basalt stones.
The significant remnants of the Quartz Hill Change Station include the cemetery, the rectangular stone foundations of the hotel, a large bottle dump, several stone formations of unknown purpose, two small cleared areas, and an old road to the crossing of Elizabeth Creek, which is marked by a blazed tree. There is also a scattering of metal artefacts, including horseshoes. All of these components can be found between the existing roads and Elizabeth Creek.
When the main road from Mount Surprise turns west towards the O'Briens Creek Gemfields, a secondary track continues northwest, and passes close to the four graves in the cemetery. The southernmost grave is that of John Dutton. It faces east and has a marble headstone. A cast iron fence, set into stone corner plinths, surrounds the grave. The other three graves face southwest; the grave just north of John Dutton's grave consists of a cast iron headstone with no inscription and a rectangular arrangement of stones. The next grave has a rectangular cairn of basalt stones, stacked on top of a plinth of quartz rocks. The northernmost grave has the least intact stone arrangement.
About 190 metres southeast of the cemetery are the foundations of what was probably the hotel. The foundation stones enclose an area about 5 metres wide by 13 metres long, and seem to have an internal partition towards the southern end and a 2-metre extension to the east. A line of stones also extends north from the northwestern corner. South of the foundations is a cleared rectangular earth pad.
To the northeast of the hotel foundations is a three-sided linear formation of stones, and to the north of this is a cleared area of about 30 by 20 metres. Southeast of the hotel is a group of flat stones around a small tree, and further southeast is an overgrown, horseshoe shaped arrangement of stones that could be a hearth or a shelter. East of the hotel, near the creek, is a large artefact scatter, mostly of green beer bottles with some tin, spread over an area of about 5 metres by 15 metres. North of this bottle dump is an extensive scatter of tin, glass, ceramics and metal. Some distance to the south is a small depression containing a bottle and metal scatter.
At some distance to the southeast of the hotel is a section of the coach road. The road originally headed south after crossing the creek, before swinging to the northwest to head past the hotel. The modern road now obscures the section towards the hotel, and a modern cattle track exists just to the west of the coach road's approach to the creek. On the western bank of the crossing stands a blazed melaleuca tree. Further southeast is a horseshoe shaped stone structure, 2 metres by 1.5 metres, which stands at one end of an L-shaped stone arrangement. This structure and the graves are the most obvious features of the change station site, and can easily be seen from the road. .
","history":"The Quartz Hill coach Change Station was a product of the development of pastoralism and the discovery of gold, tin, and copper in Northern Queensland. In 1888 Quartz Hill became an overnight stop on the "coast to coast" coach transport and mail routes from the east coast (via Herberton and later Almaden) to Georgetown on the Etheridge goldfield, and on through Croydon to Normanton. Despite the later construction of railways to cover sections of the route (such as the Croydon to Normanton railway, 1891), Quartz Hill remained a coach station until 1908.
In the 1860s Ezra Firth, in partnership with James Atkinson, took up the Mount Surprise Station on the banks of Elizabeth Creek, while the Collins Brothers took up Brooklands Station to the west, on the banks of Junction Creek. The topographical feature of Quartz Hill is located on the east bank of Elizabeth Creek, about 10 km downstream (northwest) from Mount Surprise. Gem quality beryl (aquamarine) and garnet were found in the area. Early twentieth century maps of the various runs of Mount Surprise Station shows that whilst Quartz Hill lay within the boundary of the Albert Downs run of Firth's Station, the location of the Quartz Hill Change Station, west of Elizabeth Creek, was in the Fixby Run of the Collins' Station. The whole area is now part of a much larger Mount Surprise Station.
Copper was discovered in the area in the mid-1860s. Geologist Richard Daintree, in partnership with William Hann, established an open-cut copper mine on what was then thought to be the Lynd River but which later proved to be a separate watercourse and was named the Einasleigh. Ore was excavated and carted in bullock drays to Townsville, but despite good returns, the costly freight made the mine unprofitable. The partners ceased work and the mine entrance was sealed. For some years after the death of Daintree in 1878 the location was lost. Renewed mining interest in the Einasleigh River district was stimulated by the 1890s boom in copper and railways, resulting in 12 copper leases being developed in the area by 1899.
To the west of Mount Surprise Station, Georgetown was established following the discovery of gold near the Etheridge River in 1870. Initially it was just one of several shanty towns which mushroomed on the huge Etheridge goldfield. By late 1871, the (unproclaimed) township had a population of 600, and emerged as the field's administrative centre. The population and fortunes of Georgetown fluctuated in the 1870s, following the discovery in 1873 of the rich Palmer River Goldfield, and the Hodgkinson rush of 1876. However, by mid 1878 miners were returning to the Etheridge. The overland telegraph from Cardwell to Normanton reached Junction Creek, south of Mount Surprise Station, in 1871, and Ezra Firth supplied meat to the small settlement that developed there. In the 1881 Queensland Census, the Etheridge District had a population of 1042 and the towns of Charleston (later Forsayth), Georgetown, and Gilberton.
An 1886 census map of the Etheridge District shows a road from Georgetown passing through Brooklands Station, and crossing Elizabeth Creek near Quartz Hill. One branch of the road then heads south through Mount Surprise to Junction Creek, while the other branch heads north, to the Lynd River, alongside the telegraph line from Junction Creek to Palmerville.
In the late 1880s, due to the development of the Croydon goldfield and a government desire for coast-to coast mail delivery, Cobb and Co extended its Normanton to Georgetown two-day coach run and cut a rough track from Georgetown to Herberton; a distance of around 160 miles. There was already a service from Port Douglas to Herberton, but the Georgetown to Herberton "gap" was not bridged until 1888. This route was the busiest in Queensland during the Etheridge and Croydon booms, according to William Lees, writing in 1920.
The change station at Elizabeth Creek near Quartz Hill appears to have been established in 1888 to service the new Cobb & Co. route between Georgetown and Herberton. Change stations were always built near water, and a groom would feed and water the tired horses and harness a fresh team while the driver and passengers ate. Stations were generally placed about 20-30 km apart. According to Cobb and Co records, the route from Herberton to Georgetown ran through Watsonville, Orient Camp, Montalbion, California Creek, Emmerson's Cobb and Co stables, Fossilbrook, and Quartz Hill, a distance of 167 miles.
A postal receiving office was opened at Quartz Hill on 13 December 1888, the first keeper being Mrs Hutson (likely the wife of Alfred Hutson, Quartz Hill Hotel). Alf Hutson was granted a Victualler's License in mid 1889 (Georgetown district), and he is listed at Quartz Hill in the February 1890 Queensland Government Gazette.
Sometime between 1890 and 1895 Arthur C Bicknell travelled from Herberton to Georgetown on a coach that was carrying mailbags. On the third night he recorded that "we arrived at a little place called 'Quartz Hill', where there was a fairly good hut kept by an Englishman and his wife". The coach continued with the mail to Georgetown the next day.
Between 1892 and 1903 Cobb and Co held the contract for Mail Service No. 210, running between Herberton and Georgetown. In 1898 a coach left Georgetown for Herberton every Wednesday, and left Herberton for Georgetown on Fridays. Quartz Hill was noted as a "parcel office", (i.e. a postal receiving office). By 1900 coaches left Herberton for Georgetown on Sundays and Thursdays, and left Georgetown for Herberton on Fridays and Tuesdays.
The license for the Quartz Hill Hotel was transferred to Patrick Brophy in 1900, and then to Robert Neary that same year. J Geraghty was keeper of the receiving office in 1901, the year in which at least one traveller complained about the poor food and basic bedding arrangements, and in February 1902 Margaret Geraghty was listed as the licensee at Quartz Hill.
The construction of the Chillagoe railway meant that in 1904 Cobb and Co obtained the contract for Mail Service No. 210(a), from Almaden on the railway to Georgetown twice a week, via Sandy Tate, Rocky Tate, Petty's Change, Fossilbrook, Black Springs, Quartz Hill, and White Springs, a distance of 150 miles. John Dutton was the receiving office keeper in 1905, while in January 1906 Bridget Dutton held the license at Quartz Hill. A photograph in the North Queensland Register in 1905 shows two buildings, two local horse-buggy teams, and one bicycle, at Quartz Hill, "Where the Georgetown and Almaden Coaches meet weekly".
However, changes in transportation were threatening the existence of the Change Station at Quartz Hill. In 1900 John Moffat of the Chillagoe Railway and Mining Company acquired an interest in the Einasleigh Copper Mine, which was to prove the premier base metal producer on the Etheridge. By 1901 the copper matte was being transported by camel to Almaden via Quartz Hill. Gold from the Etheridge gold field was also transported in this manner through Quartz Hill. This mode of transportation proved unsatisfactory and by 1902 the construction of a railway line was suggested between Georgetown and Almaden to join with the Chillagoe Railway. The potential route passed through Quartz Creek, but instead the railway was constructed further south, through Mount Surprise and Einasleigh, terminating at Forsayth (previously Charleston). The railhead reached Mount Surprise from Almaden in 1908, and opened at Forsayth in January 1910.
In January 1907 Cobb and Co sold its interest in the Almaden to Georgetown run to JS Love, and John Dutton died the following month, aged 49. His headstone still stands in the small cemetery near the site of the Change Station. A map in the 1908 Annual Report of the Department of Mines still shows a hotel at Quartz Hill, and Bridget Dutton was the licensee for the year ending June 1908. However, by March 1909 Quartz Hill was no longer mentioned under Licensed Victuallers in the Georgetown district, and Bridget Dutton had taken on the license at the Australian Hotel in Einasleigh. The receiving office at Quartz Hill seems to have closed in July 1908, the same month that a post office opened in Mount Surprise, no doubt due to the railway having reached the latter location.
","criteria":"The development of a Coach Change Station at Quartz Hill demonstrates how the development of North Queensland's mining and pastoral industries required the establishment of transport routes to service those industries. The exploitation of the Etheridge Goldfield led to the 1888 development of a Cobb and Co coach route from Herberton, and later Almaden, to Georgetown, with an overnight stop at Quartz Hill. The building foundation remnants at Quartz Hill, along with a bottle dump, evidence of the coach road, and a small cemetery, mark the location of an important early transport route in Northern Queensland, and demonstrate the functional arrangement of a class of places that, due to changes in technology, is no longer in use.
|The remains of the Coach Change Station have the potential to provide new information about construction methods in rural North Queensland during the late nineteenth century. Analysis of the Change Station's surviving infrastructure, including the building foundation remnants, bottle dump, evidence of the coach road, and a small cemetery, and the spatial arrangement of its components (including the proximity of this remnant evidence to water), would also aid understanding in how late 19th century and early 20th century coach change stations functioned, and how people lived and worked in these places.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion C","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17051,"place_ref":602245,"name":"Aspasia Mine and Battery","alternate_name":"Mount Turner Battery","street_address":"Gulf Development Road","suburb":"GEORGETOWN","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-04-13","description":"The Aspasia Mine and Battery is located 1 kilometre north of the Gulf Development Road, approximately 11 kilometres west of Georgetown. The terrain surrounding the battery is mostly flat with a line of reefs forming a low ridge from the southwest corner to the northeast corner of the site. It is sparsely vegetated with eucalypt and grass and is grazed upon by cattle. On the western boundary the landscape undulates with a series of eroded gullies. At the southeast corner of the site, a large quartz outcrop is visible alongside a station track.
The place contains mine workings, a battery and concentration plant foundations arranged in close association. The main component of the place is an almost intact five head stamp battery set on rendered brick and stone mounts. Concrete foundations for the diesel power plant (which has been removed) are located alongside the stamp battery. Parts of another five head stamp battery are scattered to the south west of the battery area, however there are no foundations to indicate installation of a second stamper. A timbered shaft, partly caved at the surface, is situated 8 metres south of, and in line with the battery's mortar box. The former hoisting gear over this shaft comprises a light bush timber whip pole and metal pulley. The battery area contains bush timber uprights of varying lengths which formed supports for the battery shed roof, water tanks and belt wheel shafts. Southeast of the stamper are the remains of an elevated tank and tank stand. The stand's timber stumps remain in place, but the corrugated iron tank has fallen and lies between the stumps and an adjacent mineshaft. A mullock heap about 3 metres wide and 30 metres in length stretches in an east-west direction to the north of the stamper. A line of shallow, open stopes extends northward of the stamp battery from the north edge of the mullock heap.
A linear arrangement of 3 shallow pits is located about 260 metres south of the battery area and on the reef line. Approximately 100 metres north of the battery area, on the eastern side of the station track, is a shallow shaft and associated mound. This feature forms the northern most point of the heritage boundary.
The two shafts and series of open stopes within the battery area, as well as the shallow pits to the south and north of the battery, are located on the reef line that traverses the site from southwest to northeast.
Surface evidence of the former workshop and camp (including scatters of corrugated iron sheeting, remains of timber stumps, and bottle and tin can scatters) is located approximately 140 metres south of the battery and about 40 metres directly west of a station track. Some of the tin cans evident in this scatter carried inscriptions on their bases which read 'use before 30 Oct 1951', as well as 1950.
","history":"The Aspasia Mine, 3-4kms west of Durham on the former Etheridge Gold and Mineral Field, was worked from 1916 to 1929, during the 1930s, and between 1947 and 1952, producing gold, silver, lead and copper.
The Etheridge was an unusually large gold/mineral field and the rushes were widely scattered. The first recorded gold in the district was found by geologist Richard Daintree in 1867 near present day Georgetown. A series of other gold and base metal discoveries followed and after publication early in 1869 of Daintree's report of discoveries of gold on the Gilbert River, the first rush began. By July 1869 a population of 3,000 were mining the rivers for alluvial gold, and by November 1870 reef mining had commenced. By late 1871, the township of Etheridge (later Georgetown) had a population of 600. The Etheridge Goldfield was proclaimed officially on 18 January 1872, with Georgetown designated the administrative centre.
In 1872 the Durham area, just west of Georgetown, was developed with more than 44 separate auriferous reefs being worked and crushing machinery set up in Georgetown. The Durham Mine worked a rich auriferous reef down to the 122m level between 1879 and 1899 and again from 1907. It produced over 20,000 ounces of gold.
For a short time the Etheridge was one of the richest goldfields in Queensland and in 1885 was still the second highest producer behind Charters Towers. However, due to the isolation, which resulted in high transport costs and scarcity of labour, and with the continuing development of Ravenswood (1868) and the Hodgkinson (1876) in competition, production began to lag behind other fields. Etheridge reefs were small and shallow, yet expensive to develop. The high cost of living meant the population was less likely to settle permanently, so the availability of labour was an uncertain factor. It was, however, known as a reliable standby when other rushes had been worked out.
The Etheridge field peaked as a gold producer in the 1890s but was in decline by World War One. However, high base metal prices during the war turned attention to lead, silver and copper and the field boomed until the onset of the Depression in the late 1920s again caused prices to drop. The 1930s Depression temporarily rejuvenated the Etheridge due to the tendency for gold values to rise during a depression, and unemployment relief funds were provided to assist prospectors.
Approximately 3.5km west of the Durham and north of Hawkins Hill, a line of reefs can be found. The most southerly mine, the Aspasia, was worked between 1916 and 1929, during the 1930s and between 1947 and 1952, for gold-silver-lead ore. Silver-lead-zinc ore was first discovered near the site of the Aspasia in 1888, but it wasn't until the World War One boom in base metals that the area began to be mined. The main workings consisted of three shafts and nearly 45m of stopes, from the surface down to at least 9m. Officially the records show a production of 716 tons of ore, returning 37 ounces of gold, 14,626 ounces of silver, 285 tons of lead and 0.8 tons of copper.
In the aftermath of World War Two, production costs rose and after 1950, silver-lead prices fell, leading to the closure of the Aspasia mine in 1952.
","criteria":"The Aspasia mine and battery is significant in Queensland's history as an example of a small battery working through the Depression years and until after World War 2 and producing a range of base metals including silver-lead.
|The compactness of the site and relatively intact state of the stamp battery, haulage gear and water tanks, is rare in North Queensland. The close spatial relationship between the mine and battery is typical of early mining operations conducted on a small intermittently worked scale. Location of a treatment plant on top of a potential mineral resource is today unusual. The very intact timbering in the mine shaft, including the ladder, and the intact whip pole, are rare in Queensland.
|The stamp battery, haulage gear and water tanks retain the principal characteristics of their type and are important in illustrating the nature of early to mid 20th century mining technology and mining practices for small mines on Northern Queensland mineral fields. The place is significant as a highly legible former mining site in Queensland.
|The place possesses aesthetic significance generated by the strong visual impact inherent in the juxtaposition of remnant mine objects, machinery and workings within an arid, isolated natural environment.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17120,"place_ref":602259,"name":"No.53 RDF Station","alternate_name":"Radar Hill","street_address":"Gulf Developmental Road","suburb":"MOUNT SURPRISE","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-07-12","description":"The remnant fabric of No.53 RDF Station, Mt. Surprise is dispersed over a wide area. The now collapsed radar control tower (part of the 'Doover') is located in the original position just beneath a rocky knoll at the northern end of Mount Lookout. From its location, excellent views are obtained west, north and east over the surrounding flat country. Extending southwards, other remnant infrastructure is located at various points on three small terraces at descending elevations and at the base of the hill where the encampment was located.
At the summit on the northern side there is a concrete roofed bunker (now semi-collapsed), excavated into the rocky outcrop, in association with a pit with circular concrete base and an embedded metal cylinder stood vertical. The metal cylinder has a handle and locking pin. This device is thought to be associated with a fixed machine gun. The pit is semi-ringed with excavated earth/rock.
Directly below the rocky knoll of the summit is a small flat terrace (8.2 metres x 8.8 metres) of granitic gravel/sand retained on one side by a low rock wall and an underlying concrete base for the Doover hut and tower. The Doover hut and tower, now collapsed and minus the transmitter/receiver (radar screen) and aerial etc, is essentially a four legged BHP steel frame structure with remnant elements of corrugated iron sheeting (for the hut which housed 2 radar operators and a mechanic). Small ventilation slits are evident in one corrugated iron sheet. Other surviving features include electrical wire and metal conduit pipe. Turning mechanisms lie close by on the pad while further turning gear is evident within the structure. It appears that some of the iron in the structure has been salvaged at some time in the past.
The entire summit including the Doover pad is encircled by remnants of a 9-10 strand wire/barbed wire fence strung on bush poles (local adaptation) and semi-flanked on the western, northern and eastern sides by small 'sentry posts' constructed from local rocks. A short swing arm is bolted near the top of some of the bush poles. The strategically placed 'sentry posts' offer good vantage points to the country below. They are typically a crescent shaped arrangement of rocks piled to create a low protective barrier. Three iron stay poles are affixed to the ground at separate points some distance from the Doover. The cement base in which one stay is embedded is inscribed with the initials FWG, RCR, ECL and the date 6.5.43.
Other local adaptations are evident. Ironwood and Ironbark trees, used as telephone poles, with ceramic insulators affixed to squared timber cross-arms bolted to the trees, still survive. An Ironwood tree (as telephone pole) adjacent to the Doover is a particularly fine example, with fine bush carpentry still evident. Also in evidence is the negligible regrowth (callousing) over the cut since its creation.
To the south, on a small terrace below the Doover, is an area of introduced granitic gravel/sand (7.4 metres x 11.4 metres) similar to that used for enlargement of the Doover pad. No building foundations are evident in this deposit however a linear stone arrangement and a small pit and mound feature can be seen. Excavation in this area may shed light on the former function.
Further south, close to the southern edge of the third terrace, is another collapsed bunker with concrete roof and associated pit with circular concrete base and an embedded metal cylinder stood vertical. The metal cylinder has a handle and locking pin. The pit is semi-ringed with excavated earth/rock. This structure closely resembles the other at the summit. Two rock-piled 'sentry posts' are found at slightly lower elevations near this second bunker/pit complex. They have roughly southern aspects.
A total of eight (8) rock-piled 'sentry posts' were noted at various points around the summit and third terrace.
Two concrete slabs of equal dimensions (4.0 metres x 5.6 metres) lie further south and downslope on the lowest (fourth) terrace. One slab is located on the upslope margin of the terrace and close by, to the west, an Ironwood 'telephone pole' tree with squared timber cross section and insulators. To the east of this cement pad a single strand of fence wire is strung from the ground and affixed high onto an adjacent Ironwood tree with wire netting attached to the lower part close to the ground (possibly a base for hessian camouflage netting). A number of possible walking pads zig-zag indeterminately upslope from this cement pad. The cement pad presents evidence of division into a roomed structure (with bolts protruding from the cement).
On the same terrace in a westerly direction is an identical concrete pad (4.0 metres x 5.6 metres) with protruding bolts and an adjacent Ironwood 'telephone pole' tree with squared timber cross-arms affixed with bolts. Nearby lies a fallen, partially burnt bush telephone pole and associated ceramic insulators and fixings (some now dislodged and lying separate).
A faint, wide track leads from the eastern cement pad in the direction of the other.
At the southern base of the hill is a T-shaped concrete pad with associated deep pit and collapsed cement slab with oval/circular holes. Another cement pad is located some distance away in a southwest direction. These features are thought to be associated with the encampment. Ongoing excavation into the southern base of Mount Lookout for gravel extraction may have significantly destroyed the encampment area. A long and narrow heap of piled earth was noted (11/3/2004) to contain cement and other metal debris.
","history":"No.53 Radio Direction Finding Station, Mt Surprise was established in 1943 as one of 25 RDF stations controlled by the Royal Australian Air Force No.42 Radar Wing Headquarters in Townsville. These stations were constructed across northern Australia to provide warning of potential Japanese aircraft raids on Queensland's eastern seaboard centres. They utilised the most secretive of new technology and for security reasons little was known by the wider community of their existence and function. Frequently much of the associated infrastructure at these sites was removed or demolished after the war.
In response to the Japanese military dominance in Southeast Asia and the western Pacific in 1942-43 and with the invasion of Australia seemingly imminent, a network of Radio Direction Finding (RDF) stations was established throughout the northern inland and coastal regions of Australia and Papua New Guinea and islands of the western Pacific. The Royal Australian Air Force constructed 25 RDF stations in northern Queensland, covering the area from Mackay to the Torres Strait, the Atherton Tablelands, Cloncurry district and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
No.53 RDF Station, Mt Surprise was a key link in the detection of low flying aircraft heading from the Japanese occupied Dutch East Indies via the Gulf of Carpentaria in the direction of Townsville or the Atherton Tableland, in the Cairns hinterland, where many Australian and American military units were undergoing jungle warfare training. Its other roles were to provide assistance to the Catalina flying boats returning to base in Townsville, following long-range patrol over Java and in the training of radar personnel prior to postings to 'active' areas.
Radio Direction Finding technology - later termed Radar to follow the American terminology - was developed by the British during the lead up to the second world war and was quickly shared with its major allies, including Australia. The enemy did not possess the technology hence its development and application gave the allies an edge at a crucial time during the war. The equipment installed at the Australian radar stations was mostly an Australian version of the original British technology. The British Aircraft to Surface Vessel Mk I was modified by Australia's Radiophysics Laboratory (RPL) to a Shore Defence or Coastal Artillery radar then rapidly modified again by RPL to become Air Warning Mk I. These Australian electronics were the first in the world to have a timebase which was virtually unaffected by voltage variations in the power supply. The Australian version was designed for the tropics and was lightweight and portable for installation in remote locations.
The installation at Mt Surprise was Australian designed: an Air Warning (AW) aerial on an AW tower weighing 12 tons, with AW electronics. It is likely that the station operated AW Mk2 equipment, designed to be assembled on site from a kit provided. The kit, known as a 'Doover', comprised the control tower, a hut for radar operators and mechanic, turning mechanism and radar transmitter/receiver screen and was hauled to the summit of the hill by flying fox. This rig proved extremely reliable and efficient in the tropics and was used by Australian, American and British forces. The operators' hut was lined with masonite and clad with galvanized iron and was supplemented by separate facilities for power generation and distribution, operations and signals. The radar screen in this equipment utilised a 5 inch cathode-ray tube built into the receiver cabinet. The generator likely was powered by a Ford V8 alternator and the aerial was easily put together as it was formed from piping and hand turned.
The Allied Works Council (AWC) constructed No.53 RDF Station, Mt Surprise in early to mid 1943. A camp was constructed at the southern base of the hill and consisted of mess, kitchen and toilet/washroom facilities and accommodation tents. Replacement of the tents with prefabricated masonite huts commenced in November 1943, with all but one replaced by the end of March 1944. One airman later recorded that it was a very comfortable camp. Water was pumped some considerable distance from Elizabeth Creek.
No.53 RDF was formed at Richmond, New South Wales on 15 May 1943 with establishment strength of 38 (including one officer). Thirty-six personnel departed Richmond on 19 July 1943 with an advance party arriving at Mt Surprise on 29 July. The officer in charge conducted an inspection of facilities and returned immediately to No.42 Radar Wing in Townsville with a report.
The remaining personnel arrived on 14 August 1943 when investigations were under way to locate a suitable airstrip. By the end of that month, a camouflage party from the Department of Home Security was engaged at the station. During this time black-out lighting was installed, preparation of slit trenches was under-way, fixed weapons had been installed and small arms were issued to the airmen whose defence training included shooting expeditions in the surrounding country. Defence preparations continued in January 1944 with the construction of a 25 yard shooting range.
The radar installation was completed on 15 August 1943. Initially, No. 53 RDF obtained very few radar plots and there was uncertainty as to whether this was due to technical limitations (ie. lack of range of the equipment) or due to absence of aircraft within reasonable range. Within three months the equipment was determined to provide excellent results at long range. In February 1944, despite technical difficulties and the Station operational on reduced power, results at up to 100 miles range were achieved.
The rapid early development in radar technology was evident at this station with the installation of an interrogator (equipment designed to receive and interpret signals to detect if an aircraft was 'friend or foe'). The Station Diary (A50s) records that the interrogator installation party arrived by aircraft on 14 December 1943 and had the equipment operational within two days.
Station morale was maintained by the periodic visits of various padres on chaplaincy duty and officers of the 25 OBU (Operational Base Unit) who showed educational films and discussed technical courses. Fraternising with locals was not prohibited and generally took place at the nearby Mt Surprise hotel which was restricted to wartime rations of one nine gallon keg per week; at the weekly dances; and at cricket matches (eg. 'singles' vs 'marrieds'). Other recreational pursuits took the form of a comprehensive PT program including gymnastics and swimming parades. Overnight fishing expeditions to deep water holes along Elizabeth Creek were organized through the local police station and there were shooting expeditions to the surrounding country.
Rations were supplemented by the raising of young pigs captured during hunting expeditions to the surrounding country. Captured piglets were kept in a pen near the encampment and fed on kitchen scraps until considered rid of their objectionable wild taste.
Diary entries record the occasional disruptions to radar watch caused by normal and special maintenance or technical difficulties and the periodic visits of RAAF technicians to undertake special maintenance. Other interruptions arose from the occasional storm and disruptions to the power supply and interference to the otherwise poor telephone communications leaving the station totally isolated.
As the threat of invasion by Japan declined, significant operational changes occurred at No.53 RDF. From 22 May 1944 the previously continuous radar watch was reduced to four hours daily and by the end of June, operational strength was reduced to 18. Hitherto, operational strength had varied between 29 and 41.
On 8 January 1945 the Station was placed on a 'care and maintenance basis' with reduced personnel after which its operational strength rapidly declined as staff were deployed elsewhere. The Station was relocated to Pitt Town, New South Wales on 2 June 1945.
Throughout its entire operational period, No.53 RDF Mt Surprise never detected any enemy aircraft and was never confronted with any hostility.
The former encampment area at the southern base of Mount Lookout is now the site of a local shire council gravel extraction operation.
","criteria":"No.53 RDF Station, Mt Surprise is important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, being surviving evidence associated with the early development and use of radar technology to provide an air warning system to assist in the defence of Australia during World War Two. As one of a small network of 25 coastal and inland radio defence finding stations established in northern Queensland in 1942-44 it is significant for the role it played in providing an early warning mechanism for Townsville and for the many Australian and American units at training camps dispersed throughout the Atherton Tableland.
|No.53 RDF Station demonstrates a rare aspect of Queensland's cultural heritage. It was one of a small network of RDF stations established in northern Queensland during the World War Two. Much of the associated infrastructure with these sites was removed or demolished after the war and there has been attrition at these sites since 1945. Each site is important in displaying adaptation to the particular location characteristics and topography.
|The associated archaeological remains at No.53 RDF Station have the potential to provide valuable information contributing to an understanding of Queensland's history. Analysis of the surviving infrastructure could assist in understanding how radar stations were spatially arranged and constructed in response to the particular features of the chosen site; the physical problems encountered by the Allied Works Council (AWC) and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) personnel while working and living in an isolated part of inland Queensland; and the specific adaptations to the challenging local environment. Scattered artifacts and archaeological remains (rusted metal, concrete slabs, bunkers, pits and sentry posts etc) could reveal information about the technology applied in the construction and operation of World War Two radar establishments, including temporary military buildings and structures and the associated communications infrastructure.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C","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"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":17146,"place_ref":602331,"name":"Einasleigh Hotel","alternate_name":"Central Hotel","street_address":"Daintree Street","suburb":"EINASLEIGH","lga":"ETHERIDGE SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2006-02-06","description":"The Einasleigh Hotel is the principal building in the township of Einasleigh, and the only two-storey building. The hotel is located on the main street of Einasleigh, facing east and overlooking the Einasleigh Gorge.
The hotel is rectangular in plan, and timber framed, with a hipped roof of galvanized corrugated iron that extends over front and rear verandahs. There is a single-storey, skillion-roofed extension to the southern elevation and a two-storey, gable-roofed addition attached to the southwest corner of the building. There is also a single storey extension to the rear verandah, in the northwestern corner.
The walls to the verandahs are single-skin horizontal chamferboard with exposed timber stud framing. The northern and southern walls are clad externally with ripple iron, and have bull-nosed metal window hoods. The rear verandah on both levels is enclosed with corrugated galvanized iron sheeting.
Both front and rear upper verandahs have a simple two-rail dowel balustrade, and timber posts support both the upper and lower verandahs. The front upper verandah's balustrade is a recent (metal) replica. The lower front verandah has a deep valance of corrugated galvanized iron, with a (non-original) shark-tooth pattern along the bottom edge, and the painted lettering 'EINASLEIGH HOTEL'. Above the balustrade on the upper rear verandah there are pivoting panels of corrugated iron, which can be opened for ventilation.
The current ground floor plan includes a dining room on the south side, which contains a door to a small office in the enclosed section of the southern skillion extension. An east-west corridor, with a stairway to the first floor, divides the dining room from the bar room to the north. Evidence of two fires can be seen above the bar. The bar room is divided from a games room by a modern partition wall with a large opening, which has recently been panelled with timber from the collapsed Dance Hall. Four doors in total open onto the ground floor front verandah. To the west of the dining room is the enclosed rear verandah, with a pantry and stairs to the first floor. Behind the bar room and games room is a storage area and cold room within the enclosed rear verandah, which has been extended to the west.
Internal walls on the ground floor vary from vertical tongue and groove timber boards, to horizontal chamferboard, to fibrous cement.
The first floor of the hotel retains a high degree of integrity. Interior partitioning is single-skin, vertically jointed tongue-and-groove timber boards, creating ten bedrooms, each reached from either the front verandah, or the rear verandah. An east-west corridor, containing the staircase from the ground floor, divides the four larger bedrooms in the south from the remainder. From each bedroom, French doors open directly onto the verandahs. Each leaf has three panels, the upper two being of opaque glass and the lower panel of timber. Above each set of French doors is a timber fretwork ventilation panel. However, two of the original 12 bedrooms have been converted into bathrooms. An older bathroom is located on the top floor of the two-storey extension to the rear verandahs.
Kitchen, north elevation
Behind the southern end of the rear verandah is a semi-detached, single-story kitchen, set on a concrete slab, with a gabled roof. The external walls are clad in corrugated galvanized iron, and it is internally clad with fibrous cement. The kitchen is connected to the rear verandah by an awning.
Other structures in the rear yard include a covered breakfast area west of the kitchen, a timber and corrugated iron clad laundry west of the breakfast area, and a concrete-block structure containing toilets, behind the northern end of the hotel. A large fig tree stands behind the toilets. A modern demountable residence is sited in the northwest corner of the property. South of the hotel, running in a line from east to west, is a modern hardiplank shed on a cement pad, an old corrugated iron clad skillion-roofed shed on a cement pad, a modern gabled aluminium shed, and an old corrugated iron clad engine shed with a steeply pitched gable roof. Southwest of the engine shed is a small timber-fenced yard with a skillion roofed shelter, probably a stable.
The structures which are not of historical significance include: the toilet block; the covered breakfast area; the laundry; the hardiplank shed; the modern aluminum shed; the demountable residence; and the two caravans on the property.
","history":"The Einasleigh Hotel (known as the Central Hotel until 1999) was constructed between August 1908 and June 1909. It is the sole survivor of five hotels that were trading in the copper mining town of Einasleigh by the end of 1910.
Pastoralists settled the Einasleigh district in the early 1860s and copper was discovered in the area in the mid 1860s. Richard Daintree, in partnership with William Hann, established a short-lived open-cut copper mine on what was then thought to be the Lynd River but which later proved to be a separate watercourse and was named the Einasleigh. Ore was excavated and carted in bullock drays to Townsville, but despite good returns, the costly freight made the mine unprofitable. The partners ceased work and the mine entrance was sealed. After the death of Daintree in 1878, the exact location of the mine was lost for some years.
Renewed mining interest in the Einasleigh River district was stimulated by the 1890s boom in copper and railways, resulting in 12 copper leases being developed in the area by 1899. A township, known as Copperfield, was established on the banks of the Copperfield River to service the new leases. This was surveyed as the township of Einasleigh in 1900, by which time two hotels, a general store, a billiard room, a butcher's shop and a bakery had been erected. The 1902 Queensland Post Office Directory for Georgetown lists John Evason at the Einasleigh Hotel and JP Steele at the Daintree Hotel, both in Einasleigh.
In 1900 John Moffat of the Chillagoe Railway and Mining Company had acquired an interest in the Einasleigh Copper Mine, which was to prove the premier base metal producer on the Etheridge and which attracted southern capital to the field. Between 1900 and 1924 the Einasleigh Copper Mine produced 8,107 tons of copper, 2,288 ounces of gold and 131,284 ounces of silver. It also brought a long-wanted transportation link, with construction of the Etheridge Railway between Almaden and Forsayth (formerly known as Charleston). Prior to the railway, copper had to be transported to Almaden by camel. The line was constructed by the Chillagoe Company in order to access ore supplies from the Einasleigh Mine, as the Chillagoe field was producing insufficient ore to keep the smelters running. The line was operated by Queensland Railways. The railhead reached Mount Surprise in 1908, and by February 1909 it was 22 miles from the Einasleigh Copper Mine. By July 1909 the railhead was 20 miles past Einasleigh, reaching Forsayth in January 1910. As a consequence of the copper mine and the railway, Einasleigh became, for a brief period, a prosperous township. It was the largest centre in Etheridge Shire between 1907 and 1910, and served as the supply centre for the Oaks gold rush and its later township of Kidston.
Miners employed by the Einasleigh Copper Company in 1908 numbered 50 and approximately 6,000 tons of ore was transported to the Chillagoe smelters. By 1909 staff had increased to 105 and nearly 11,000 tons of ore was sent to the smelters. The mine had started to come into full production and ore trains were running six days a week from Einasleigh to the Chillagoe smelters by 1910. This level of mining activity required in addition to miners, a railway crew to keep the trains running efficiently and many teamsters to supply the mine's huge wood requirements. During this period around 8-10 teams were working in Einasleigh.
The 'boom' times in Einasleigh did not last long. The First World War (1914-18) interrupted Australian access to overseas mineral markets and led to the closure of mines in the Einasleigh area and elsewhere. One ore train per week ran from Einasleigh to the Chillagoe smelters. This and the occasional livestock train were the only traffic using the Etheridge railway. The district population began to move away as the need for teamsters and rail maintenance crews diminished and by the 1920s Einasleigh Township had all but disappeared. In 1919 the Queensland government took control of the Etheridge Railway along with the Chillagoe Company's assets after the collapse of the company. The Einasleigh mine was re-opened under State ownership, again to supply ore to feed the Chillagoe smelters. This revival in activity was short-lived, the mine closing in 1922. The first mine in north Queensland, it had played an important part in keeping the region's copper mining industry alive by helping to keep the Chillagoe smelters open.
Although mining had diminished in importance during World War I, the line remained important for transporting livestock and providing a passenger and goods service for the small communities along its route, including Einasleigh. Reconditioning of the line carried out in 1951 enabled diesel electric locomotives to haul substantial livestock loads until the late 1960s. However, by the 1980s ore and livestock freight on the line had declined markedly and from 1988 the Queensland government promoted the tourism potential of the Cairns to Forsayth Railway.
The Central Hotel and an adjacent dance hall were constructed at the height of Einasleigh's prosperity. The 1908 Queensland Government Gazette's annual list of Licensed Victuallers in the Georgetown District, for the second half of 1907, only listed Emma Kershaw, at the Australian Hotel, in Einasleigh. In September 1907 Rose Mary Gard applied for a Miner's Homestead Lease (MHL) consisting of two roods facing Daintree Street, on which the Einasleigh (Central) Hotel now stands. At this time the annual rent was five shillings per year. The Central Hotel was built between August 1908, when improvements to the site consisted of a fence only, and June 1909, by which time functions were being held in the Central Hotel and the adjoining dance hall.
In August 1909 Herbert Linneman was issued a license for the Central Hotel in Einasleigh, although the MHL was not transferred to him until 1 May 1912. By December 1910 there were five hotels in Einasleigh: the Australian, licensed to Bridget Dutton; the Einasleigh (Mary Susan Francis); the Copperfield (Marion McGuire); the Federal (W.J. Tracey), and the Central (Linneman).
On 2 May 1912 the MHL was transferred to Marion McGuire, along with the Victuallers License for the Central Hotel. The 1914 license inspection recorded that there were 12 moderate sized bedrooms for the public (in 1916 it was confirmed that these 12 bedrooms were on the first floor; in 1962 the back rooms were numbered 1 to 7, and the front rooms were 8 to 12). On the ground floor were three moderate size bedrooms for servants, one large bedroom for the licensee, one large sitting room for the licensee, and two large sitting rooms for the public. This made a total of 2 public rooms, 12 bedrooms for hire, and five private rooms/bedrooms. Stairs from the front and back verandahs acted as fire escapes. To the rear of the hotel were one gents' double WC (with a urinal by 1917), one ladies WC, four horse stalls (with roof and walls), plus another 3 stalls (roof only). There was also a bathroom (detached), and a cordial factory.
During the 1920s license reports varied in their description of the number and use of rooms, but generally the average was 12 public bedrooms on the top floor, with two to three private bedrooms downstairs, a bar (located in the centre of building facing Daintree Street), two public sitting rooms/parlours, and a public dining room (either the licensee's large bedroom or the licensee's private sitting room may have become a public room by 1916). In 1916 a storeroom and pantry are also mentioned as being on the ground floor. A large kitchen is mentioned in 1917, which appears to have been semi-detached, at the rear of the hotel. In 1924 the dimensions of the two public sitting rooms were given as 21 x 10 feet, and 12 x 14 feet.
By 1918 the Einasleigh Hotel had closed, leaving only the Central, Copperfield, Federal and Australian hotels. In October 1920 the license for the Central was transferred from McGuire to Catherine Draper, and the hotel's ownership was transferred to George Moses Malouf. By 1921 only three hotels, including the Central, remained in town. All three were located on Daintree Street.
Marion McGuire died in September 1922, and the MHL was transferred to the Public Curator, before being transferred to Malouf in October 1923. Therefore, by October 1923 Malouf owned both the Central Hotel and the lease of the land on which it stood. By 1927 only the Central and the Australian (formerly the Copperfield) hotels were still trading in Einasleigh. In June 1931 the Central's license was transferred to Mary J Limkin, former licensee of the Australian Hotel, who also obtained the MHL in July of that year. By April 1932 the Central was the only hotel in Einasleigh.
A 1936 inspector's report noted the internal ground floor partitions of the hotel were made of pine. The bar was still at the centre of the building, and one dining room and one sitting room were mentioned. Guest rooms were recorded as two doubles, and six singles, with four private bedrooms. A kitchen, washhouse, two bathrooms, pantry, stables and garage were also noted. In 1951 the hotel's license was transferred from Mary Limkin to Joseph E Ryan, before being transferred to Mervyn H. Limkin in 1953. Mary Limkin continued to own the hotel and hold the MHL. In 1960 a dressed pine and hardwood partition was built six feet from the door of the lounge to the bar counter, to prevent direct access to the public bar.
By 1960 an open verandah at the side of the hotel was being used for cooking, as the old semi-detached kitchen at the rear of the hotel was riddled with white ants. This side verandah is probably the skillion-roofed extension on the south side of the hotel, which is currently part open, and part enclosed. The State Government requested that either the verandah kitchen be ceiled and lined, or that the old kitchen be replaced. Limkin planned to re-build on the site of the old kitchen (measuring 18 feet by 15 feet), and a 1962 inspection report refers to a semi-detached kitchen to the rear, of timber, iron and timbrock, with a concrete floor, which still exists.
In 1962 the dining room was located at the front of the southern side of the ground floor, and a ladies lounge bar was located at the front of the northern side. According to a plan of the hotel sketched by a local resident, the lounge bar area previously contained a bedroom and office. The ladies lounge bar was turned into a games room in the 1970s or 1980s.
Between 1966 and 1975, members of the Millhouse family held both the license and the MHL. The current bar was installed by the Millhouses, and was extended recently. The license was transferred to LM Mosch in 1975 and the MHL was transferred to Mosch in 1977. That year the old toilets were demolished, and a new septic system was installed. In 1980, plans were approved for a new male bathroom and a new laundry, and a 1983 report stated that the public bar was located in the northeast corner of the ground floor of the hotel. The license changed hands six times in the period from 1981 to 2000.
The Central Hotel gained notoriety in late 1994 and early 1995 as the focus for community protest against the Queensland government's proposed closing of the Cairns to Forsayth railway. Only the Mt Surprise to Forsayth section of the line was to remain, as a tourist railway. The Einasleigh community was particularly vocal in its call for the line to remain open. The 450 km line from Cairns provided a vital passenger and freight service (equipment, food and fodder) to the Einasleigh district, where roads were cut during the wet season. In a bid to preserve the district's lifeline, the 40-strong population of Einasleigh blockaded the railway at Einasleigh for 4 days from 16 December 1994, holding the Last Great Train Ride hostage. During this period the locals fed and housed the train passengers and crew until the blockade was lifted after negotiation with police.
In many small country towns the local hotel is the social hub and at Einasleigh the Central played a significant role in the organisation of the December 1994 protest and the events that followed. Not only was the plan to blockade the train formulated in the pub, its bar and rooms provided country hospitality to the train passengers stranded in the town. The State government condemned the action and remained committed to closing the railway. In response, Einasleigh and district residents (about 130) gathered on the verandah of the Central on 13 January 1995 to meet with State and Federal politicians. Like the blockade, this was a significant event in the history of the town.
The Central Hotel survived two fires during the interwar period and continues to trade, now as the Einasleigh Hotel. The interior ground floor plan has changed a number of times over the decades, and two of the first floor bedrooms, in the northwest corner, have been converted into bathrooms. The verandah support posts no longer have ornamental brackets, and two of the sash windows to the front lower verandah have been replaced with horizontal glass louvres. However, the hotel still plays an important role, servicing the Kidston and Gilberton areas and acting as a social focus for the local community. Recently the hotel has been refurbished, using in part timber salvaged from the adjacent dance hall (known as "the leaning building") that collapsed and was demolished in 1999.
","criteria":"The Einasleigh Hotel, constructed in 1909, is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. It was erected during a brief period of prosperity and expansion in the copper mining town of Einasleigh, during the peak extraction years of the Einasleigh Copper Mine. It is important in demonstrating how mining activities and associated railway lines can give rise to small businesses and townships to service the industry. The last of the old hotels in the mining towns of the Etheridge Goldfield, it is also the last survivor of five hotels in Einasleigh, and has become the social center for the Einasleigh district. It was also closely associated with the blockade of the Cairns to Forsayth Railway in 1994.
|The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. As a two-storey early twentieth century timber and galvanized iron hotel, complete with upstairs bedrooms for guests, both open and enclosed verandahs, a detached kitchen, and a number of outbuildings, it exemplifies a particular way of life in rural Queensland
|The place is important for its aesthetic significance. As the largest and most visually dominant building in the small township of Einasleigh, the Einasleigh Hotel has a landmark quality that helps to define the township.
|The Einasleigh Hotel has a strong association with the local community. It is the only hotel in the immediate vicinity for the residents of Einasleigh, Kidston and Gilberton, and as such it is the focal point for many social activities in the area. It hosts the annual rodeo, sports and racing clubs, and government and private educational classes for local pastoralists.
","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"} ]}