The Tree of Knowledge is a mature Coolibah tree (Eucalyptus microtheca) on the eastern side of the Georgina River, within walking distance of the town of Camooweal. It is located within 100 metres north of the new road bridge in the Camooweal Camping, Pasturage & Stock Dipping Reserve on the eastern flood plain of the Georgina River, 200 metres west of Camooweal at 19° 55.18 South and 138° 06.63 East. The tree is approximately 8 metres in height and its circumference a metre above the ground is 150 cm. There are scars around the base of the trunk and to a height of about 2.5 metres.
","history":"The Tree of Knowledge on the Camooweal Camping, Pasturage & Stock Dipping Reserve is a mature Coolibah tree, on the eastern side of the Georgina River and about 200 metres west of the town. It is said that for many years drovers and teamsters camped nearby and met and yarned beneath the shade of the tree.
Following William Landsborough's exploration of the Camooweal area during his search for Burke and Wills in 1861-62 pastoralists moved into the district. The first was John Sutherland who took up the Rocklands lease in 1865. Loss of stock to dingos combined with isolation, scarcity of labour and transport difficulties forced him to abandon his lease.
It was not until the mid-1870s that squatters moved back to the area. In 1883 local squatters petitioned the Queensland government, requesting that land for a town to service their pastoral properties be reserved at the junction of the main stock route down the Georgina River from Burketown and a track from the east to South Australia's Northern Territory. A town reserve of four square miles was gazetted on 15 December 1883 and was amended and re-gazetted in August 1884. The reserve was located on the Georgina River near Lake Frances, south of Rocklands Station Homestead. The first sections of the Town of Camooweal were surveyed in 1888.
By 1892 Camooweal had become an important outback township on major routes between Cloncurry and Burketown and Cloncurry and pastoral properties further west. Being only seven miles from the border with South Australia it had a customs post, as well as post and telegraph facilities, courthouse and police station besides 2 hotels, a school and various service and supply businesses.
A pasturage reserve adjacent to the township was declared probably in the 1890s. In 1917 the reserve was increased from 7,697 acres to about 14,000 acres. This reserve stretched from the west of the town of Camooweal to the Northern Territory border and the rabbit proof fence and shared its northern and southern boundaries with Rocklands Station. In 1933 the reserve was designated for Pasturage purposes and in 1973 it was declared as a Camping, Pasturage & Stock dipping reserve. It is currently about 5,480 hectares in area.
The Barkly Highway passes through this reserve and drovers taking stock to and from the Northern Territory, up and down the Georgina stock route and up to Burketown used this reserve as a rest area. To teamsters and drovers, camping on the reserve near the Georgina River meant a chance to rest, clean clothes, water and feed their animals and utilise nearby Camooweal facilities such as shops, medical help and postal services. It was also an opportunity for teamsters and their families who used this route regularly, to send their children to the local school temporarily. Oral history collected from various drovers who used the reserve regularly, records that a particular Coolibah tree on the pasturage reserve, far enough from the river that it was safe from flash flooding and sheltered from the southerly prevailing winds, became a popular meeting place for drovers and teamsters, where they would sit in the shade and share tea and gossip - hence the name 'Tree of Knowledge'. The tree was located on the eastern side of the Georgina River, north of the bridge and within walking distance of town and offered attractive shade to those on the trade route from Burketown to Camooweal.
","criteria":"The Tree of Knowledge on the Camooweal Camping, Pasturage & Stock Dipping reserve is important in demonstrating part of the pattern of Queensland's history. Before the advent of trucking, the reserve was used by drovers, teamsters and others visiting Camooweal as a place to camp, rest, collect mail and supplies and seek medical assistance at nearby Camooweal, before beginning the next stage of the journey. According to oral history, the Tree of Knowledge on the Camooweal reserve was a meeting place where the campers exchanged gossip.
|The tree has special association with drovers and their descendants and descendants of others involved in the pastoral industry. The Tree of Knowledge acts as a living, physical focal point for memories and reminiscences about their past and the role they and their families played in the development of the Barkly Tableland and surrounding area.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | 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":15514,"place_ref":600739,"name":"Freckleton's Stores","alternate_name":"Synnot and Co. | Synnot, Murray and Scholes | Freckletons Stores","street_address":"Barkly Street","suburb":"CAMOOWEAL","lga":"MOUNT ISA CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Freckletons Stores are situated on an allotment containing several single-storeyed timber and corrugated iron buildings, which include the Old Store (c1895) and the Bond Store/Gallon Licence (c1901). An iron covered timber storage rack and carport are also on the allotment.
The Old Store is clad in vertically-running corrugated iron on a timber frame and has a simple gabled roof flanked by skillions. The roof is supported by a simple structure of timber rafters, purlins and collar ties resting on round timber posts with brackets. The posts are founded on bedlogs, and the floor joists rest on the ground; this contact with the earth has created a white ant problem. The store contains extensive hand-hewn shelving for the storage of flour etc. Externally, an awning runs the width of the street elevation to the south. It is supported by five substantial round timber posts. It covers a section of footpath which is paved in local unworked limestone slabs set in a bedding of antbed, now concrete pointed, and is retained with a low concrete retaining wall. The building has a double door entrance at front and rear.
The Bond Store/Gallon Licence is clad in horizontally-running corrugated iron, and also has a simple gabled roof flanked by skillions. The building sits above the street on round timber stumps and steel posts. The store is lined internally with stained timber, and has extensive built-in timber shelving, cupboards and counters. An awning running the width of the gable end is supported on steel posts.
The two buildings compliment each other in form and materials, and contribute to the streetscape as a now uncommon pair of corrugated iron stores.
","history":"Freckleton's stores comprise a group of buildings located at the western end of Barkly Street, Camooweal, in north-west Queensland. The township of Camooweal was proclaimed in 1884, and developed as a pastoral centre for outback stations. Camooweal was also important in the context of pre-Federation customs collection, as it was only seven miles from the border with South Australia, later the Northern Territory.
The land was granted to Thomas Harding in 1888 and acquired by Frank Frith, a Camooweal storekeeper in 1891. The land was acquired by John Affleck in 1893. Affleck took out a mortgage with Patrick Synnott in 1895, suggesting that the earliest of the present stores which was built as a general store for bulk groceries such as flour, sugar and tea, was erected at about this time.
At the turn of the century a two gallon licence to decant and sell spirits was obtained, and c1901 a bond store was erected adjacent to the eastern side of the general store, which became known as the "gallon licence".
Although Normanton became the chief port into the Gulf of Carpentaria after the 1870s, it was from Burketown that the Camooweal district drew its supplies. Affleck and Synnott were Burketown merchants, of the firm Affleck, Synnott and Co.
Synnott and Co, storekeepers, were first recorded at Camooweal in 1903. Affleck took out a further mortgage with Burns Philp and Co in 1906. The stores were acquired by Patrick Synnott in 1911, and became known as Synnott, Murray and Scholes in 1918. They were managed by Synnott's son, James H Synnott, of Camooweal from 1934 to 1940.
In 1943 the business, including associated buildings, was sold to Joseph Freckleton a tank sinker and teamster originally from South Australia. By the 1940s the business had acquired the Shell and Qantas agencies and Freckleton was able to take advantage of wartime demand for aviation gasoline and other services during Camooweal's period as a military movements and supply centre.
By the late 1940s, in addition to the general store and gallon licence, the Freckleton family owned a number of buildings, including another store, in Camooweal. Around 1950 this store was moved onto the stores allotment and re-erected adjacent to the eastern side of the gallon licence, becoming the third building on the allotment. This former store was operated as a cafe and milkbar until the early 1980s.
Concrete footpaths and street gutters were laid by Freckleton during the early 1950s. Concrete retaining walls were erected around the early flagstone footpath outside the general store at this time. During the early 1950s Freckleton was involved in the purchase, dismantling and re-sale of ex army building materials and erected timber storage racks between the general store and gallon licence. Also during this period he erected a large iron shed at the rear of the allotment for bulk storage of liquor produce and fuel.
Freckleton died in 1964 and control of the stores passed to two of his children, Joseph Freckleton and Lillian Ada Miller. Substantial repairs and maintenance were undertaken on buildings on the allotment during the early 1970s. A kitchen and toilet were built onto the rear of the cafe for the manager, and a carport was erected at the rear of the allotment.
","criteria":"Freckleton's Stores, Camooweal, are important in demonstrating the pattern of Queensland's history, in particular the pattern of inland development in north-west Queensland, and the role of Burketown as a supply centre for north-west Queensland.
|They are important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of early corrugated iron outback store buildings.
|They exhibit particular aesthetic characteristics valued by the community, in particular their contribution to the character and streetscape of Camooweal.
|As longstanding stores in Camooweal and north-west Queensland, they have a special association with the Camooweal community.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15515,"place_ref":600740,"name":"Community Hall, Camooweal","alternate_name":"Barkly Tablelands Shire Hall","street_address":"Barkly Highway","suburb":"CAMOOWEAL","lga":"MOUNT ISA CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Camooweal Community Hall is located in a prominent position on the Barkly Highway in the centre of Camooweal. It is a single storey timber building with wide encircling verandahs set on low stumps and has a gambrel roof clad in corrugated iron.
The hall is rectangular in plan with the main entrance from the short axis to Nowranie Street. Entry is by a short flight of steps and there is a central front door flanked by sash windows. The exterior walls have exposed studs and french doors open onto the verandahs along the north and south sides. The verandah roof is supported on timber posts linked by dowel balustrading. The southern verandah has been enclosed by the addition of timber louvres and there are offices on the eastern side.
The hall ceilings are sheeted in decorative pressed metal. Local honour rolls in pressed copper are housed within the hall on the east wall.
A small accomodation unit with a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom adjoins the north east corner of the building.
","history":"The Camooweal Community Hall was built in 1922-23 for the Barkly Tableland Shire Council. as a Council chambers and community hall.
The Barkly Tablelands were discovered and named after the explorer Sir Thomas Barkly by William Landsborough while he was officially engaged in the search for Burke and Wills in 1861. The first European settlers were pastoralists who established sheep runs in the district a few years later. The recession of the late 1860s caused a withdrawal, but in the 1870s pastoral settlement started up again based on cattle. The area was part of Burke Division, later to become Burke Shire.
Camooweal was formed as a supply centre for pastoral runs at the junction of the Georgina stock route and Northern Territory road. It was surveyed in December 1883 and gazetted as a town in December 1884, the area of the reserve for township purposes being modified in 1894. It's position was important; it was on a major route midway between Burketown and Cloncurry and only 7 miles from the border between the colony of Queensland and the territory then controlled by South Australia. It was not only the chief supply centre for a wide area but was also important as a customs post in a era when the affairs of the colonies were separate and customs duty an important source of government revenue. Camooweal was supplied through Burketown and by 1892 was described in the Australian Handbook as being on a transport, post and telegraph route and having a customs post, court and police station besides 2 hotels and school and various service and supply businesses. It also served an important role as a social centre for a scattered community.
The Barclay Tableland Shire was formed on 10 February 1914 from portions of Burke and Cloncurry Shires with Camooweal at its centre. The name of the shire was changed to Barkly in 1919. The land on which the shire hall was constructed was a local government reserve on the corner of Nowranie Street and the Barkly Highway. The block also contained the police, court house and health reserves and so was a key administrative area in the town.
The hall was constructed for the shire in 1922-3 with the assistance of a State Government loan of £3000 to be repaid within 10 years. Plans and specifications for the hall were drawn by the Townsville firm of Rooney Ltd. and Hogarth and Hammond carried out the construction, having submitted the lowest tender of £2207. Use of the hall was provided free to the hospital for entertainments and they also had use of the office for monthly meetings. The patriotic service rendered by many men from the district during the first World War was not forgotten and in 1924 an ornate Wunderlich honour board of copper mounted on timber was installed in the hall.
The hall was too small for the shire's needs and the population of the township and surrounding area was increasing, so in 1935 the Shire again applied to the State Government for a subsidised loan. These were available to help provide work for the unemployed and it was proposed to extend the hall by 30 feet and build a residence for the shire clerk. The loan was granted in order to provide work for the unemployed and consisted of £1450 as a loan and the same amount as a subsidy. Rooneys were sent the plans and specifications for the old building and asked to prepare plans for the new work to match. The tender of H Wilder of Julia Creek was accepted, being £598 for construction of the hall and £895.00 for the residence. At a much later date a small flat was attached to the rear of the hall.
During the second World War, Camooweal the Barkly highway was sealed to accommodate supply convoys and Camooweal became an important refuelling stop. The airport was sealed and served as an important base.
The hall has been the venue for all important occasions in the town and has been used for church services, weddings, dances, concerts, weddings, as a voting booth and to entertain important visitors to Camooweal.
On 15 December 1962 the shire became Mount Isa Shire, reflecting the growth and importance of this centre and then was named Mt Isa City on 1 June 1968. Major work was carried out on the hall in 1984 for the celebration of Camooweal's centenary and again in 1993.
","criteria":"The Camooweal hall demonstrates the way in which much of western Queensland was settled by means of small service towns on supply routes. They provided a scattered population with essential goods, services, administrative facilities and the social structure to develop a sense of community. The hall also has important associations with the former Barkly Tablelands Shire which has since been absorbed into the Mount Isa local authority.
|The Camooweal Community Hall is a fine example of a timber shire hall in the vernacular style which has been extended over time while adhering to the original design principles. The wide verandahs with french doors opening out onto them and timber louvres illustrate traditional means of providing shade and ventilation in a hot arid climate.
|The Community Hall is an important public building in a prominent location and in form, scale and material makes an important visual contribution to the townscape of Camooweal.
|The Community Hall has had a long connection with the people of Camooweal and the surrounding district as the focus for a range of important community services and social events.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15516,"place_ref":600741,"name":"Hodgkinson's Marked Tree","alternate_name":"Hodgkinsons Marked Tree","street_address":"Rocklands Station","suburb":"MOUNT ISA","lga":"MOUNT ISA CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Hodgkinson Tree is a mature Coolibah tree (Eucalyptus microtheca) on the northeastern bank of Lake Mary, in the Rocklands Station homestead paddock north of Camooweal. It leans over the lake, which is part of the Georgina River system.
The National Trust of Queensland holds a photocopy of a c1983 photograph of the tree, showing carved into a branch, above a fork in the trunk, a broad arrow over H over LXXXVIII over Sep 27 over 1876.
These markings are believed to be still visible.
","history":"Hodgkinson's Marked Tree on the northeastern shore of Lake Mary, Rocklands Station, near Camooweal, was marked during William Oswald Hodgkinson's North-West Expedition of 1876 to identify new grazing land in far western Queensland. This was the last government-sponsored exploratory expedition in Queensland, taking Hodgkinson to the Diamantina, Mulligan and Herbert rivers, then north to Normanton via the Gregory, Clonclurry and Flinders Rivers.
Explorer William Landsborough was the first European to pass through the Camooweal area. At the time (1861-62) he was looking for Burke and Wills. His reports led to the area being settled by pastoralists who established sheep runs in the district a few years after his expedition. The first settler to the area was John Sutherland, who with John Frazer and William Hanson of Sydney successfully applied for the Rocklands lease in 1865. Loss of stock to dingos combined with isolation, scarcity of labour and transport difficulties forced him to abandon his lease.
In September 1875 the lease was auctioned and Benjamin Crosthwaite purchased Rocklands. In September 1876 William Oswald Hodgkinson during his north west exploration camped beside Lake Mary on Crosthwaite's property, near the station homestead on the eastern side of the lake, just north of the later town of Camooweal.
William Oswald Hodgkinson first visited Australia in 1851 as a midshipman. By 1853 he was working for the Victorian Colonial Government until returning to England c1854. In 1859 he returned to Australia to join the literary staff of the Age newspaper. He started with the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition in 1860 and the following year joined in McKinley's search for them. He founded newspapers in Rockhampton and Mackay before moving to the Ravenswood gold fields in 1868. In 1870 he was appointed mining warden and police magistrate on the Etheridge goldfield and in 1876 James Venture Mulligan named the Hodgkinson goldfield after him. Hodgkinson was Member of the Legislative Assembly for Burke in 1874-75, resigning to lead the North West Expedition. From 1878 to 1886 he served as mining warden on the Etheridge, the Palmer and at Gympie. He was a member of the Queensland Parliament on several occasions, serving as Minister of Mines and Works from 12 December 1887 to 13 June 1888 and Minister of Mines and Public Instruction from 12 August 1890 to 27 March 1893.
By correspondence dated 29 September 1875, Hodgkinson was instructed by the Queensland government to seek out pastoral country known to exist on the Diamantina River and areas to its west towards the border with South Australia's northern territory. In 1877, Hodgkinson's report of his explorations from 13 April to 27 September 1876 was published in the Votes and Proceedings of the Queensland parliament.
On 17 September 1876 Hodgkinson traversed country below the junction of Rankin's Creek with the Herbert River, which had been occupied before but abandoned due to the pastoral crisis of 1866 and the scarcity of labour and transport. By 26 September Hodgkinson had travelled up the Herbert River to Lake Mary, where he found Landsborough's Camp 22 marked tree of 'XMAS 1861'.
Like Landsborough, Hodgkinson also camped on the shores of Lake Mary. He too marked a tree to show that his North-West Expedition had been there, reporting that he used a 'broad arrow over H over LXXXVIII over 27-10 over 1876'. On the map attached to his report he noted this camp as marked by a broad arrow over LXXXVIII over Sep 27 over 1876, and the entry date in his report is 27 September, not October. This was the last tree that Hodgkinson reported as marking during the 1876 expedition, but the map accompanying his report indicates further camp sites as the expedition continued north east along the Gregory River. Whether trees were marked at these other camps is not indicated on the 1876 map, but a 1920 survey plan showing pastoral holdings in this area indicates that Hodgkinson had marked a tree at camp 90 (broad arrow over H over XC over O), near where he crossed the O'Shanassy River. It is likely a tree was marked at each camp site as this was the usual practice of exploratory parties, so that others might follow.
Hodgkinson's Marked Tree at Rocklands Station was entered in the National Trust of Queensland's Register of Significant Trees in 1983. At that time a photograph attached to the nomination showed that the original markings were still visible. The place was entered in the Queensland Heritage Register in August 1992 under the transitional provisions of the Queensland Heritage Act 1992.
On Christmas Day 2003 a family group travelled by boat up the Georgina River from Camooweal to Lake Mary to check on the Hodgkinson Tree and found it was healthy and still leaning over the lake.
","criteria":"This Coolibah tree was marked on 27 September 1876 to record camp 88 of William Oswald Hodgkinson's government-sponsored North-West Expedition in search of unexplored pastoral country in far western Queensland. The tree marked the end of Hodgkinson's main exploratory work during this expedition, the country further north being reasonably well-known by this date. Due to Hodgkinson's efforts valuable pastoral lands were opened, leading to the viable development of far western Queensland. Hodgkinson's Marked Tree is symbolic of the nature and pattern of exploration of the Australian interior in the mid 19th century and is important surviving evidence of this principal theme in Queensland's history.
|This marked tree has a special association with the work of William Oswald Hodgkinson, an explorer, journalist, goldfields warden/police magistrate and politician who in many and varied activities made a significant contribution to the development of Queensland from the 1860s to the 1890s.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | 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":15517,"place_ref":600742,"name":"Tent House (Mount Isa)","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Camooweal Street","suburb":"MOUNT ISA","lga":"MOUNT ISA CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"The Tent House is a small house standing on a flattened site adjacent to the Underground Hospital in Mount Isa. Accessed via Joan Street, it is a timber-framed structure low-set on short steel posts and comprises a narrow, gable-roofed core with rear, lean-to additions. The core of the house is sheltered by a free-standing, timber-framed fly.
The walls of the core are clad below sill height with ripple iron and above this with asbestos cement sheet. The core's roof is a fitted canvas cover held down by tie ropes at the top plate to the floor bearers. Loose flaps of the canvas cover extend down to the sill line on the front and side walls and the core's windows are unglazed, shielded by drop down canvas rolls. A door in the front (western) wall provides access to the interior.
The walls and skillion roof of the rear additions are clad with corrugated metal sheets. The additions have glass louvre windows and a door and short flight of steps provides access to the interior.
The fly is an open-sided structure standing clear of the core underneath. The timber posts are prominently braced. The southern gable end and the roof are clad with corrugated metal sheets. The fly stands clear of the core by approximately 600mm.
The core interior comprises three rooms: a central living room, with a bedroom either side. The floor throughout the core is timber boards and the walls are unlined. The coved ceiling is lined with hardboard with wide timber cover strips. The partitions are light-weight and timber-framed and do not reach the ceiling. They are clad with ripple iron up to sill height and hardboard sheeting with timber cover strips above. Early linoleum squares clad the bedroom floors. Doors open from the living room into the rear additions.
The rear additions comprise four rooms: a kitchen, sleepout, bathroom, and toilet. The floor throughout the rear additions is timber boards and the walls and ceilings are unlined. Early linoleum squares clad the sleepout floor.
The house contains early domestic furniture and other items for museum interpretation.
The timber entrance ramp and the understorey perimeter boards are later additions and are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The Tent House in Mount Isa (built by 1937) is the last surviving tent house constructed in the town to accommodate mining workers.[1]
Traditionally the land of the Kalkadoon people, the remote area of Mount Isa attracted prospectors from the 1870s and sparse settlement by graziers in the 1880s. In 1923, prospector John Campbell Miles discovered rich lead, copper, silver, and zinc ore deposits and, along with four farmers, he staked out the first mining claims in the area. By the end of 1923, 118 leases had been pegged on the Mount Isa field. By 1925, mining company Mount Isa Mines had purchased the leases of virtually the entire area and intense mining progressed rapidly.[2]
As well as more permanent and substantial accommodation, temporary structures were constructed in Mount Isa to house workers from the 1920s to the 1950s. In 1924 the population of Mount Isa was estimated at 300 people, most living in temporary dwellings of iron, canvas, and timber.[3] The population grew rapidly from 1926 to 1930, causing an acute housing shortage. In 1929, there were hundreds of tents, housing railway and construction workers, sprawled between the town and the mine. Other huts had walls made from beaten-out chemical drums from the mill, antbed floors, and corrugated iron roofs.[4]
In June 1927 the Russo-Asiatic Consolidated Company, chaired by Leslie Urquhart, took control of Mount Isa Mines and the development of the town. The scale of mining was increased and the town grew, built by the company on its leases for its own employees. It was a planned and self-contained town which was approached through a valley guarded by a gatekeeper. The development of a company town in this way sprang from Urquhart's experience in Russia, realising that in a region with a harsh climate and a reputation for industrial unrest, employee welfare was an essential investment.[5]
Mount Isa was an early mining company town that provided extensive accommodation for employees. This was regarded as an 'interesting experiment' in 1929.[6] By mid-1929, 50 cottages for workmen and seven staff houses had been constructed, along with reticulated water supply and septic tank installation. A self-contained staff house with 21 bedrooms, a reading room, and dining room, had also been constructed. Five dormitories for single men, each accommodating 40 employees, and a mess hall to serve them were in the course of erection, but owing to the rapid increase of work at the mines, temporary accommodation capable of housing 400 men was erected. This included tent houses.
Tent structures have been used as a building form since the earliest European settlement of Australia. The application of this form of construction extended to houses, police stations, hospitals and asylums. Tent houses were commonly used as rudimentary, portable or temporary accommodation throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially on mining and construction sites. Canvas was a common building material, its popularity largely derived from its portability and low cost. The term 'tent house' was applied to the housing form comprising a canvas tent structure with increased stability and permanence due to improvements to the frame and additional materials used to shelter the tent.[7] Tent houses could be newly-built or created by making improvements to an existing tent.
During the Great Depression when there was difficulty financing housing developments, the 1934 Mount Isa Mines Directors' Report commented:
'A portion of the community consists of 60 tents erected in 1930. These were in a bad state of repair, and after representations by the employees in this section, the company agreed to furnish the material for converting these temporary dwellings into tent houses. The employees, co-operating among themselves, furnished the labour.'[8]
Photographs of Mount Isa taken in 1935 show an ordered grid of at least 50 standardised tent houses, emphasising Mount Isa Mines' organised approach to the town's development.[9] These tent houses comprised a long narrow building with canvas walls and roof sheltered by a separate light-weight, timber-framed structure with a corrugated iron-clad roof. The air space between the canvas roof and the iron roof assisted in keeping the tent's interior cool, as well as providing additional weather protection. Board or ripple iron cladding at the bottom of the walls provided further protection and dust control.[10]
The construction date and builder of the Mount Isa Tent House is unknown, but it was located at 16 Fourth Avenue by 1937. At this time the house was registered by its owner, Alfred Mills, who was a miner and employee of Mount Isa Mines from 1930 to 1953. In a statutory declaration in 1937 it was described as a 'three-roomed house, walls of galvanised iron and drum roof; roof of galvanised iron, partitions of iron and wood; floor of boards and earth'. There was also a lavatory and a shed.[11] Sold by Mills in 1940, the Tent House was then occupied by a succession of owners.
Another labour boom at the end of the 1940s led to further tent accommodation being constructed by Mount Isa Mines. After World War II the population of Mount Isa grew steadily. By the 1960s, tent houses were no longer constructed as worker accommodation. By the early 1960s they were progressively demolished or removed to make way for expanding mine operations.[12]
The Tent House in Mount Isa was purchased in 1978 by the National Trust of Queensland, which retained it in situ. It opened to the public in 1983 as a tourist attraction museum piece. In 1991 the only other surviving tent house in Mount Isa was demolished.[13]
The Tent House closed to tourists in 2011 and in March 2013 the National Trust gifted it to the Mount Isa Underground Hospital and Museum Inc. The house was moved approximately 750m east to Joan Street, adjacent to the former Underground Hospital [QHR 601102]. In its new location, the Tent House was repaired and its contents (furniture and other household items) were reinstated. In 2014 the Tent House resumed operation as a museum tourist attraction.
References
[1] Ivan McDonald Architects, Tent House Mount Isa: Conservation Management Plan, 2009, p.9.
[2] Queensland Heritage Register Entry QHR 601182 Mount Isa Mine Early Infrastructure and Mount Isa Mines History, http://www.mountisamines.com.au/EN/aboutXMIM/Pages/History.aspx accessed 26 May 2014.
[3] Ivan McDonald Architects, Tent House Mount Isa: Conservation Management Plan, p.6.
[4] Mimag, 1973, p.14.
[5] Blainey, Geoffrey, Mines in the Spinifex, 1970, p.158.
[6] Queensland Government Mining Journal, 15 August 1929, p.332.
[7] Ivan McDonald Architects, Tent House Mount Isa: Conservation Management Plan, p.8.
[8] Mimag, March 1973, p.20.
[9] Tents used as accommodation seen from an elevated position at Mount Isa Mines, 1935, JOL SLQ, image no. APE-085-0001-0012 and Married Quarters at Mount Isa Mines in 1935, JOL SLQ, image no. APE-085-0001-0013.
[10] Ivan McDonald Architects, Tent House Mount Isa: Conservation Management Plan, p.9.
[11] Ivan McDonald Architects, Tent House Mount Isa: Conservation Management Plan, p.12.
[12] Blainey, Mines in the Spinifex, p.197, 225.
[13] Ivan McDonald Architects, Tent House Mount Isa: Conservation Management Plan, p.20.
","criteria":"The Tent House in Mount Isa (built by 1937) is important in demonstrating the development of Mount Isa, an early mining town in Queensland. It is a rare and representative example of early, temporary company housing provided to miners and contributes significantly to our understanding of this way of life.
|The Tent House is the last surviving example of the substantial number of tent houses built in Mount Isa from the 1930s to the 1950s and is one of few surviving examples in Queensland.
|The Tent House is important in providing a rare demonstration of the principal characteristics of the type. This includes: a timber-framed canvas tent sheltered by a separate timber-framed roof structure; low-set, narrow, gable-roofed form; and rudimentary detailing and fittings.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | 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 is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15867,"place_ref":601094,"name":"Casa Grande","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"7 Nettle Street","suburb":"MOUNT ISA","lga":"MOUNT ISA CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-05-28","description":"Casa Grande is Spanish Mission in style, built of 6" thick Denaro bricks with stuccoed outer walls. The white walls contrast with the dark timber framed sash windows and doors, and the building has terracotta roof tiles and balconies.
The large, U-shaped, two storeyed house, encloses a courtyard which is overlooked by surrounding verandahs supported by roughly hewn timber posts. Casa Grande is built on a rise and is a landmark overlooking the mine and the remaining houses of the Isa Mine (Mineside) settlement. It is located within well-kept grounds with a tennis court. The encircling drive and luxuriant gardens, a striking feature in such an arid area, add considerable distinction and presence to the house, emphasising the social standing of the Chairman of Directors within the community.
The area considered significant therefore includes the grounds and is bounded by the property fence on the western and eastern sides, by the footbridge on the southern side and by the entrance beyond the 'island' bed on the northern side.
The condition of the house is excellent, and the integrity good. Additions have occurred, but most have been sympathetic to the original design. The furniture compliments the house and has a significance of its own.
","history":"Work commenced on Casa Grande as a home for the then General Manager of Mount Isa Mines, Julius Kruttschnitt, in 1949. It was a 'grand house', designed by the prominent Brisbane firm of Donoghue, Cusick and Edwards, but reflecting the influence of Kruschnitt's time spent in both Arizona and Mexico.
Kruttschnitt, with a background of developing mines in America for ASARCO's mining department, had taken on the challenge in 1930, of revitalising the ailing Mount Isa Mine at a time when the company was unable to meet outstanding financial commitments. The 1930s, a time of depression and austerity throughout Australia, was reflected in the price of lead plunging to the lowest point in the history of the metal markets.
Kruttschnitt tackled Mount Isa's problems with relentless energy and after more capital was raised through overseas financiers, ore production commenced again in 1931. In earlier years of the mine's operation, the company expended large amounts of money providing housing for employees. Two-storeyed timber houses, a number of dormitories and community buildings were constructed for workers during these more buoyant years. The 1930s saw more austere housing accommodation for workers often in the form of tin huts and tent houses. The problem of a lack of financial resources for accommodation extended to Kruttschnitt's own residence. Initially, he was housed in a modest staff house overlooking Central Park and the Band Rotunda. Kruttschnitt was reported to be unimpressed with his quarters.
The finances of the company did not improve until after World War II. While copper had been discovered in 1930, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, and the consumption of copper in Australian factories and munition works, meant that Mount Isa Mines went into full-scale copper production during that period. By 1946, with the end of the war, and a soaring consumption of lead in the United States for assembly lines and defence stockpiles, the price of lead rose to the unprecedented height of £91 a ton. In 1947, for the first time, the mine was able to pay a dividend to its investors. With the mine in an increasingly healthy financial position and an influx of workers to accommodate, the company renewed its housing program. Houses of simple design were constructed, as were dormitories. The company included in its program improved recreational facilities, including tennis courts and a swimming pool.
By the late 1940s attention was also paid to providing improved housing for mine executives. The building of a house for Julius Kruttschnitt, now Chairman of Directors, was commenced in 1949 on part of Special Mineral Lease 5589, overlooking older company housing dating from 1928-29. The name given to the house, literally 'big house', reflected the prosperity of Mount Isa Mines at that time and is a term commonly used in Arizona and New Mexico to describe the 'boss's' house. Casa Grande was designed by the prominent Brisbane architectural firm of Donoghue, Cusick and Edwards, probably incorporating the ideas of their client, Julius Kruttschnitt.
On the 22 July 1950, a housewarming party was given at 'Casa Grande' by Mr & Mrs Kruttschnitt, who entertained their guests under a marquee on the lawns. Small groups of people were shown over the house; certainly the largest and most elaborate house to be built in the hot, dry western district of Queensland.
Casa Grande has been used for many social events. In 1951 when badges were presented to employees of MIM who had served twenty years with the Company, a dinner was arranged for the 87 men and their wives by Mrs Kruttschnitt. An annual New Year's Eve punchbowl party was just one of the functions hosted by the Kruttschnitts during their time at Casa Grande.
Julius Kruttschnitt resigned as Chairman of Directors in 1952 but did not return to the United States, settling in Brisbane at his home Casa Ita. He was succeeded at Mount Isa by George Fisher who lived with his family at Casa Grande until 1966. During the time of the Fisher's occupancy, the house was refurnished and much of this furniture remains at Casa Grande.
Casa Grande became a guest house for visiting directors of the company and VIPs from 1966. A suite at the house was redecorated and refurnished for Queen Elizabeth, who visited the town in 1970. A dining room table, with the tabletop constructed from one piece of cedar was bought by the Company for the Queen's visit.
Casa Grande reflects the period in the life of Mount Isa Mines when the first dividend was paid, and the Company, after years of struggle, was becoming profitable. By 1955 MIM Ltd was the largest mining company in Australia and a company with a strong international reputation.
","criteria":"Casa Grande, built on the original Mineside settlement, demonstrates the development of the Mount Isa as a mining industry town.
|Casa Grande is a late, but good, example of Spanish Mission style.
|The house is a landmark in Mount Isa as a prominent and grand house reflecting the relative importance of the position of mine manager in Mount Isa.
|The house has social value to the Mount Isa community as a prominent local residence and as a community gathering place.
|Casa Grande has a close association with MIM Directors, Julius Kruttschnitt and George Fisher, both of whom are men of international reputation. This is particularly the case with Kruttschnitt, whose Mexican/Arizona experience may have influenced the style of construction.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","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 | 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":15875,"place_ref":601102,"name":"Former Underground Hospital, Mount Isa","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Camooweal Street","suburb":"MOUNT ISA","lga":"MOUNT ISA CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1999-06-24","description":"The underground hospital occupies an area roughly 20m square in the southeastern corner of the Mount Isa Base Hospital grounds. Its south tunnel lies very close to the hospital's southern boundary.
The layout of the underground hospital consists basically of three parallel east-west tunnels, joined at their eastern ends by a tunnel running north-south. All three parallel tunnels were once opened to the outside, but were blocked by rubble in the 1960s. The middle entrance is now partially opened.
The Tunnels
The three parallel tunnels run almost exactly due east-west. They have been driven in from the surface by drilling and blasting. Some of these drill hole are still visible around the entrance to the middle audit, and in the middle and south tunnels, the drill holes are well preserved in the roof and walls. All the visible stone in the tunnels is a hard, light-coloured shale, which fractures along steeply dipping joint lines. The roof and walls appear to be in good condition overall. Engineering advice since 1994 has indicated that the tunnels are in a sound condition although fist size rock pieces are lying on the floor of the tunnels.
All the rock surfaces in the underground hospital are slightly irregular and roughly finished, so all the following dimensions are necessarily approximate. The middle tunnel is 13.8m long from the upper lip of the entrance to the corner of the crosscut, and 2.7m wide. The south tunnel is 14.5m long from the crosscut to the last visible timber post standing in the shale mound blocking its entrance, and 2.6m wide. The north tunnel is the shortest and widest of the three, only 10m from the crosscut to the last timber set standing in the shale mound blocking its entrance, but 3m wide. The east tunnel is 20.4m long and the widest of the tunnels at 3.5m. At both ends of the east tunnel, opposite the north and south tunnels, are two recesses in the wall, the same width as the facing tunnels and each about 1.7m deep. The tunnel heights are very difficult to measure, as the entire floor of the underground hospital is covered with debris, and the original floor level can only be guessed at. The roof height, near the corner of the middle and east tunnels is about 2.5m The total exposed floor area of the underground hospital is about 188m square.
The ventilating raise is obstructed at its base by fallen stone and timber. It is located in the intersection of the crosscut and the north tunnel, and is about a metre square in section. It appears to rise a little to the north of vertical for four or five metres, narrowing down as it rises, and is then obstructed by stone and timber. Visibility up the rise is obstructed by a heavy growth of tree roots. A small tree, growing up the slope about 20m north-east of the buried entrance to the raise is probably the source of the tree roots.
The Timbering
Internally, the underground hospital was timbered like a mine, although two different techniques were used. The north tunnel was heavily timbered with three piece sets of sawn Oregon posts and top lagged with hardwood planks resting on the caps. Five sets were intact in October 1997. The rest of the hospital was lightly timbered with round logs of native hardwood about 1.5cm in diameter. Throughout most of the hospital only occasional posts were standing in 1997 and most of these were dislodged and leaning. A few intact set survived in the north east corner, showing the construction was generally similar to the sawn timber Oregon sets; having round caps and hardwood plank lagging resting on them. The sets were spaced by sprags resting on cleats nailed to the tops of the posts.
In his 1997 report, Peter Bell indicated that approximately three-quarters of the timber shoring in the underground hospital was missing. He also said that a portion of the remaining timber was suffering from termite damage and dry rot. Unfortunately the dry rot damage has accelerated since the 1997 fire because of the amount of water and foam pumped into the structure during the fire.
Wartime Fittings and Equipment
Little remains of the furnishings and medical equipment. There is no evidence of the operating theatre equipment, beds, cupboards and other moveable equipment. Some material remaining prior to the fire included benching along the eastern wall, timber shelving, light fittings and timber shoring in the north tunnel. There was also a considerable amount of post war material such as files, X-ray plates and medical equipment such as an autoclave. It is believed that the files and X-ray plates fuelled the 1997 fire.
In the south tunnel there were 1940s light shades, bed tables, as well as post war material such as unidentified machinery and furniture. At the rear of the north and south tunnels are two 2.7m x 1.7m recesses. Each recess was fitted out with a roughly constructed cupboard, of which only the northern one was surviving in 1997. The recesses and cupboards are thought to have been constructed after WWII.
Floor Deposit
Throughout the underground hospital, the floor is covered with a deposit of earth, fallen stone, ash, timbers, pieces of furniture, electrical equipment and other material. One conspicuous element of the floor deposit is the number of pharmaceutical bottles and ampoules it contains. Several dozen bottles and a smaller number of ampoules are visible on the surface. Most of the bottles are empty and unlabelled, but some contain liquids and powders. Some samples removed by firemen in 1994 contained ampoules labelled sodium glycophosphate, sulphur powder and saline solution.
","history":"The Mount Isa Underground Hospital, constructed during March/April 1942 in the grounds of the Mount Isa District Hospital, was built by off duty miners from Mount Isa Mines. The structure was designed by Dr Edward Joseph Ryan, Superintendent of the Mount Isa District Hospital. Construction work was supervised by Wally Onton, Underground Foreman at Mount Isa Mines.
The war in the Pacific reached the shores of Australia on the 19th February 1942. Darwin was bombed by aircraft operating from four aircraft carriers in the Timor Sea. Within days Timor fell to the Japanese, the Australian cruiser HMAS Perth sank during the Battle of the Java Sea, while Broome, Derby and Wyndham in Western Australia, and Port Moresby in New Guinea were all bombed by Japanese aircraft.
The threat to Mount Isa seemed very real because there appeared to be little military opposition left in the north of Australia after the devastation of Darwin and the West Australian towns. The Mount Isa Copper Mine was seen as a strategic resource of great value to the Japanese, being recognised as one of the world's major deposits of copper, lead, zinc and silver. It was believed that like the Japanese controlled tin fields and rubber plantations of Malaya, and the oil fields of Borneo, the Mount Isa Mine was probably a target for invasion forces and air attacks.
Reacting to the perceived threat, Dr Edward Ryan decided to take precautions to protect Mount Isa District Hospital from air raids. Dr Edward Ryan contacted Vic Mann, MIM Mine Superintendent, who offered the co-operation of the company and the services of Underground Foreman Wally Onton to supervise the project. The company supplied all the equipment for the work, which was done by Mount Isa miners who volunteered their time.
The drilling, blasting and mucking out was mostly done over a two-week period, with the fitting-out taking a few more weeks. The work was done during March/April 1942, during which approximately 100m of tunnel were excavated. Three parallel adits were driven into the hill face and then connected to a crosscut level to form a large underground shelter with an 'E' shaped plan. A vertical rise to the hillside above helped ventilation and was also equipped with a ladder to serve as an emergency exit. The excavation was timbered using the contemporary mining methods of the day, then equipped with furnishings and fittings to perform all the functions of a hospital. There were male, female, and maternity/children's wards, a surgical theatre and a delivery room.
The finished underground hospital was about 100m from the rear of the nearest hospital building, with access along a gravelled pathway. The three entrances were secured by locked timber gates. Inside the hospital was framed either with sets of round native timber or sawn Oregon timber, the ceiling was sawn hardwood planks and some of the walls were lined with gidyea logs. The floor was bare earth. The hospital was equipped with electric lights and a telephone. Furthermore, buckets of water and sand, stirrup pumps and shovels were present in case of an air raid.
Dr Ryan kept the shelter fully equipped and ready for use with linen, medical equipment, dressings and pharmaceutical stocks. Once a week there was an air raid drill, and nurses and orderlies wheeled less-seriously ill patients up the steep gravel path to the underground hospital.
Mount Isa never experienced air raids, and it soon became apparent that the attacks on Darwin and other northern towns were harassing raids rather than the prelude to an invasion. History shows that Japanese resources were extended to their limit and, after the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, their naval power was destroyed. The threat of invasion disappeared as the Japanese forces were driven from New Guinea and into retreat from the Pacific.
Although air raid drills ceased, the underground hospital remained in use for less urgent purposes. The shelter was used as a dormitory by the nurses on hot nights, then like most unused spaces, it gradually became a store room of hospital equipment and files. After the war, lax security allowed young children to play in the tunnels, which still contained medical equipment and pharmaceutical supplies.
The shelter was finally closed sometime during the 1960s when rubble, excavated during the construction of the new four-storey hospital wing, was used to close the three entrances. The ventilation rise was also filled in. For approximately ten years the underground hospital remained closed until the fill at the north collapsed in 1977, and at the main entrance in 1988. Each time an entrance opened there was debate in the community regarding the future of the site. In 1992 the main entrance again collapsed and there was considerable debate about the site because of the Australia-wide interest in WWII sites during celebrations which commemorated the Battle of the Coral Sea and the 1942 threat of invasion.
The entrance was again closed, but reopened in 1994. While the entrance was again open and its future was being discussed in the media, a fire broke out in the southern tunnel at 1.30am on 27 August 1994. Queensland Fire Services found water was ineffective and, not knowing the layout of the interior, or the source of the fire, they waited until daylight and filled the tunnel with high expansion foam to extinguish the fire. The Mines Rescue Unit and volunteers later removed most of the burnt timber and stacked it at the main entrance.
In response to the fire, the hospital administration installed a locked trapdoor of heavy steel mesh over the collapsed entrance, and the entrance has remained open but secure against entry for the past three years. A public meeting in late 1995 showed that community support has swung strongly in favour of conserving and developing the underground hospital rather than again burying the entrance.
In 1996 a Steering Committee, representing the owners, heritage conservation organisations and corporate and community representatives, was formed to manage the future of the underground hospital. A conservation strategy, funded under the Queensland Heritage Grants Program and the Queensland National Trust, was prepared at the request of the Steering Committee. Vandals lighted a second fire on Sunday 26 October 1997 causing further damage to the interior.
Plans are in place for the interior of the hospital to be cleared by Green Corps (Young People for the Environment) and volunteer labour. The work will be carried out in consultation with the Cultural Heritage Branch of the Environmental Protection Agency. All artefacts will be documented, tagged and stored at the North West Queensland Museum in Mount Isa. Re-timbering of the interior will be carried out under the supervision of Mount Isa Mines engineers who will also provide some of the equipment required for the project.
","criteria":"The Former Underground Hospital, constructed by Mount Isa Mines volunteer labour in response to the perceived threat of Japanese invasion, is thought to have been excavated between March and April 1942. Mount Isa Mines provided equipment and the services of the Underground Foreman, Wally Onton.
|The hospital, built entirely underground, is currently thought to be unique in Australia.
|As such, the site possesses considerable archaeological significance, with potential to yield evidence about 1940s medical and nursing technology and about local improvisation during wartime.
|The underground hospital, designed by Hospital Superintendent, Dr Edward Joseph Ryan is particularly significant as a civilian defence structure built during a period of war. It is also important as an example of mid-20th century mining technology, and the skill and speed of Mount Isa miners of the period.
|It is also important as an example of mid-20th century mining technology, and the skill and speed of Mount Isa miners of the period.
|The Underground Hospital has considerable social significance. Community concern regarding the conservation of the underground hospital is demonstrated by the number of organisations who have become involved in the conservation project, including the Mount Isa Hospital Board and City Council, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the North West Queensland branch of the Queensland Museum.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion F | 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 in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period | 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":15946,"place_ref":601182,"name":"Mount Isa Mine Early Infrastructure","alternate_name":"Urquhart Shaft and Headframe | Mount Isa Mine Power Station | Mount Isa Mine Experimental Dam | Lawlor Shaft and Winding Plant","street_address":"Barkly Highway","suburb":"MOUNT ISA","lga":"MOUNT ISA CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2005-02-25","description":"Mount Isa Mine Early Infrastructure is located at the western edge of Mount Isa, in northwestern Queensland. The place comprises remnant early mining infrastructure, dispersed over four discrete areas within the Mount Isa Mine site.
\nFeatures of Mount Isa Mine Early Infrastructure of State-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nUrquhart Shaft and Headframe is the northernmost of these features, located on the north side of Burma Road. Standing to its southeast is the Mount Isa Mine Power Station, on the corner of Burma Road and Hooper Road. Further south, the Lawlor Shaft and Winding Plant is located on the south side of Mine Road. The southernmost feature is the Mount Isa Mine Experimental Dam, approximately 350m west of Rosalie Street. [Note: Burma Road, Hooper Road, Mine Road and Rosalie Street are internal mine roads].
\nLawlor Shaft and Winding Plant
\nThe remaining evidence of the Winding Plant consists of a partly intact two-cylinder steam winding engine without drums, manufactured by May Brothers Engineers of Gawler, South Australia, resting on concrete mounts. Adjacent and to the south of the engine are a further two concrete foundations, possibly for an air compressor. A return flue boiler is situated further south in line with the winding engine. The iron chimney of the boiler lies alongside. The entrance to the Lawlor Shaft, which is now secured with a grid, is located east of the winding plant within a wire mesh security fence. There is no apparent evidence of headframes bases near the shaft. Between the shaft and the plant is a low raised earth surface indicating the extent of the winding shed and containing concrete mounts with machinery bolts and the concrete base for an iron chimney. The remnants of a mullock dump are located south of the mine shaft. The place is situated alongside the main mine road and adjacent to the company's former residential and community retail area known as King's Cross.
\nUrquhart Shaft and Headframe
\nAn intact steel headframe of asymmetrical design is located over the Urquhart shaft. The headframe, occupying a hilltop position, is a community landmark and a symbol of Mount Isa Mines Limited and the City of Mount Isa. Headframe steelwork is attached to concrete foundations. The Urquhart headframe steelwork bears the name of the manufacturer, F Rodingham Iron & Steel Co Ltd., England. The concrete mounts of the original development headframe winding plant survive beneath the main structure. As the former main ore haulage shaft, the headframe is equipped with a large steel ore bin, which emptied directly into a primary crusher. The jaw crusher plant has been removed but the concrete structure of the crusher remains. From here the ore was conveyed to the three No.1 Concentrator mills.
\nThe Urquhart shaft Uskside Winding Engine, which was housed in a shed immediately to the north of the headframe, has been removed from the site and installed at the \"Outback@Isa Explorers Park\" tourist facility in the town. The original corrugated iron winding shed which had been replaced by more recent ribbed steel sheets on the former frame and concrete surface, has also been removed from the site.
\nMount Isa Mine Power Station
\nThe mine power station is located at the eastern base of the Urquhart Shaft hill. The power station forms a two-level complex comprising two sections, a boiler and furnace house on the eastern side and a turbine-generator powerhouse on the western side. The external appearance of both sections has remained comparatively unchanged since construction although substantial extension and adaptation of internal structure and plant have taken place with the development of the mine. The power station was initially coal-fired. The boiler house now contains oil-fired furnaces and waste-heat boilers which powered compressors to produce compressed air for the entire mine operation The power house which is a long steel framed corrugated iron clad building aligned north south has been substantially renewed and re-equipped since the 1950s. The original central third of the powerhouse remains structurally intact. This section originally housed Nos.1 and 2 turbo-generators. No.3 turbo generator (made in England by The General Electric Co Ltd., Witton, Birmingham) was installed in line north of No.2 in 1936 to replace No.1 generator after it blew up. No.2 generator has since been removed leaving No.3 as the only surviving early generator plant. No.3 plant comprising a General Electric alternator and turbine generator is coupled to a water-tube condenser unit (manufactured by Hick Hargreaves & Co Ltd., Bolton, England) situated beneath. The northern and southern sections of the powerhouse contain compressors installed in the 1950s. Mine power is now drawn from Mica Creek power station.
\nMount Isa Mine Experimental Dam
\nThe dam is constructed as a curved stone overshot weir, with later form-cast concrete additions above, at the entrance to a narrow gully of Kennedy Creek at the southern end of the Mount Isa Mine tailings and seepage ponds. The wall shows the height of original construction and of two subsequent extensions in height and width. The original section is of rendered stone, initially rising an estimated 5m above the original valley floor, assuming a current build-up of about 3m of silt. The 1m deep overflow was subsequently in-filled with roughly rendered stonework. The wall was later raised a further 2m with a form-cast concrete section constructed atop the original structure. The weir now stands 5m above the existing upstream silt level and is 23m in width.
\n","history":"
The Mount Isa Mine Early Infrastructure, established in the 1920s and early 1930s and located on the western edge of Mount Isa, is important as surviving evidence of the establishment of large-scale mining by the Mount Isa Mining Company (now known as Mount Isa Mines Limited (MIM)). It retains a symbolic association with the work of MIM, which, as Queensland’s richest mining venture, made an important contribution to the Queensland economy since its establishment. The development of the mining infrastructure was on a scale rare in Queensland mining, and the place has potential to reveal further information that may contribute to knowledge of the early mining processes used in Queensland.
\nMount Isa is located on the traditional lands of the Kalkadoon people.[1] John Campbell Miles discovered the ores of Mount Isa as lead outcrops early in 1923. Such a late find on a mineral field closely prospected for nearly sixty years was probably due to the fact that most Queensland prospectors were looking for copper or gold and lead mining was an alien tradition. However, while the discovery was first acknowledged in 1923, it is not improbable that the Mount Isa deposits were long known and ignored.
\nBy the end of 1923, 118 leases had been pegged on the Mount Isa field and of these William Corbould, formerly of the Mount Elliott Company at Selwyn, acquired 51 leases. In January 1924, Corbould's Mount Isa Mining Company was registered in New South Wales. Soon after two other companies were floated - Mount Isa Silver-Lead Proprietary and Mount Isa South, but by December 1925 both had been bought by Mount Isa Mines in a coup unprecedented in Australian mining - a single company held virtually the entire mineralised area of what promised to be a major field.
\nSupport for the new mining venture came from the Queensland Labor Government which gave the government geologist, EC Saint-Smith, permission to act as general manager at Mount Isa for six months to August 1924, and in September the State geological survey undertook Australia's first aerial photographic survey for geological purposes over six square miles at Mount Isa. In October 1925 the Queensland Parliament passed the Duchess to Mount Isa Railway Act.
\nDuring 1924 the Mount Isa Mines sank thirty-three shafts and realised that enormous capital would be required. William Corbould visited London regularly between 1924 and 1927 trying to raise capital. In June 1927 the Russo-Asiatic Consolidated Company chaired by Leslie Urquhart, took control of operation and development of Mount Isa. Corbould resigned but retained a non-voting seat as Honorary Advisory Director in London.
\nOn 7 June 1926 the company announced a major reconstruction scheme. The scheme, if successful would provide Russo-Asiatic with a working capital of £860,000 for its activities outside Russia. The announcement of the 'no capital' restructuring arrangements for Mount Isa saw an increase in the value of Russo Asiatic and a scramble to purchase Mount Isa shares. The scheme commanded considerable attention in the London Press with the Financial Times remarking that the 'no capital reorganisation' scheme was proving successful because it appeared to encourage the Queensland government to give its assurance that the government \"was anxious and willing to assist the enterprise.\"
\nThe resources of Russo-Asiatic, acquired through the restructuring assisted Mount Isa's development. The New York firm of HH Knox and JH Allen produced plans for exploration and development of the Black Star lode and devised a treatment process. In January 1928 Urquhart visited Mount Isa to inspect all-embracing plans for a major dam and pipeline, an employee housing program, and a development schedule for mining, milling and treatment. Knox arrived at Mount Isa in April to design the treatment plan and was followed by fellow American engineers, CA Mitke and JM Callow.
\nLawlor Shaft and Winding Plant (1920s)
\nRobert Lawlor held the 2.5ha Crystal Lease at Top Camp on the new Mount Isa field when the government geologist, EC Saint-Smith, inspected the area in September 1923. This lease was consolidated into Mount Isa Mines holdings by the end of 1924 but Lawlor's Shaft remained as the major access point to ores in the Rio Grande lode during the exploration and ore proving phase (1925-9). The headframe and ancillary buildings were featured in a photograph in the Queensland Government Mining Journal, 15 August 1929.
\nIn 1930 the Rio Grande mine was described as being served by the three compartment vertical Lawlor Shaft, from which, at a depth of 54.4m, a crosscut in the hanging wall cuts through the lode of sulphide ore. Diamond drilling had already proved persistence of the ore to a depth of 305m.
\nIt is not known when the Lawlor Shaft stopped operating but the King's Cross area of the settlement developed nearby and would have constrained mining operations. During the Second World War it was used for copper extraction.
\nUrquhart Shaft and Headframe (1930-31)
\nBefore Russo-Asiatic's engineers had visited the field, Corbould and his geologists decided that separate shafts should penetrate each ore-body and a railway should carry the ore from the shaftheads to a central treatment plant in the valley to the north. After a year of diamond drilling however, the ore-bodies were found grouped so closely, that they could be worked cheaply by use of an underground railway linking them to central shafts. Charles Mitke designed the Man and Supply shaft to take all men and materials underground and the Urquhart shaft to hoist the ore and pump the water.
\nMitke's plan transferred the main ore shaft and treatment plant to the town side of the long ridge, which divided the struggling township on the river flats from the previous centre of mining activity in the valley. Mitke supervised the sinking of the Urquhart shaft in 1929. Work proceeded simultaneously with the service shaft and development shafts in the Black Rock and Rio Grande ore-bodies, but was not completed at the time of a ministerial inspection in April 1930. The Urquhart shaft had hit an underground reservoir and was never continued to the planned depth.
\nThe Urquhart Shaft and Headframe were erected during 1930-31 and the ore produced had been smelted into lead bullion for shipment overseas by the official opening of the Mount Isa Mines complex by the Hon. E Atherton, Minister for Mines, on 15 June 1931. The Urquhart shaft, which went down vertically for half a mile (0.8km), carried 3,000,000 tons of ore and rock each year. It operated for over thirty years until the biggest shaft on the Mount Isa field, then known as the K57 ore shaft, was opened in 1963.
\nMount Isa Mine Power Station (1931)
\nFrom mid-1927 the technical management of Mount Isa Mine was in the hands of the Urquhart group (formerly known as the Russo-Asiatic Consolidated). With their increased capital they set about developing the \"most modern mine of the age.\" The initial power house of Corbould's company was replaced by the steel framed power station consisting of a coal-fired boiler house and a generator house, designed by JM Callow in 1928 and located at the base of the Mount Isa Mine ridge overlooking the new tent settlement on the bank of the West Leichhardt River. The power station was operational by 1931 and a photograph of it appeared in the Queensland Government Mining Journal on 15 July 1931, which described the Ministerial opening of the new mining plant. It was described as having \"twin chimneys rising like black cigars above a roof of dazzling iron\".
\nThe powerhouse supplied electricity to the town and its houses as well as to the mine until the opening of the Mica Creek power station. In 1951 the powerhouse was extended to supply the new copper smelter. When the Mica Creek power station came into operation supplying electricity, the mines power station was adapted to supply compressed air for the entire mine operation. It continues to fulfill this function.
\nMount Isa Mine Experimental Dam (1920s)
\nFrom March 1923 when JC Miles discovered the lead outcrops of Mount Isa, shortage of water was identified as a \"temporary disability\" for the new field. Small soaks were opened in the bed of the Leichhardt River at both Top Camp and Lower Camp settlements. This appears to have been the period when the Experimental Dam was constructed, with a weir built at the entrance to a narrow gully, known as Hidden Valley, just south of the mine. The original stone wall of the weir was later raised with a form-cast concrete section.
\nWilliam Corbould of Mount Isa Mines knew that the treatment works would be greedy for water and EHR Greensill, a surveyor, recommended damming the gorge of Rifle Creek, 32km south of the mine. The Rifle Creek Dam was constructed by mid 1929 and a pipeline laid to Mount Isa, which became operational by 1930. Presumably from this time, the Experimental Dam ceased to function as a water supply augmenting the bores, which had been sunk. It was subsequently used for recreational purposes and there is a photographic record of a swimming carnival there about 1929.
\nMount Isa Mines – 21st century
\nMount Isa Mines has remained in continuous operation, with additions and upgrades to the broader site (outside of the heritage boundary), and the development and implementation of advancing technologies.[2]
\nGlencore acquired Mount Isa Mines in May 2013. The mine incorporated underground mines, mineral processing and smelting operations, and power generation facilities.[3] Of the early infrastructure, the Lawlor Shaft and Winding Plant, Urquhart Shaft and Headframe, Mount Isa Mine Power Station and Mount Isa Mine Experimental Dam are retained.
","criteria":"The Mount Isa Mine Early Infrastructure, established in the 1920s and early 1930s, comprises: Lawlor Shaft and Winding Plant; Urquhart Shaft and Headframe; Mount Isa Mine Power Station; and Mount Isa Mine Experimental Dam. This infrastructure is important in demonstrating the pattern of development of Queensland's history, being surviving evidence of the establishment of large-scale mining at Mount Isa by the Mount Isa Mining Company (later Mount Isa Mines Limited) in the 1920s and early 1930s.
The Lawlor Shaft and Winding Plant (1920s) are significant in Queensland's history as the earliest surviving winding plant and shaft at Mount Isa. Because of their direct association with the early development of Mount Isa Mine from 1924 they also have symbolic value.
The Urquhart Shaft and Headframe (1930-31) is important in demonstrating the early development and growth of Mount Isa Mine. This headframe, which is an American A-frame rather than the more usual four poster frames of the period, was innovative at the time. The use of this style of headframe popularized the use of America A-frames.
The Mount Isa Mine Power Station (1929-31) at the base of the Urquhart shaft hill are significant remains from the initial plant construction period at Mount Isa (1929) made possible by United States capital and engineering design. The place is of historical significance for its long association with power generation for the town of Mount Isa and the mine, prior to construction of Mica Creek power station.
The Mount Isa Mine Experimental Dam (1920s) is the earliest surviving construction at Mount Isa and Mount Isa Mine, demonstrating the early development of Queensland's richest mining venture. The silted up dam remains as evidence of the vital need for storing water to enable mining operations to proceed. Its small size and out-of-the-way location on the Mount Isa Mine lease is in juxtaposition to the massive scale of the tailings dams, open cuts and tall chimneys marking the current operations.
|The development of the mining and mining infrastructure was on a scale rare in Queensland mining. It was also significant in Queensland that development was funded through an internationally accepted process of restructuring rather than through profits.
In addition [at the Lawlor Shaft and Winding Plant] the two-cylinder steam winding engine manufactured by May Brothers, engineers of Gawler, South Australia, is a rare survivor and highlights the recycling of earlier Australian made equipment before specific heavy machinery was imported from England.
The operational, pre-Second World War (English) General Electric turbine generator and alternator [in the Mount Isa Mine Power Station] is an extremely rare survivor of the former three units that comprised the initial power station to the mine.
|The place has potential to reveal, through archaeological investigation, further information that may contribute to our knowledge of the early workings of the Mount Isa Mine.
The place [Lawlor Shaft and Winding Plant] demonstrates the continuity of mining history at Mount Isa and has the capacity to lend itself to interpretation of that history.
|The infrastructure has a symbolic association with the work of Mount Isa Mines, which has been important in the Queensland economy since the 1920s.
It [Urquhart Shaft and Headframe] is the largest, most complex and most visible of the two surviving steel headframes at Mount Isa Mine. Silhouetted on the skyline it has been a community landmark for over sixty years.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | 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 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":16600,"place_ref":601863,"name":"Bower Bird Battery","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Mount Isa Mining District","suburb":"MOUNT ISA","lga":"MOUNT ISA CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2002-12-13","description":"The place, which is situated on a small flat on the side of a spinifex covered hill, contains an almost intact five head stamp battery and the remnants of a small battery shed. A large number of early surface workings extend along the line of reef on which the battery stands. A camp site is situated about 100 metres east of the battery. Immediately south and west of the stamp battery are several earth benches of the former battery shed. A number of non-insitu items of plant are located in the immediate vicinity including two berdan pans, a stamper belt wheel, a cog wheel, a small set of scales, a forge constructed from half of a ship's tank, and the base of a grinding pan. An area of confused diggings and old mullock dumps extends north of the stamps. Immediately east is a shallow open cut and associated shallow workings.
The camp site comprises two low enclosed wall structures of crude stone construction each with an attached external fireplace or forge. A stone forge and other low rock walls are also evident. The construction suggests that the camp was of canvas and/or bough shelters for which the stonework formed low walls. Recent (1994) exploration drill pad bulldozing between the camp and stamp battery has destroyed further evidence of the camp.
Plant:
·\tFive-head stamp battery and frame - P.N.Russell & Co Engineers Sydney 1873 No 160.
·\t2 berdan pans.
·\tGrinding pan base - no brand.
","history":"The Bower Bird Goldfield was proclaimed on 5 September 1895 - and incorporated into the Cloncurry Gold and Mineral Field on 9 January 1913. The area encompassing the Bower Bird workings generally consists of rugged ranges of quartzite cut by streams draining into the north flowing Leichhardt River.
\nGold had been found at Bower Bird between 1870 and 1872. Fossickers (notably Bill McPhail) were prospecting the area before 1880 and R L Jack's 1882 maps show a \"Bower Bird Goldfield\" although no official returns were recorded until 1893. The first reef located was the Victoria and in 1884 it also provided the first stone for crushing which yielded 103 ozs of gold from 17.2 tons of ore, which was carted some distance to the Soldier's Cap (Mount Freda) battery near Cloncurry for crushing.
\nThe Bower Bird Battery of five stamps, four berdans, and concentrator was probably erected in 1895, after being relocated from other places. The stamper was already over 20 years old, having been manufactured in 1873. Between 1895 and 1897 the field's main producer the Victoria reef officially produced 930 tons of ore yielding 811 ozs of gold before being abandoned, possibly due to drought. It is not known whether the battery was also abandoned at this time or continued processing ore from other nearby reefs, such as the Lily of the Valley, Bertha and Two Mile, which yielded patches of alluvial gold. After 1900, a small quantity of ore was carted from shafts on May Downs station to the Bower Bird battery for crushing, with unknown results.
\nBy about 1895 the township, which was some distance from the battery consisted, of three stores, two hotels and a post office which closed in 1901.
\nIn January 1904 it was reported in Cloncurry that the battery shed had burnt down. Although there is no record, the battery may have been rebuilt because in 1909 the Victoria Reef was reopened and produced a further 8.1 tons of ore yielding 11.5ozs of gold. Hooper records that the battery was renovated in 1908 as a five head battery with a Brown and Stanfield converter to treat ore from the Victory mine. A Commonwealth Government geologist, C.S. Honman, inspected the field in 1937 but did not report on the battery.
","criteria":"Bower Bird Creek Battery is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland's early gold mining industry and is an example of the transitory settlements that were a result of gold prospecting all over Queensland.
|The place is significant as a now rare example of a once representative gold battery and mining camp in a remote and semi-arid environment.
|The surrounding area contains numerous early workings and crude stone camp sites, which are comparatively undisturbed and may date from the 1890s occupation of the area by miners.
|The five head stamp battery and frame was built by P N Russell and Co., Engineers of Sydney in 1873 and this is the earliest manufacture date on recorded batteries in North Queensland. It is the only intact stamp battery remaining in Western and North-West Queensland and may be the earliest surviving in Queensland.
","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":null,"place_ref":650065,"name":"Spinifex State College Junior Campus","alternate_name":"Mount Isa State High School | Mount Isa Intermediate School","street_address":"6-12 Fifth Avenue","suburb":"MOUNT ISA","lga":"MOUNT ISA CITY COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2018-08-23","description":"Spinifex State College Junior Campus occupies on a 5.66ha site on the ‘mine side’ of the Leichhardt River, 1.2km southwest of the centre of Mount Isa. The large site gently slopes to the east. The complex of buildings stands on the higher west part of the site, with large playing field on the lower, east half. The Head Teacher’s Residence faces Fifth Avenue, standing away from the teaching buildings.
\nThe school is bounded by Fifth Avenue (south) to which the school fronts, Fourth Avenue (east), Third Avenue (north), and by residential properties (west).
\nFeatures of state-level cultural heritage significance are:
\nLayout and Courtyards
\nBlocks J, F, G, H, and I are long and narrow teaching buildings with long sides facing north and south. They are laid out fairly symmetrically either side of an axial Connecting Link, except Block J (the former Manual Training Building), which is not connected by the link and stands alone to the north.
\nThe buildings are positioned to form open-ended courtyards between them for student play space and activities. The courtyards are flat and a large concrete retaining wall with steel pipe balustrade and concrete stairs stands on the southern side of Block I. The courtyards’ trees and ground surfaces are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
\nConnecting Link
\nThe Connecting Link (constructed in regularised modules) forms a central axis connecting Blocks F, G, and H, and wraps the north face of these buildings to form a broad covered ‘Lunch Area’ immediately north of their verandahs. The link and lunch areas have a concrete floor and comprise regularly-spaced metal posts supporting an almost flat, timber-framed roof clad with metal sheets. The ceiling is lined with flat sheets without cover strips. A row of openings above the roof of the lunch areas (formerly enclosed with glass louvres) provides further light and ventilation of the verandah.
\nBlocks J, F, G, H, and I (Hawksley Prefabricated School Buildings)
\nBlocks J, F, G, and H are intact one-storey, lowset on concrete slab floors. Block I is two-storey – the first level is the Hawksley portion, highset on concrete posts and steel beams to a DPW design. The former open play area of the ground floor of Block I has been mostly enclosed to form additional classrooms.
\nThe buildings are long and narrow, with northern verandahs accessing a series of classrooms on the southern side, and have gable roofs clad with corrugated metal sheets. The verandah wall and the opposing classroom wall are highly glazed with operable windows to permit high levels of natural light and ventilation.
\nBlock H has had no changes to the partitions between its three classrooms. Only very minor changes have been made to the partitions between classrooms of Blocks F, G, and I. Block J has had its original classroom partitions removed and a modern one inserted (2019) to create two classrooms.
\nFeatures of Block J, F, G, H, and I also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of Block J, F, G, H, and I not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nHead Teachers Residence (Department of Public Works Standard Residence Type ‘D’)
\nThe Head Teachers Residence is an intact, modest, one-storey highset timber-framed and -clad residence standing in a defined house yard facing Fifth Avenue. The understorey is enclosed on the perimeter with spaced horizontal planks. It has a gable roof with a perpendicular gable over the front bedroom clad with corrugated metal sheets. The front balcony enlarged in c1961 to a standard DPW design is also intact.
\nFeatures of Head Teachers Residence also of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nFeatures of Head Teachers Residence not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
\nOther Features of Spinifex State College Junior Campus Not of State-level Cultural Heritage Significance
\nAll other buildings, landscape elements, and structures on the school are not of state-level cultural heritage significance.
","history":"Spinifex Junior College was founded in 1953 as Mount Isa State High School serving the mining town of Mount Isa. It is located on the west side of the Leichhardt River, about 0.75km south of the main mine site and 1km southwest of the central business district. The site includes five Hawksley Prefabricated School Buildings (1954-60), a Connecting Link (1955-7), and a Head Teachers Residence (1956), built when the town was rapidly evolving from a mining settlement of itinerant workers to a substantial regional company town supporting families. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Mount Isa community.
\nThe Mount Isa area is part of the traditional lands of the Kalkadoon people. Located about 820km west of Townsville, the town is situated within an extensive mineral-rich area stretching from south of Cloncurry to west of Burketown. The Mount Isa mining field was discovered by John Campbell Miles in 1923, who named the place after his niece Isobel. An early analysis of the ore revealed a very high lead content. It later also produced silver, zinc and copper. A rudimentary town developed after Mount Isa Mines Ltd (MIM) was floated as a company in January 1924. A township was surveyed on the east side of the Leichhardt River and soon included a police station, courthouse, hospital, hotels, post office, and banks. The Townsville-Duchess rail line (1912) was extended to Mount Isa in 1929. [1]
\nMIM created its own township on the western side of the river, close to the mine, with company stores, bank and recreational facilities, while the commercial centre remained on the eastern side. This created two settlements: Townside and Mineside. A convent school was established in 1932 between these two settlements. High school classes were offered at the Mount Isa Mines State School from 1937.[2]
\nThe local Member of Parliament, AJ (Norm) Smith wrote to the Minister for Public Instruction in 1945, advocating a merger of the two state schools to establish one central state school, combined with a technical college and a high top (the pre-cursor to a high school, utilising existing school infrastructure). While the primary schools remained separate, this letter, along with the growth of the town, the development of MIM and its need for trained staff, served to initiate the foundation of a high school.[3]
\nDuring World War II (WWII), MIM initiated policies favouring the employment of married men and began building houses for married employees, providing barracks for single men. After WWII, a large housing construction project was initiated with the Queensland Housing Commission. The town’s tent houses [QHR 600742] and corrugated iron dwellings were replaced with houses built in timber (some were recycled army buildings) or locally manufactured concrete bricks. Employee numbers grew from 1025 in June 1947 to 2550 in June 1952.This sharp increase was a direct result of the meteoric rise in the price of lead, as profits rose from £150,000 in 1946 to £500,000 in 1947, and £1,457,000 in 1947-48. This profitability resulted in the establishment of a lead bonus whereby employees were paid an additional few pence per shift, as a share in these profits. The lead bonus reached £5 per week in 1947-48, and £17.5s during the Korean War in 1951, making Mount Isa a very attractive proposition to workers. By 1955 MIM was the largest mining company in Australia and by 1960 Mount Isa produced 60 per cent of Queensland’s mineral wealth and employed more than 50 per cent of the state’s mining workforce.[4]
\nMIM continued to support long-term employees by employing their family members, while simultaneously demanding higher education standards. In the 1950s, the Apprenticeship Board required the completion of Year 8 for electrical apprenticeships and grades 6 or 7 for other apprenticeships. MIM required the Junior Public Exam (Year 10) for electrical apprentices and the completion of Scholarship (Year 8) or Sub-Junior (Year 9) for all others. This policy created a demand for secondary education. A 1949 report from the inspector of Secondary Schools and Technical Colleges advocated the establishment of a new intermediate and high school in Mount Isa with technical classes attached. The inspector noted that there were 60 apprentices employed in the mines, a further four in the town, and that the mining company would hire a further 100 if they were available. Enrolments in the three primary schools had grown from a total of 458 in 1945 to 771 in 1949. The establishment of a high school was regarded as urgent.[5]
\nIn 1950, the Department of Education acquired a nine-acre recreation reserve (a former football field), and an adjacent five-acre mining lease was surrendered by MIM, totalling just over 14 acres (5.66ha). Department of Public Works (DPW) architects produced plans for the new timber school on the site and called for tenders for its construction in late 1951. These plans were not fulfilled. Instead, in August 1952 it was announced Hawksley prefabricated aluminium buildings would be used.[6]
\nPrefabricated buildings from Hawksley Construction Co. of Gloucester, were ordered by the Queensland Government for use in schools in response to the materials shortage and construction pressure of the post-WWII baby boom. The buildings employed an aluminium structure, external cladding of ribbed aluminium sheets, and aluminium-framed awning windows. Components used techniques developed during WWII in aircraft manufacture including pop-riveting, and synthetic gaskets and sealants. As a consequence, these structures had an industrial aesthetic.[7]
\nThe DPW assembled the buildings highset or lowset, and with a verandah for circulation accessing a series of classrooms. Ideally, they were oriented so the verandah faced north and the classrooms faced south. The extensive, operable glazing provided abundant natural light and ventilation. The classrooms were 24ft x 24ft (7.3m x 7.3m), larger than most previous classrooms. The DPW ordered 27 Hawksley buildings comprising 90 classrooms, which began to arrive in Queensland in late 1952. The local Mimag magazine praised the choice of the Hawksley buildings because of the rapidity of construction.[8]
\nAt Mount Isa, the first Hawksley building was erected quickly, completed by 25 March 1953, accommodating the high school during the day and technical classes at night for apprentices. The second Hawksley building was completed by the start of 1954 and accommodated the principal’s office and science classrooms. The third (Block J, Hawksley Unit Type ‘A’) was completed by June 1954, with its concrete slab floor laid by MIM. It was a manual arts classroom building and included a woodwork room, sheet metalwork room, and trade drawing room. The fourth was completed in 1955 (Block F, Hawksley Unit Type ‘G’) and accommodated two general classrooms and a library. The fifth was completed in 1956 (Block G, Hawksley Unit Type ‘B’) and accommodated domestic science classrooms. The school held night classes for more than 100 students (mostly MIM apprentices) and adult education classes in shorthand, typing, and bookkeeping were offered. A fete held in June showcased the achievements of the students including the cooking from the new domestic science wing.[9]
\nThe buildings were laid out on the site at regular intervals along a central spine created by a covered link. The link was built in stages as the buildings were added and they included covered ‘lunch areas’, a broader section of the link on the north side of the buildings that included seats for students.[10]
\nThe high and intermediate school was established at a time of transition for Mount Isa, which became a prosperous regional centre increasingly occupied by families. 300 new homes were built by late 1954. However, a housing shortage remained in Mount Isa in the early 1950s and government employees had difficulty finding housing. The first principal of Mount Isa State High School agreed to the appointment only if housing was provided, which it wasn’t, and he soon transferred out. In September 1954, the subsequent principal requested a government house and a standard teacher’s residence (Type ‘D’) designed by the DPW was built by May 1956. This was a modest timber-framed and -clad highset building with three bedrooms and was built facing Fifth Avenue away from the teaching buildings surrounded by a fenced house yard. The house was slightly modified in c1961 to provide a larger front balcony, to a DPW design that was a standard ‘improvement’ to this type.[11]
\nMIM had direct involvement with the school’s establishment and provision of facilities and fostered education in the town. The company provided school furniture and sport equipment, surveyed the site to provide for the playing fields and school buildings, and MIM staff were employed as technical teachers. From late 1955, MIM offered secondary education and university scholarships for science and engineering students, with priority given to children of MIM employees. The company needed qualified workers in both technical and commercial subjects and the 1960 school magazine revealed that more than one third of the school’s past students were employed by MIM as assayers, apprentice electricians, boilermakers, fitter and turners, clerks and clerk-typistes.[12]
\nThe township continued to consolidate and include further civic amenities and by late 1957 Mount Isa State High School officially became a technical college and a class II high school. A sixth Hawksley building (Block H, Hawksley unit type ‘C’) was built in late 1957, accommodating two general classrooms and a commercial classroom. A seventh Hawksley building (Block I, of an unidentified type) was built by the beginning of 1960. It was built as a two-storey building with the Hawksley component used for the first floor and comprising four general classrooms. The ground floor accommodated open pay space and a classroom and store room, which were converted to a physics classroom and store in 1961. The construction of this building included a large concrete battered retaining wall to its south to create a flat platform for the building.[13]
\nOver time the school grew to include further buildings. These included: a second teacher’s residence (by 1962); a trades’ workshop (1965); science building (1967-8, demolished c1990s); a general classroom building with canteen (c1968, extended c1971); a new manual arts building (1971); homecraft building (1973); library and administration block (1974); and science building (1977, demolished c2002), for which the first two Hawksley buildings and the adjacent connecting links were demolished. A new Technical and Further Education (TAFE) College was built elsewhere in Mount Isa and the school no longer provided technical college-level education and those buildings were converted for flexible classroom space in 1973. A multi-purpose hall was built by 2002.[14]
\nIn 2003 Mount Isa State High School became the Junior Campus of Spinifex State College. The Senior Campus was established on the site of the former Kalkadoon State High School on the east side of the town. In that year MIM was taken over by Anglo-Swiss Company Xstrata, which merged with Glencore in 2013. Both companies continued to provide local apprenticeships and university scholarships, while the school has continued its trade training programs.[15]
\nIn 2018 Spinifex State College Junior Campus retains five Hawksley Prefabricated School Buildings (Blocks J, F, G, H, and I, 1954-60), the most extensive complex of Hawksley buildings known in Queensland. The school also retains Covered Links (1955-7) and a Head Teachers Residence (1956).[16]
","criteria":"Spinifex State College Junior Campus (established in 1953 as Mount Isa State High School) is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture in Queensland. The place retains excellent, representative examples of standard school buildings that were architectural responses to prevailing government educational philosophies.
\nIt retains five Hawksley Prefabricated School Buildings (Blocks J, F, G, H, and I – 1954-60) and a Connecting Link (1955-7), an extensive, rare, and representative example of the adoption and deployment of prefabricated systems imported for schools by the Queensland Government from 1952, in response to acute building material shortages and population growth in the period.
\nThe Head Teachers Residence (1956) is a representative example and product of the Queensland Government’s policy to provide accommodation for married male head teachers as an inducement to teach in rural areas.
|Highly intact, the five Hawksley Prefabricated School Buildings are rare surviving examples of imported prefabricated Hawksley School Buildings and are the only known examples of Hawksley unit types ‘A’ (Block J), ‘B’ (Block G), ‘C’ (Block H), and ‘G’ (Block F) in Queensland, with a fifth building of an unidentified type (Block I). The school is exceptional as the most extensive known complex of Hawksley buildings in a Queensland school.
|The Hawksley Prefabricated School Buildings are excellent, rare examples of their type and demonstrate variations of the standard unit types. Highly intact, they retain their: prefabricated aluminium-framed and-clad structures; gable roofs; verandahs for circulation; 24ft (7.3m) wide classrooms; subject specific ancillary rooms; and extensive banks of aluminium-framed awning windows to maximise natural light and ventilation.
\nThe Head Teachers Residence is an excellent intact example of a standard type of residence designed by the Department of Public Works and built in schools across Queensland from 1952 to 1959. The principal characteristics of this type includes: highset, timber-framed and -clad construction with a gable roof; located in an open residential yard facing a street; modest provision of internal space with three bedrooms, lounge, dining, bathroom, and kitchen; banks of awning windows; and internal partitions and ceilings lined with flat sheet material and cover strips.
|Schools have always played an important part in Queensland communities. They typically retain significant and enduring connections with former pupils, parents, and teachers; provide a venue for social interaction and volunteer work; and are a source of pride, symbolising local progress and aspirations.
\nSpinifex State College Junior Campus has a strong and ongoing association with the Mount Isa community which has supported the development of the school, both physically and financially. It was established in 1953 and generations of students have been taught there. The place is important for its contribution to the educational development of the Mount Isa region, supported by Mount Isa Mines Ltd (MIM), and as a focus for the community.
|Spinifex State College Junior Campus has had a long association with MIM, which provided the impetus for the establishment of a high school by increasing the education standards required for apprentices to gain employment in the mines. MIM provided part of the land on which the school was built and supplied furnishings, equipment, and sports facilities. MIM offered university scholarships to students of this high school and actively promoted education in this company town, as well as providing ongoing support in funding improvements to school facilities since 1953.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion D | Criterion G | 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 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"} ]}