Charters Towers - 3 nights
This city was affectionately known as 'The World', as it was said that anything one might desire could be had in the 'Towers', leaving no reason to travel elsewhere. We might just consider returning to the Gold Coast eventually - something tells me that there are one or two things that can’t be ‘had’ here; like sons and their wives and grand daughters!
Charters Towers is 134 kilometres (83 mi) inland (south-west) from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. At the 2016 census the population was 8,120 people. During the last quarter of the 19th century the town boomed as the rich gold deposits under the city were developed. After becoming uneconomic in the 20th century, profitable mining operations have commenced once again.
Gold was originally discovered by chance at Towers Hill on Christmas Eve 1871 by a 12-year-old Aboriginal boy named Jupiter Mosman. Jupiter was with a small group of prospectors whose horses bolted after a flash of lightning. While he was searching, Jupiter found both the horses and a nugget of gold in a creek at the base of Towers Hill. A total of ten major gold reefs were eventually mined. I will keep my eye on every creek from here on in!
By December 1882 the population was approximately 30,000, making Charters Towers, Queensland's largest city outside of Brisbane. The city was also affectionately known as 'The World', as it was said that anything one might desire could be had in the 'Towers', leaving no reason to travel elsewhere. The Charters Towers gold field produced over 200 tonnes of gold from 1871–1917. The gold is concentrated into veins and was Australia's richest major field with an average grade of 34 grams per tonne. The grade was almost double that of Victorian mines and almost 75% higher than the grades of Western Australian (Kalgoorlie) gold fields of that time.
This city was affectionately known as 'The World', as it was said that anything one might desire could be had in the 'Towers', leaving no reason to travel elsewhere. We might just consider returning to the Gold Coast eventually - something tells me that there are one or two things that can’t be ‘had’ here; like sons and their wives and grand daughters!
Charters Towers is 134 kilometres (83 mi) inland (south-west) from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. At the 2016 census the population was 8,120 people. During the last quarter of the 19th century the town boomed as the rich gold deposits under the city were developed. After becoming uneconomic in the 20th century, profitable mining operations have commenced once again.
Gold was originally discovered by chance at Towers Hill on Christmas Eve 1871 by a 12-year-old Aboriginal boy named Jupiter Mosman. Jupiter was with a small group of prospectors whose horses bolted after a flash of lightning. While he was searching, Jupiter found both the horses and a nugget of gold in a creek at the base of Towers Hill. A total of ten major gold reefs were eventually mined. I will keep my eye on every creek from here on in!
By December 1882 the population was approximately 30,000, making Charters Towers, Queensland's largest city outside of Brisbane. The city was also affectionately known as 'The World', as it was said that anything one might desire could be had in the 'Towers', leaving no reason to travel elsewhere. The Charters Towers gold field produced over 200 tonnes of gold from 1871–1917. The gold is concentrated into veins and was Australia's richest major field with an average grade of 34 grams per tonne. The grade was almost double that of Victorian mines and almost 75% higher than the grades of Western Australian (Kalgoorlie) gold fields of that time.
Charters Towers has a hot semi-arid climate, with distinct seasons. Summers are hot and often rainy, whereas winters are mild and dry with low humidity. The township is mildly elevated at 300 metres above sea-level and this has a noticeable effect, with lower humidity and bigger temperature variations than Townsville nearby.
We were hoping to join a tour of a Texas Longhorn property, but given that its school holidays and people are all getting out of Townsville, due to a Covid scare, all the tours are tightly booked out. We will go for a drive to see if we can see any of the cattle from the road. Here is a pic of the breed.
We were hoping to join a tour of a Texas Longhorn property, but given that its school holidays and people are all getting out of Townsville, due to a Covid scare, all the tours are tightly booked out. We will go for a drive to see if we can see any of the cattle from the road. Here is a pic of the breed.
Ravenswood:
Ravenswood is about 85 kilometres (53 mi) south of Townsville and 65 kilometres (40 mi) east of Charters Towers. The Ravenswood goldfield was the fifth largest producer of gold in Queensland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main mining periods, prior to modern open cut operations (1987 onwards), were: alluvial gold and shallow reef mining (1868-1872). The town has been preserved by the National Trust and we took a drive out to what remains of it. The town buildings are still used by its modern-day residents, who are still employed in gold extraction, but on a much bigger scale. As we drive through the town’s main Street, we get an idea of what the township may have looked like.
Ironically, at the back of this ancient town, is the effect of modern day explorations. A huge tailings pile hems in the old town, serving as a backdrop and shielding a huge area which represents the current mining efforts. Old Ravenswood contains surface structures from eight mines: the Grand Junction, Little Grand Junction, Sunset No.1 and Sunset No.2, Deep, General Grant, Duke of Edinburgh, and Grant and Sunset Extended mines, as well as the mill associated with the Deep mine, and the Mabel Mill tailings treatment plant.
Ravenswood is about 85 kilometres (53 mi) south of Townsville and 65 kilometres (40 mi) east of Charters Towers. The Ravenswood goldfield was the fifth largest producer of gold in Queensland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main mining periods, prior to modern open cut operations (1987 onwards), were: alluvial gold and shallow reef mining (1868-1872). The town has been preserved by the National Trust and we took a drive out to what remains of it. The town buildings are still used by its modern-day residents, who are still employed in gold extraction, but on a much bigger scale. As we drive through the town’s main Street, we get an idea of what the township may have looked like.
Ironically, at the back of this ancient town, is the effect of modern day explorations. A huge tailings pile hems in the old town, serving as a backdrop and shielding a huge area which represents the current mining efforts. Old Ravenswood contains surface structures from eight mines: the Grand Junction, Little Grand Junction, Sunset No.1 and Sunset No.2, Deep, General Grant, Duke of Edinburgh, and Grant and Sunset Extended mines, as well as the mill associated with the Deep mine, and the Mabel Mill tailings treatment plant.
Tomorrow, we will investigate the Ambulance Museum which is only open for limited hours. Stephen is particularly looking forward to seeing the Ambulance Motorbike which he assisted to getting to Charters Towers when it was made redundant on the Gold Coast. The building the Charters Towers Ambulance Museum is housed in looks familiar to us as the original building ambulance services were provided from when we last visited over thirty years ago. It has high ceilings which may also be from a time when the service used horses to transport patients around. In fact there is a life sized model of a horse who did exactly that. (See photo). His name was Ned and he was the first horse purchased by the ambulance in December 1900 and in fact the only one for the first three years. He died in 1905 and by that time had travelled over 5,000 miles in the assistance of patients in the Charters towers area.
The curator of the museum greets us at the entrance and as we file inside, right in front of us is the motor bike that Stephen assisted with. He finds he can assist again, ironically, because the curator explains that he is supposed to try to start the bike on regular occasions to keep it charged, but someone has bent the key and he cannot get the bike to kick over. Stephen gets onto it and turns the key around in the lock (it can work either way) and manages to start the bike.
The curator of the museum greets us at the entrance and as we file inside, right in front of us is the motor bike that Stephen assisted with. He finds he can assist again, ironically, because the curator explains that he is supposed to try to start the bike on regular occasions to keep it charged, but someone has bent the key and he cannot get the bike to kick over. Stephen gets onto it and turns the key around in the lock (it can work either way) and manages to start the bike.
Two Honda 1000cc bikes were donated to the Gold Coast Ambulance service by Honda and kitted out with lights, sirens and white panniers ready to serve. They serviced the Surfers Paradise/Broadbeach area for approximately three years. It was stipulated that they could only be ridden through the daylight hours and never in rainy weather to prevent the chance of injury to the Intensive Care Paramedics who rode them. They allowed the officer to get into tight situations, very often during special events. They were decommissioned in 2007 and when Stephen heard that one was being donated to Charters Towers for their museum, he offered to ride the bike to Acacia Ridge in order for it to be put on a carrier and transported up north. The second bike was donated to Wynnum Museum in Brisbane. I’m not one for museums, finding them usually dusty and full of faded signage and dry subject matter which often fails to hold my attention for very long, but this spot was vital to me and to Stephen because it represented our shared working lives for the past forty years. Consequently, we spent a happy morning looking at all the paraphernalia associated with the provision of ambulance services over the past 100 years.
We lunched in Listner Park which looked like a lush oasis to set our folding chairs up in. After so many hundreds of kilometres travelling through flat, dry Savannah country, this park stood out to us as a beautifully green and verdant spot. The town gets its water supply from the Burdekin river and we are advised this will never run out. As we set up our chairs under a shady tree, preparing to settle in for a few hours with our books and sandwiches, we detect a pungent smell around us. It turns out that we have selected a tree which is full of bats who are not keen on having their daytime sleep disturbed! Diary note: look up as well as looking around when selecting a lunch spot!!
We lunched in Listner Park which looked like a lush oasis to set our folding chairs up in. After so many hundreds of kilometres travelling through flat, dry Savannah country, this park stood out to us as a beautifully green and verdant spot. The town gets its water supply from the Burdekin river and we are advised this will never run out. As we set up our chairs under a shady tree, preparing to settle in for a few hours with our books and sandwiches, we detect a pungent smell around us. It turns out that we have selected a tree which is full of bats who are not keen on having their daytime sleep disturbed! Diary note: look up as well as looking around when selecting a lunch spot!!