“Eureka, if I close my eyes I can see the excitment, I can hear and see in my mind, that exhalation, a mixture of excitement, relief and sheer joy that one gets when the difficulties of life seem to fade away as the realisation that a more comfortable life is just around the corner, all thanks to that little spec of yellow metal. “Gold” “Gold’ “Gold” I’ve found gold.
These must have been the words of the Curr Brothers while prospecting down Conolly Creek on a hot and humid day in 1868 at Merri Merriiwa Station. (By the way, just as a foot note, how did I know it was a hot and humid day. A simple deductive reasoning – North Queensland has hot and humid days for approximately 80% of the year – just saying).
Anyway as coincidence has it at, exactly the same time Thomas Aitken was also jumping up and down having discovered gold on the Ravenswood Station just next door. Interestingly, both the Curr Brothers and Aitken were more interested in land for cattle grazing than gold mining. Thomas Aitken eventually taking his find to the new port of Townsville and buying land south of the port, which is known today as Aitkenvale.
It wasn’t long before the gold rush and in 1869 the major reefs were discovered in Nolan’s, Jessop, Buchanan gullies on the southern side of Elphinstone Creek. Two camps were set up called Upper and Lower Camps, the Upper Camp becoming Ravenswood. Three pits were developed called “General Grant” (Remember the American Civil War had just ended one four years before), Sunset and eventually Sarsfield.
What is it about gold that men will walk across deserts and suffer the dry killing heat and incessant flies, lack of water and killer snakes of the outback in the hope of finding it. Is it the belief that the next great nugget found will be their’s and that will make them rich beyond their wildest dreams (works for me:). The hunt for that elusive metal Gold has driven men insane throughout history. Merchants, sailors, accountants and the occasional swaggie have all given up promising jobs to roam the outback in search of the next great find.
Ravenswood has seen it all, the ups the downs and the revitalisation. The history of this town is on display like a living museum. Ravenswood only an hour South West of Townsville boasts a number of examples of magnificent late 19th and 20th century architecture. With two stunning hotels, a number of shops, a church and post office, not to mention a well equiped museum in the old court house. This town provides a window into another time when a young Queensland was emerging and mining was king.
Ravenswood is the name of a near by cattle station on which gold was discovered in 1867, once the find was verified the town, like all gold rush towns expanded exponentially. At one point boasting 48 pubs. It was so prosperous it holds the record for the most gold produced in Queensland and for thirty years was an administration centre for the region.
It was also gazette as the Shire of Ravenswood until 1930 when it was resumed into the Dalrymple Shire. It’s interesting that the universal measurement in Australia of a towns activity is measured by the number of pubs it had at its highest growth point. Similarly, dams are measured by the number of Sydney harbours that will fit into them??
Early gold miners lived as they did quite often in tent cities, unlike their southern counter parts the North of Queensland suffered dreadful heat and raging storms in summer making tent dwelling less than Ideal.
I had done some research before going to Ravenswood and I was of the belief there was only a single pub and a town deserted after gold ran out, like most ghost towns in Queensland only a couple of old swaggies that refused to leave. This is soo wrong, when I got there I was presented with a dynamic town with a very active mining community and a can do tourist attitude. The whole town is heritage listed and for good reason, the stories of miners and mining accidents, gold fever and a vibrant community was on display, like a thriving town in an adventure novel. The town is over 150 years old making it is one of the oldest in Queensland.
Did I mention the church, of course there is a church, how could I have forgot to mention that. St Patrick Catholic Church is a fine example of catholcism. Now you have probably seen many out back churches, but I bet you haven’t seen one as grand as this in a small town. While it is a wooden structure and not your traditional brick cathedral, it fits perfectly with the times and is positioned on a hill above the town. Let’s put it into perspective, I once went to visit the gold fields at Arrow Town in Canterbury, New Zealand. In fact the same gold field where Australia’s only saint “Saint Mary Mackillop” who started the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart” helped deliver education to mining kids and food to staving mothers. While I’m not religious I do admire these caring brave women.
Anyway, the church was a small stone box, unassuming and modest. Just like the one below:).. In a way its position and grandeur attempts to counter the majesty of the pubs in town, clearly more siners in this town. Today this church is no longer run by the Catholic Diocese and is a church for all denomination.
History
Prior to the gold rush that set up the town, the area was an emerging cattle centre where the fertile grasses which led to the development of a thriving pastoral industry. Transport routes came in from the township of Bowen, along the Boggie River, past what was to become the Burdekin Dam and along the ridges to Ravenswood Station. However, due to the cutting off of transport routes by the Burdekin River every summer, as a result of flooding in the wet season. There became a desperate need for a port closer to the mining action, the port of Townsville was developed. The transport costs for moving cattle out of North Queensland at the time were high to the point that it made the industry unviable.
Interestingly, mining gold was considered by the Government as a way to build the economy and provide customers for the emerging cattle industry. They even offered a 200 pound reward for the person who found it. The solution to the logistical costs was thousands of hungry miners with money to spend. You can’t help feeling that the whole Townsville port construction thing was an elaborate strategy to grow the cattle industry.
There is only so much gold that you can trip over lying on the surface and soon more sophisticated methods were needed. The gold mining rushes of the late 1800’s changed society at a time when great strides were being made in Europe through mechanisation. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing and one of the dominant players in this space was Robert Lewis Stevenson. The emergence of steam engines made a hugh impact on mining and changed the nature of the industry. Much of this technology can still be seen in Ravenswood. It is curious at how fast the technology uptake was considering the transportation and communication difficulties at the time.
Steam Equipment
In 1830 Stevenson designed, built and demonstrated his train the “Rocket” on the Manchester to Liverpool rail line. A railway line that he had built against all odds and with limited finance. Now Stevenson did not design the steam engine, this can be attributed to Watt and if we go back far enough the Romans actually had a toy steam pot that used to amuse kids with its flapping top. So the invention of the steam locomotive was not a new idea. However, many steam engines would overheat when put to work for long periods of time and occasionally they would blow up.
They also required copious mounts of both coal and water. However, the “Rocket” had a unique design that enabled the efficient use of the steam and enabled smaller more powerful steam engines to be built.
So why is this important? The transport logistics to move big heavy steam engines across the world on sailing ships and up into remote isolated mining towns, and the cost to build, maintain and supply fuel and water made the old technology prohibative. From Stevenson’s Rocket to the gold fields of North Queensland in just on thirty years, these light weight engines (relatively speaking) made gold mining possible. It’s amazing what gold does to people and how it drive technological change.
In Ravenswood we can see the use of this technology in some of the remaining artefacts. However, with the depletion of the surface gold Ravenswood saw a decline in the number of miners, as other gold fields such as Palmer River and Charters Towers came online. In order to access the gold in them there hills there was a need for modern mining techniques. One of these was the steam powered batteries that broke up the ore from the surrounding quartz.
Geological interest – White Blow
Now I’m definitely not a miner or a geologist, so please add comments below if you know more about this, but I was alway told that gold often appeared in or near quartz. Just out of town is this very unusual geological feature. It’s called White Blow which is a large single piece of Quartz that is 15 metres high and 45 metres in diameter. It sits atop a hill like a white shining beacon marking the gold fields for all to see. It was formed between two massive geological plates approximately 300 million years ago and was pushed to the surface during seismic activities. Or was it dropped there by gold mining aliens…. you decide. Today it resides within the White Blow Conservation Area, just south east of the town and well worth a visit.
Future of mining in the region
Ravenswood has never really stopped being a gold mining town, its had its ups and downs and has been written off so many times, but still keeps coming back to life. The next chapter of this epic story is just about to begin.
Location
Ravenswood is about an hour West of Townsville and just short of 30 minutes South East of Charters Towers. It sits on a ridge along the Great Dividing Range.
Camping and accomodation
There is a “formal” camp ground called the “Top Camp Ground” which ironically sits on top of a hill overlooking the town. There is also a council ground and a number of informal sites including parking behind the Railway Hotel. Publican and hotel owner …….. suggests the idea came to him when renovating the hotel rooms in the basement of his pub. He simply had too much dirt and nowhere to put it, so he build a flat slab out the back of the pub. It became so popular that eventually he had to build more flat slabs. Lucky for …….. he had plenty of renovation to do.
Both the Railway and Imperial Hotels offer accommodation for the wearied traveller, both hotels offer in house dining in traditional settings, hotel rooms and of course cold beer. These two hotels were built between 1901-2 and feature similar architecture, there is a strong use of decorative led lighting in the windows and internal panels. In places if you look deep enough you can see the influence of Art Nouveau design, especially with the pressed ceilings, gold lined corners and chandelier surrounds. There is the ornate use of hardwoods to highlight the curved led light window frames. In their time these pubs would have been stunningly beautiful and an indicator of the success of the town..
