What a night we had. The temperature was a lot kinder last night and we were able to do our cursory inspection of Charters Towers in relative comfort. In the afternoon the temperature was winding up however.
Charters Towers is a sizeable country town with a population of around 8200 and is situated on the Flinders Highway, 134 km from Townsville. It is a regional centre for the mining industry, the beef industry and education, specifically boarding schools catering for remote rural families.
Gold was found by accident in 1871 by an aboriginal boy, Jupiter Mosman, who was chasing some horses which had bolted as a result of lightning. The gold boom of 1872 to 1899 brought people, activity and prosperity to Charters Towers. During the period, with a population of 27,000, Charters Towers was Queensland's largest town outside Brisbane and operated one of the few regional stock exchanges in Australia. Affectionately known as "The World" it was said that anything one might desire could be had in the "Towers" leaving no reason to travel elsewhere.
There are several tourist attractions in Charters Towers but some we visited were not open. We did take photographs to remind us what we missed but resorted to those which were accessible eg the Towers Hill Lookout, the city itself, and the Burdekin Weir, the latter not to be confused with the Burdekin Falls Dam over 100km away. The Burdekin Weir provides Charters Towers' water supply.
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| 261116 Burdekin Weir |
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| 261116 Burdekin Weir |
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| 261116 Burdekin Weir, with a good water flow over the weir |
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261116 Pelicans, ever the opportunists, downstream of
Burdekin Weir |
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261116 The route of the Burdekin River relative to Charters Towers
261117 Video of Burdekin Weir |
The drive to the weir provided another country humour experience, although it may be a legitimate name.
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261116 Country humour and a good play on words.
The name that is on everybody's lips |
The Towers Hill Lookout gave an excellent view over Charters Towers and an uninterrupted view for many, many kilometres in an arc from SW to SE. There were some remnant WW2 bunkers dotted around the hill.
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| 261116 Sign at Towers Hill |
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| 261116 The view from Towers Hill looking over Charters Towers |
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| 261116 Another view from Towers Hill looking NW |
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| 261116 From Towers Hill looking in the direction of Ravenswood |
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| 261116 Looking SW from Towers Hill |
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261116 WW2 bunkers on Tower Hill
261116 Video taken from Towers Hill |
There are bits and pieces of mining equipment and memorabilia dotted around the city.
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261116 Plenty of old mining equipment scattered around
Charters Towers
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261116 Building housing Venus gold battery (closed)
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| 261116 The Miners Cottage (closed) |
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We shopped at Woolworths today and we don't think we have ever seen a busier store.
Some trivia for today.
- It has been estimated that there exists more gold underground than the total removed in the gold rush. Hundreds of separate mining leases covering an area of 200 square kilometres were consolidated by James Lynch in the 1970s and 1980s and the company Citigold listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1993. After 89 years the goldfields were reopened and gold was produced again from the Warrior Mine 4 kilometres southeast of the town in November 2006 by Citigold Corporation Limited. Gold is mined from two deposits which are accessed by sloping tunnels. The extracted gold ore is trucked about 10 kilometres south west of the city for processing into gold Dore' bars, which are a semi-pure alloy of gold and silver. Citigold has announced plans to open three mines directly under the city to extract gold at a rate of 250,000 ounces per year.
- Andrew Symonds, Australian Test cricketer, spent much of his early childhood in Charters Towers.
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