Ravenswood Mining Landscape and Chinese Settlement Area is a heritage-listed former mining town and archaeological site on the reserve bounded by School Street, Cemetery Road, Railway Street and Burdekin Falls Dam Road, Ravenswood, Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 14 October 2016.
History The Ravenswood Mining Landscape and Chinese Settlement Area is situated south of Elphinstone Creek and to the west of School Street and Kerr Street, in the town of Ravenswood, about south of Townsville and 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); attempts to extract gold from sulphide ores below the water table (); the New Ravenswood Company era (1899–1917); and small scale mining and re-treatment of old mullock heaps and tailings dumps (1919–1960s). In 2016 the Ravenswood Mining Landscape and Chinese Settlement Area 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 (most structures dating from the New Ravenswood Company era). It also includes remnants of two treatment plants (Partridge and Ralston's Mill, and Judge's Mill) from the 1930s; and the Chinese settlement area (1870s to the early 20th century, covering the first three mining periods at Ravenswood).
The place contains important surviving evidence of: ore extraction (from underground shafts) and metallurgical extraction (separation of gold from the ore) conducted on and near the Ravenswood goldfield's most productive reefs during the boom period of the town's prosperity (1900–1908); later attempts to re-treat the mullock heaps and tailings dumps from these mines; and Ravenswood's early Chinese community, which made an important contribution to the viability of the isolated settlement and was located along Deighton Street and Elphinstone Creek. The Ravenswood Mining Landscape and Chinese Settlement Area also has the potential to reveal evidence of early alluvial and shallow reef mining, as well as domestic living arrangements on the Ravenswood goldfield. It is an evocative reminder of the precarious and short-lived nature of north Queensland's mining booms, and has a special association with Archibald Lawrence Wilson, who established the New Ravenswood Company and improved both ore and metallurgical extraction processes on the goldfield.
Settlement and mining in north Queensland European settlement of the Kennedy Land District in north Queensland commenced with the founding of Bowen in 1861, and the spread of pastoralists through the hinterland. Pastoral stations were established up the valley of the Burdekin River, including "Ravenswood" and "Merri Merriwa".Ravenswood Conservation Management Plan: report to Ravenswood Restoration and Preservation Association Inc', Peter Bell Historical Research Party Ltd, Adelaide, June 2000, p.7 Townsville and Cardwell were both established north of Bowen in 1864.
However, mining, not pastoralism, proved to be the main catalyst for European settlement of north Queensland.'Mining Heritage Places Study: Northern and Western Queensland', Jane Lennon & Associates, Howard Pearce, September 1996, pp.xvii-xix In 1865 the founders of Townsville offered a reward for the discovery of a payable goldfield, and gold rushes occurred in the region from 1866.'The Northern Squatters', Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 11 October 1865, p.4 The first rush occurred at the Star River (inland from Townsville) in 1866. This was followed by a rush to the Cape River (near Pentland, southwest of Charters Towers) in 1867. Copper was also found on the Einasleigh River and at Cloncurry in the mid-1860s.Ravenswood Conservation Management Plan, p.8'Mining Heritage Places Study: Northern and Western Queensland', p.xvii.) Mining employed 19.8% of the north Queensland population in 1868, and 50% by 1876, before dropping to 15% in 1911. Although gold mining attracted people to north Queensland, alluvial finds of gold usually led to temporary townships, whereas underground reef mining held the promise of more stable and permanent settlements.
Alluvial gold and shallow reef mining (1868–72) Alluvial gold was discovered south of the later site of Ravenswood, in tributaries of Connolly Creek on Merri Merriwa Station, north of the Burdekin River, in late 1868. One source claims the 1868 find was made by "Messrs Jessop, Buchanan and Party who were afterwards granted the then customary reward".J Malcolm Maclaren, "Report on the Geology and Reefs of the Ravenswood Gold Field", 29 October 1900, p.1 However, another source credits W Crane and Party, who were directed to Connelly Creek by a Mr Curr (Merri Merriwa Station), and found payable gold in Tucker and Hungry Gullies (Creeks), later the site of Middle Camp - while stating that WH Buchanan, JF Jessop and EW Smith later made finds on tributaries of Elphinstone Creek, about April 1869. The Brisbane Courier later noted that Jessop and Party were rewarded £400 for discovering Upper Campwhile Crane and Party, the "original discoverers", only received £100. Prospectors soon established "Middle Camp" (later Donnybrook) on Tucker's Creek, and "Lower Camp" on Trieste Creek, with about 700 miners on the field by early 1869.'The Ravenswood Gold field, Queensland', Australian Town and Country Journal, 1 October 1870, p.15 Further north, in April 1869, the goldfield's richest alluvial discoveries were made in three dry creek beds close to the site of Ravenswood: Nolan's, Jessop's and Buchanan's gullies.Ravenswood Conservation Management Plan, p.9'The Ravenswood Gold Field', Australian Town and Country Journal, 1 October 1870, p.15 Despite these finds, many miners soon left for the rush to the Gilbert River (over west of Townsville).'Ravenswood', The Brisbane Courier, 8 April 1870, p.3
The parent reefs of the alluvial gold found in April were located about the same time as the exodus to the Gilbert - the General Grant being discovered first, followed by the Sunset. Both were visible above ground level, and both reefs would play an important part in the future prosperity of Ravenswood. The President Grant reef was one of the first two reefs discovered in 1869, along with the General Grant, but the President Grant is not shown on later maps (1900, 1903) of reefs in the area of the goldfield covered by this heritage recommendation. By 1872, the Sunset reef was the most productive reef on the field, with the General Grant in second place.Queensland Heritage Register application, Ravenswood Mining Landscape and Chinese Settlement Area, "History", pp.16-29, April 2016 In the next 40 years, nearly £3 million of gold would come from the reefs "in the little triangle between Buchanan's Gully [just east of Macrossan Street], Jessop's Gully [southwest of the town] and Elphinstone Creek".
Other reefs were soon found north of Elphinstone Creek, and in Nolan's Gully;Maclaren, "Report on the Geology and Reefs of the Ravenswood Gold Field", p.1 and meanwhile, reefs had been discovered at Middle Camp.The Ravenswood Gold field, Queensland', Australian Town and Country Journal, 1 October 1870, p.15 However, a lack of water meant that miners did not establish "Upper Camp" (later Ravenswood) near the General Grant and Sunset reefs until October 1869, after a storm temporarily resolved the water issue. By this time, most miners had returned from the Gilbert. The three camps on the goldfield had a population of 600 by January 1870, most in Upper Camp.'The Gold-Fields of Northern Queensland', The Australasian, 15 January 1870, p.15 Work was slowed by a lack of water, until rains in February 1870 enabled panning and sluicing, the results of which confirmed that Ravenswood was the first significant reef mining goldfield in the northern half of Australia.
However, the miners needed to crush the quartz ore to extract gold. The first machinery for this purpose, WO Hodkinson's five stamp crushing battery, the Lady Marion (or Lady Marian) Mill, was operational at Burnt Point (south of Upper Camp) from 18 April 1870.Ravenswood Conservation Management Plan, p.10Michael Brumby, "Ravenswood: a history", June 2015 The first month's crushing results caused "an even greater "rush" than that ... caused by the discovery of the alluvial gold". A second battery was operational in Upper Camp in August 1870, when the goldfield's population was about 1200.'Ravenswood', The Queenslander, 27 August 1870, p.9
Official recognition of the goldfield and settlement soon followed. The Queensland Government's geologist Richard Daintree visited Upper Camp in August 1870, and the Ravenswood goldfield (about 300 square miles) was proclaimed on 3 November 1870.Queensland Government Gazette, 1870, p.1440 By this time, the goldfield had a population of about 2000, and Upper Camp had 10 "public houses", with six public houses in Middle Camp.'Ravenswood' Brisbane Courier, 18 November 1870, p.4
The Government Surveyor, John von Stieglitz, arrived in November 1870, but was too late to impose a regular grid pattern on the settlement. Instead he formalised the existing plan, which was centred on the crossing of Elphinstone Creek by the main road (Macrossan Street), with tracks radiating out to the various diggings. Most commercial buildings were located along Macrossan Street. The resulting juxtaposition of mining, habitation and commerce gave the town its distinctive character.Ravenswood Conservation Management Plan, p.11
The town was proclaimed on 19 May 1871, with an area of one square mile (259ha).Queensland Government Gazette, 1871 (Gazetted 20 May 1871) This was later expanded to four square miles (1036ha) on 13 July 1883.Queensland Government Gazette 1883, p.259 Although gold had been discovered on Merri Merriwa Station, the name Ravenswood, after the run located further southeast, downstream on the Burdekin River, was preferred.
In 1871 the population of the goldfield was 900, with over half being in Upper Camp/Ravenswood,Diane Menghetti, 1992. Ravenswood: Five heritage trails, Department of History and Politics, James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville, p.5 and by the end of 1871 there were five machines in Ravenswood. Hodgkinson's mill had been moved into town, to a site just north of Elphinstone Creek, and was renamed the Mabel Mill. In 1871 the town had 30 licensed hotels, although these were referred to as "shanties" and did not offer accommodation.Ravenswood Conservation Management Plan, pp.11-12'Ravenswood', The Queenslander, 25 March 1871, p.10