A Step Back in Time by Maria Caesar

     With thunderous booms and flashes of lightning the city of Charters Towers was born. In the early 1870s, the horses of four prospectors scattered during a fierce thunderstorm. Whilst searching for their horses, the first Towers gold was discovered.  A rush of fortune-seekers quickly followed. By the end of 1872 approximately three thousand people inhabited the new field. Originally a rough settlement with bark and calico buildings the township transformed into a thriving city with around 25,000 residents. The goldfield reached its peak of gold production in 1899.

     Hundreds of shafts were sunk during the lifetime of the field and the ore raised was processed through many large Treatment Batteries. All religions were strongly represented on the field and in 1890 there were no less than 65 hotels registered. With sports, music and the arts also having fantastic followings, there was no reason to travel elsewhere. This is how Charters Towers earned its nickname, “The World”.

     A journey to Charters Towers would be incomplete without a visit to at least one of the many mining relics located within the town.

     The Columbia Poppet Head is located on the heavy vehicle bypass as you enter the town. The Columbia mine shaft is a vertical excavation that was used to access underground mining facilities 545 metres below. Above the shaft’s entrance stood an open timber structure known as the poppet head or head frame.  The poppet head was an essential part of the mining process and stood up to 20 metres high over the top of the mine shaft. The Columbia mine was one of the last that worked on the goldfield. In 2002, the Charters Towers City Council installed a replica mine works to cap the shaft.  

     The Venus Gold Battery is located on the outskirts of town. It is the largest surviving battery relic in Australia and the oldest surviving battery in Queensland. The battery was constructed in 1872. It was a public or custom mill in its heyday and became a state battery in 1919 to provide ore crushing facilities for small miners long after the other mills had closed. After a century of service, the Venus Gold Battery ceased commercial operations during the early 70s.

     Guided tours are available daily at the battery. One of the highlights of the tour is a holographic film presentation that shows the process of extracting gold from ore and the story of the battery’s working life.  The ghost of Mr EHT Plant, who built the battery, has some interesting tales to tell.

     The Miner’s Cottage, located a stone’s throw from the main street, is a typical example of a late 1800’s worker’s cottage. Between 1880 and 1920 many hundreds of these timber-framed “inside/outside” dwellings were constructed in Charters Towers.  Originally, the standard worker’s cottage consisted of two rooms, roofed by a transverse corrugated iron gable, with a verandah front and rear. The kitchen, bathroom and lavatory were located in separate detached buildings, almost always at ground level and with earthen floors.

     After the arrival of the railway in 1882, the four-room house began to replace the two-roomed cottage in Charters Towers. Then, when gold production slowed in the first part of the twentieth century, many of the quaint little houses were dismantled and transported to other parts of the region.

     The Miner’s Cottage has been refurbished and decorated to show how the house would have looked at the start of the twentieth century. Visitors can even pan for gold whilst visiting this mini museum. 

     Another historic building in Charters Towers is The Stock Exchange Arcade. Built in 1888, it was originally known as the Royal Arcade.  As one of Australia’s first few regional stock exchanges it was linked into the world via telegraph, with three calls a day, six days a week. In 2010 the Arcade was given an overhaul to replace the broken tiles and glass as well as repair other structural damage. Nowadays the Arcade offices have been converted into shops.

     In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the equipment in Assay rooms was used to analyse the quantity of gold contained within the ore. Some assay equipment and many various other mining artefacts can are on display in the Assay & Mining Museum located at the back of the Stock Exchange Arcade.

     The Historic Ambulance Centre dates back to 1903. It was the first ambulance station outside  Brisbane and covered a working area of almost 70,000 square kilometres – approximately the size of Tasmania. Within this museum there is an amazing collection of old vehicles and uniforms. Visitors can read log books that recorded the cases treated by ambulance officers during the past one hundred years.

     The Zara Clark Museum is owned by the National Trust and houses a large collection of photographs, equipment and other memorabilia reflective of Charters Towers’ golden past. The museum is housed in the historic Burns Philp building, built in 1888. Witnessing the demonstration of the flying fox (the Lampson Aerial Cash System from the old Pollards building) is a favourite amongst visitors. See if you can unlock the mystery behind the museum’s intriguing display of strange and somewhat unidentifiable objects. Or if you prefer military history then have a look at the Charles Wallace Military display.  

     It is hard to miss Lissner Park. This stunning garden, located close to the heart of the city, comprises of seven hectares. Within its grounds there is the Boer War Kiosk, Band Rotunda, World War I guns, Federation Fountain and memorials to grazier William Hann and pioneer Jupiter Mossman. A yarning circle was constructed in the park in 2009.  

     Another popular recreational area in Charters Towers is located on Hackett Terrace. Centenary Park was first gazetted as a Reserve for Public Purposes in 1888 and contains the gold discovery monuments. Every year, during the last weekend of August, the various clubs, schools and other groups operating within the region come together. There are over two hundred stalls in the popular Annual Community Day hosted by the Charters Towers Neighbourhood Centre.  

     To complete your tour, consider a visit to the two historic graveyards. The Pioneer Cemetery contains the graves of those buried from 1872 to 1895 and gives insight into the hardships the pioneers faced during the goldfield days, particularly to the babies and children within the population. The “newer” Charters Towers Cemetery was established in 1895 and is the resting place for several interesting local characters including gold discoverer, Jupiter Mossman and James Kenniff, the last bush ranger in Queensland.