Wed 12th to Thurs 14th October - Charters Towers

On Wednesday we travelled 130kms to Charters Towers.  We would need to return to Townsville before heading south again but felt that the visit to Charters Towers would make the back-track worthwhile.  It was a 38 degree day when we arrived so we set up quickly and turned the air-conditioner on as soon as possible.

Charters Towers is an old gold mining town with a current population of 9,000.  In its heyday it had 30,000 people, 11 crushing mills, 65 hotels and one of the very first regional Stock Exchanges in Australia.  The peak goldrush era ended in 1900 and had totally finished by the end of WWII.

Once we were set up and had cooled down a bit, we went for a drive to the Towers Hill lookout.  Due to many fires around the area, visibility was poor, but we could make out the main township in the distance.  There are some 30 odd WWII bunkers located around Towers Hill that were used for storing fuel, etc.

We left the lookout and headed for the main street (Gill Street).  There are beautiful old buildings all along Gill street.  The original Post Office was built within 6 months of gold being discovered by an Aboriginal horse boy named Jupiter, in December 1871.  The current building was established in 1892, with the clock tower being erected in 1898.  Target has taken over one of the old buildings that has a walkway between the front of the shop and its totally separate glass display cabinets. Between these cabinets and the street is the main footpath.  Sadly, Target doesn't seem to make use of these display cabinets and their elaborate shelving. Charters Towers had its own stock exchange that opened in 1890 and it had three calls a day during the peak goldrush era.  It was originally built as the Royal Arcade in 1888 and today houses shops and a museum.

On Thursday (after a very good night's sleep) we toured the Venus Gold Battery which is the largest surviving battery relic in Australia and oldest surviving battery in Queensland.  Constructed in 1872, it was a public or custom mill in the heyday and became a State Battery in 1919 to provide ore crushing facilities for small miners long after other mills had closed.  It ceased commercial operations in 1973 after a century of service. When we went back inside the Battery, we were greeted with two showers of water on which a movie was shown.  After lunch we drove out to the Burdekin Weir which is the town's water supply.  The Burdekin River is the 4th largest in Australia by volume flow.  The water is pumped from the weir to the reservoir on Towers Hill.  We then went back to the van and the comfort of the air conditioner as it was another 38 degree day.

The view of Charters Towers from the Towers Hill Lookout.

A couple of the bunkers on the drive back down from the lookout

The Post Office building

The front of the building Target has taken over

The Charters Towers Stock Exchange building

Looking down the main street (Gill Street)

The Venus Gold Battery

The weighbridge in the foreground and the mill at rear

Buckets for moving ore up to the next level

Note the heavy belts

The rear of the battery showing the original chimney and Rick talking to our Tour Guide

Water dripping from two tubes with a movie being projected onto the droplets

This was where the gold was melted down and assayed

Burdekin Weir

Take note of the flood level markers

Looking down the Burdekin River (note the lean on the trees)