Mount Cuthbert, Queensland

Mount Cuthbert is a former copper mining town in the locality of Three Rivers, Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia.[1] It is now a ghost town.[2]

Mount Cuthbert
Queensland
Mount Cuthbert is located in Queensland
Mount Cuthbert
Mount Cuthbert
Coordinates19.9897°S 139.9186°E / -19.9897; 139.9186 (Mount Cuthbert (town centre))
Established1917
Postcode(s)4824
Time zoneAEST (UTC+10:00)
LGA(s)Shire of Cloncurry
State electorate(s)Traeger
Federal division(s)Kennedy

History

Mount Cuthbert was one of a string of mining towns created in north-west Queensland (other examples being Duchess and Selwyn) by Melbourne investors eager to profit from high copper prices in the early 20th century. A railway had been opened to the town and copper smelters were operating by 1917, and by 1918 the population was recorded as 750 people. Some of the workers in Mount Cuthbert at the time were Russian and affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World.[3][4]

Mount Cuthbert State School opened on 1917 and closed on 1924.[5]

A fall in the world price of copper in 1920 badly affected the local economy, and by 1921 only 267 people remained. By 1927 the settlement was a ghost town,[6] and the railway line was closed in 1949.[4]

Mount Cuthbert Post Office opened by June 1910 (a receiving office had been open from 1908) and closed in 1927.[7]

Heritage listings

The township of Mount Cuthbert and its smelter is listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.[8]

References
  1. "Mount Cuthbert – town in Shire of Cloncurry (entry 23008)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  2. Fynes-Clinton, P. N. (1966). "Ghost towns of Queensland Part I : The Cloncurry Copperfield" (PDF). Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland. 8 (1): 144–154.
  3. Windle, Kevin. "Murder at Mount Cuthbert: A Russian Revolutionary describes Queensland life in 1915-1919". Journal of the Australasian Universities Modern Language Association (110): 53–71.
  4. "Queensland Places: Mount Cuthbert". University of Queensland. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  5. Queensland Family History Society (2010), Queensland schools past and present (Version 1.01 ed.), Queensland Family History Society, ISBN 978-1-921171-26-0
  6. "North Queensland's Mining Heritage Trails" (PDF). Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Queensland Government. p. 21. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  7. Phoenix Auctions History. "Post Office List". Phoenix Auctions. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  8. "Mount Cuthbert Township and Smelter (entry 601629)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
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