Australia 2010: Mount Morgan

Mount Morgan is a town located in central Queensland, Australia. It is situated on the Dee River, 38 kilometres south of the city of Rockhampton, and is 680 kilometres north of the state capital, Brisbane.

The Burnett Highway passes through the town. The town has a population of approximately 3000 people. The picture above shows one of more than 18 hotels that had been around in the gold rush times, today there are only 4 left. The population at its hights had been up to 16.000!

The town was the administrative centre of the Mount Morgan Shire until March 2008, when it was amalgamated with neighbouring local government areas to form the Rockhampton Regional Council. It is also the site of Queensland's most polluted river (the Dee River).

Mount Morgan was founded as a gold mining town in 1882, and has over time produced gold, silver and copper. Among those making a fortune from this mine was William Knox D'Arcy. D'Arcy used his fortune to finance oil exploration in Iran, which led to the formation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now BP).

The Gold Mine

The lookout, named after a former Mount Morgan Shire Chairman, Mr. Arthur Timms, provides a dramatic view of Mount Morgan and the mine landscape.

In the foreground of the mine is the Gold Room where the gold was stored. It was never robbed. The north wing of this building formed part of the Chlorination Works, constructed in 1884. The first, not very successful attempts to seperate the gold from the ore by the Morgan brothers had been with mercury.

Behind this is the General Office. This building has three stages of construction and has served as both general office and accommodation quarters.

Moving to the left we see the second and main stack. Completed in 1905, is stack was originally constructed using 750.000 bricks which were locally manufactured.

(picture below shows the old owners building)

Left of the stack are the mounds of tailings, all that remains of the vast quantity of rock and earth dug from the mine, then discarded after the precious ore was removed. Once there were bush, gullies and gently flowing creeks...

The picture above shows a part of the hole that the miners dug in 100 years. Left is a remaining bit of the original mountain. The top of this mountain was compelety dug away and the hole filled with water. This water is very acid with a pH value of 2.8

The mine finally closed in 1981, having produced vast quantities of gold during its lifetime. Mined for over one hundred years, the Mount Morgan Mine produced 225,000 kilos of gold, 50,000 kilos of silver and 360,000 tonnes of copper. During the mining operation, most of the mountain was mined away, and the town now lies adjacent to a 300 m deep acid-water filled pit. Mining companies still prospect today in the area, and plans to extract further gold from tailings at the mine site are always under development. The Queensland Government, through its Department of Natural Resources Mines and Water have begun a rehabilitation project of the minesite.

Excavated by Mount Morgan Miners in the late 1800's, the fire clay caverns supplied fire bricks for the mine.

The roof of the caves reveal a number of dinosaur footprints, discovered in the early 1950's and authenticated in the mid 1950's.

The caverns are also home for up to seven species of bats, including the bent wing bats. A truly unique experience where heritage meets paleontology.

Tourism plays a large part in the economy of the town today. A number of historic buildings still exist in the town, and tourists can take excursions to the remains of the mine.

"Running the Cutter" is a local custom showing a gold miner in the area between 1900 and 1918 buying beer in billy cans and each drinking his can.

The area was host to one of the few rack railways (as part of the line from Mount Morgan to Rockhampton) to operate in Australia.

Between 1898 and 1952 the railway operated as rack railway. The rack portion of the line was replaced by a conventional adhesion railway in the 1950's. In turn, the replacement line was closed in 1987, and the town no longer has a rail connection.