NORTH Queensland has an amazing history of mining, some endeavours of short duration and others that continue to operate today. Many mine sites are closed to the public due to being on private or restricted Aboriginal land, and while others can be accessed at your own risk, the tracks can be treacherous and dangerous due to washouts and their isolated locations.
I love old mine sites and their once-bustling but now abandoned townships, and the legends and history of rags to riches for those who dared, finding the ore, mining and processing it, reaping the financial rewards or enduring the loss of bad investments.
The silent, often ghostly ruins tell tales about the people who settled the most remote locations in the country; men, women and children who dared to challenge the wilderness, walking and carrying their possessions on their backs, or on a pushbike or wheelbarrow. Some rode horses, or drove drays and wagons loaded with lengths of galvanised iron that would become their new homes.
Droughts and floods dogged their way, while the unfortunate fell victim to long spears or
