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The Mine |
Production to 1915;
428,000 tons of ore yielding:
Copper; 10,059 tons
Gold; 51,022 oz.
Silver; 181,027 oz.
As early as 1860 gold had been reported at the base of the ridges that were to become Mount Chalmers but it was not until 1870 that a shaft was sunk and a battery set up, between then and 1896 there were several attempts to make the mine profitable, these were encouraged by rising copper prices. In 1907 The Great Fitzroy Gold and Copper Mines Ltd. was formed and with substantial financial backing from Melbourne and London was able to pour money into machinery and mine development, despite this investment and the extension of the railway from Sliepner Junction falling copper prices and failures in mill processes and equipment forced the liquidation of the company in 1912. Several attempts were made to restart the mine but they were unsuccessful and the mine closed again in 1914.
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Subsequently, attempts by a local syndicate, Mount Chalmers Mining and Development Limited, to re-open the mine in 1935 failed, but in the early days of World War II shortage of copper for manufacture of munitions caused a resurgence of interest in the old mine. In 1941 the Commonwealth Government conceived an ambitious scheme to develop a new refinery using Dawson Valley coal and engineers from Mount Morgan mine began tests at Mount Chalmers, production resumed once more in March 1942 but by 1943 the need for copper had decreased to such an extent that the mine was closed yet again. |
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In the 1960's Carpentaria Exploration Company Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Mount Isa Mines, conducted a thorough geophysical survey of the area, the company decided against further operations and exploration and mining rights were disposed of to the Mount Morgan mine company, Peko-Wallsend Limited who began work in 1979 converting the underground mine to an open-cut operation that was expected to continue for 8 to 10 years. The old mine buildings and above-ground workings (of bricks hand-made of mine-slag on the site) were bulldozed into the open-cut craters. |
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When a strike at Mount Morgan mine spread to Mount Chalmers in 1983, the company decided on total closure of the latter operation and the staff were paid off. Some plant-operators were retained for a few months to bulldoze the stockpile of mineralised rock into the open-cut. Mining rights were surrendered to the state, and the land returned to its original ownership of farmer Keith Wood. All that remained of the famous Mount Chalmers mine in 1988 were two craters, half-filled with copper-tinged green water (remnants of the open-cuts), and two brick water-tanks hidden in the undergrowth, which were missed when the old underground mine was destroyed. This time, in 1983, the Mount Chalmers mine came to a complete end. |
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The Town |
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The Great Fitzroy Gold and Copper Mines Ltd. transformed Mount Chalmers from a quiet village into a bustling town with five hotels and over 2,000 people from 1907 to 1912. There were busy streets of cottages and substantial houses as well as numerous businesses: six general stores as well as a drapery, a shoe store, a general outfitter/manchester store, a greengrocer and a haberdashery with a barber's shop attached. There were five hotels, including the two-storied Grand, the Great Fitzroy near the mine (used mainly by mine management and their visitors), the Royal (which had been moved from Cawarral), and the Union.
Though the mine management provided single-men's quarters there was still room for six boarding-houses, including Rebedtzky's in a section known to the locals as "Little Russia", an extremely well kept area. Nearby in the main town there were two butchers, a baker, a refreshment room, a cafe and a lemonade factory. There was no lack of entertainment with the Past-time Club, two halls and a cinema for silent films as well as a skating rink and sporting fields for three football codes. Even though average wages were only about £1.0.0d. per week, there was a good deal of money about and two banks, the Australian Joint Stock/Australian Bank of Commerce and the Bank of New South Wales had branches at.Mount Chalmers. The Australian Bullion Company also maintained an office in the town.
With the liquidation of the Great Fitzroy Gold and Copper Mines Ltd. Mount Chalmers followed so many other mining towns whose ore had been worked out, men sought work elsewhere and left with their families, business' closed and Government services were curtailed or discontinued, finally buildings in the town were taken elsewhere. An example of this recycling was the Mount Chalmers Police Station when the mine closed it was taken to Yeppoon where it served as the Courthouse until1984, it was then moved to Emu Park where it can still be seen as part of the Emu Park Historical Society. Today Mount Chalmers is a small village set in the pleasant foothills of the Berserker Range.
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