Hodgkinson Minerals Area
The Hodgkinson Minerals Area near the Hodgkinson River, about eighty kilometres west of Cairns on Koko Yalanji country in the present-day Shire of Mareeba, was the site of a gold rush in the 1870s.
Numerous towns and other small settlements developed after James Venture Mulligan discovered patches of alluvial gold and numerous quartz outcrops in the Hodgkinson River area in January 1876.
Although Mulligan warned that Mulligan the alluvial gold was dabs, he thought the Hodgkinson would become "one of the largest reefing districts in the colonies", but few heeded his caution.
When Assistant Goldfields Warden W.R.O. Hill arrived at the Hodgkinson in mid-April, he found two thousand miners there. Another seven hundred had been and gone, disillusioned by the lack of alluvial gold. Food supplies were short; prices were exorbitant.
Still, the situation improved once the focus moved to the quartz reefs.
A new port was required since the new field was too far from Cooktown. Various possibilities emerged, including Cairns, Port Douglas and Smithfield. Smithfield was the first to be eliminated: flooding associated with a cyclone in March 1879 washed the settlement away.
The steep ascent through the Barron Gorge meant that Cairns initially operated at a disadvantage.
After Christy Palmerston found a more accessible route down the Great Dividing Range (the Bump Track), Port Douglas emerged as the dominant centre until the Queensland Government's decision to start the railway into the hinterland from Cairns settled the question.
By mid-877, two towns had emerged at the new field's centre. Kingsborough and Thornborough were just five kilometres apart. Each had a population of more than a thousand. They had twenty hotels, thirteen general stores, four butchers, two banks and two jewellers.
Mining operations were boosted when the Cairns-Mareeba railway opened in 1893, making the field more accessible.
Cyanide refining technology improved yields, and the 1890s depression saw gold prices soar. Still, after the turn of the century, the Hodgkinson went into a long decline.
By 1913, twenty hotels had been reduced to five.
Ten years later, Kingsborough was deserted, while Thornborough had a handful of miners, tradespeople, and the Canton Hotel.
By 1933, the field was gone, and the towns had disappeared, apart from a few relics. However, eighty years later, the Tyrconnel Historic Gold Mine remains a tourist attraction.
Localities within the Hodgkinson included:
Beaconsfield
Glen Mowbray
Kingsborough
Merton
Northcote
Tinaroo
Great Western
Hodgkinson
Woodville
Wellesley
Union Town
New Northcote
Mount Mulligan
Montmunro
MacLeodsville
Littleton
Kingston
Stewartown
Thornborough
Tyrconnel
Watsonsville (not to be confused with Watsonville near Herberton)
Links to add:
Cairns-Mareeba railway
Hodgkinson River
Tyrconnel Historic Gold Mine
W.R.O. Hill
