Mount Coolon
Located in Yangga country two hundred and ten kilometres southwest of Bowen and two hundred and eighty-seven kilometres west of Mackay within the Whitsunday Regional Council's boundaries, the former gold-mining township of Mount Coolon was originally known as Koala.
In 1914, Thomas Coolon pegged a claim on the gold lode discovered by Yacamunda station jackeroo Luke Reynolds the previous year. Other claims, consolidated to form the Native Bear lease, followed. After a dispute over Coolon's original claim saw the mining warden's court favour the plaintiff in November 1918, Coolon shot and killed him and three others before turning the rifle on himself.
After the community recovered from the incident, he Native Bear operation yielded gold worth £6,691 in 1919. Two years later, a new company took over the lease, erected a battery and mill and turned out nearly 79,000 ounces of gold, worth more than £300,000 by December 1934.
Links to add
Koala.
Thomas Coolon
Yacamunda station
Luke Reynolds
Native Bear lease
