Kingsborough
One of the Hodgkinson goldfields' twin centres, Kingsborough, was named after Henry King, the MLA for Wide Bay and Secretary for Public Works and Mines (1874-76). The town, located northeast of Thornborough, thirty kilometres west of Dimbulah and eighty kilometres west of Cairns on Caledonia Creek in Djungan country, was initially called Kingston. The name changed in 1877.
By that stage, the settlement had a population of eleven hundred, eight general stores, two butchers, and a dozen public houses. Other businesses included a lemonade factory, chemist, baker, auctioneer, assayer, blacksmith, newsagents, and brickworks. A small dam across Caledonia Creek ensured water supplies for the Vulcan crushing battery's steam-powered machinery.
The town was surveyed at the start of May 1880, but the town's decline had started. In the 1886 census, the population was down to fifty.
New finds in the district produced a brief turnaround in the mid-1890s, with a new battery (the Reconstruction, formerly the Good Hope battery, relocated from Limestone), a cyanide plant and the General Grant Mine, with a deep shaft that eventually reached 224 metres.
However, by 1903, according to the Australian Handbook, Kingsborough had a single store, three hotels and a provisional school, which eventually closed in 1924.
Kingsborough has several heritage-listed sites, including:
- General Grant Mine, off Dimbulah-Mount Mulligan Road;
- Kingsborough Battery, off Kingsborough-Thornborough Road ;
- Tyrconnel Mine and Battery, Kingsborough-Thornborough Road. The Tyrconnel Gold Mining Company purchased the Vulcan battery in 1884 and relocated it in 1895.
Links to add:
Caledonia Creek
Djungan
General Grant Mine
Good Hope Battery
Henry King
Kingsborough Battery
Limestone
Reconstruction Battery
Tyrconnel Mine and Battery
Tyrconnel Gold Mining Company
Vulcan Battery
