Hostname: page-component-669899f699-ggqkh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T14:33:10.864Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A History of Gold Mining in Ravenswood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2016

Lyndon Megarrity
Get access

Extract

Ravenswood is approximately 125 kilometres inland from Townsville. In the early 1900s, it was among the top gold producers in North Queensland. Now, in the 1990s, after several decades of limited activity, Ravenswood gold mining has undergone a revival. This paper will explore the history of Ravenswood from its inception to the present day, emphasising the importance of technology to the progress of the goldfield. Special attention will be drawn to the New Ravenswood Ltd. Company (1899–1917), which combined innovative technology with an effective management, thereby creating an unprecedented level of prosperity in the town of Ravenswood.

Type
Research Article
Information
Queensland Review , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , May 1998 , pp. 52 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Endnotes

1 Vaughan, F., ‘History of the Ravenswood Gold Field and Mining District’, Queensland Votes & Proceedings (hereinafter QVP), Vol. 3, 1888, p.3.Google Scholar

2 Roderick, D. C., ‘Ravenswood: Surveying the Physical Evidence’, in Kennedy, K. H. (ed), Readings in North Queensland Mining History, Volume 1, Townsville, 1980, p.53; Clark, D., Australian Mining and Mettallurgy, Melbourne, 1904, p.305.Google Scholar

3 Wegner, J., The Etheridge, Townsville, 1990, p.46.Google Scholar

4 Menghetti, D., ‘Extraction Practices and Technology on the Charters Towers Goldfield’, North Australian Research Bulletin, No.8, 1982, p.6.Google Scholar

5 Roderick, D. C., ‘Ravenswood 1868–1917’, in Dalton, B. J. (ed), Lectures on North Queensland History, Second Series, Townsville, 1975, p.156.Google Scholar

6 Kennedy, K. H., Bell, P., and Edmondson, C., Totley: A Study of the Silver Mines at One Mile, Ravenswood District, Townsville, 1981, pp.5–8; Caspani, J. K., ‘A. L. Wilson and the New Ravenswood Company: A Study of the “Wilson Era” in Ravenswood 1899–1917’, BA (Hons) thesis. James Cook University of North Queensland. p.5.Google Scholar

7 Warden (Ravenswood). QVP, Vol. 4. 1892. p.27; Lougheed, A. L., ‘The Cyanide Process and Gold Extraction in Australia and New Zealand 1888–1913’, Australian Economic History Review, Vol. 27, No. 1. 1987, p.45; Neal, J., Beyond the Burdekin: Pioneers, Prospectors, Pastoralists: A History of the Dalrymple Shire 1879–1979, Charters Towers, 1984, pp.129–33.Google Scholar

8 Warden (Ravenswood) QVP, Vol. 3, 1887, p.886.Google Scholar

9 Curle, J. H., The Gold Mines of the World, London 1902 edition, p.182; Undersecretary for Mines, QVP, Vol. 3 1894, p.817.Google Scholar

10 Warden (Ravenswood), QVP, Vol. 2, 1900, p. 235; Warden (Ravenswood), QVP, Vol. 4, 1897, p.86.Google Scholar

11 Caspani, J. K., ‘A. L. Wilson and the New Ravenswood Company: A Study of the “Wilson Era” in Ravenswood 1899–1917’, p. 9.Google Scholar

12 Warden (Ravenswood). QVP, Vol. 3, 1899, p.378. For details on the cyanide process, see Moil, A., Mining and Mining Investments, London, 1904, p.41.Google Scholar

13 See John Bull Gold Mining Syndicate Ltd., Public Record Office (hereinafter PRO) File No. BT31 5778/40493. For biographical details see Caspani, J. K., ‘A. L. Wilson and the New Ravenswood Company: A Study of the “Wilson Era” in Ravenswood 1899–1917’, p. 7.Google Scholar

14 Warden (Ravenswood), QVP, Vol. 4. 1897, p.87.Google Scholar

15 Queensland Government Mining Journal (hereinafter QGMJ), 15 January 1901, p.19.Google Scholar

16 QGMJ, 15 March 1901, p.141; Warden (Ravenswood), QVP, Vol 4, 1897, p.87; Warden (Ravenswood), QVP, Vol 4, 1896, pp.112–114.Google Scholar

17 New Ravenswood Ltd., PRO File No. BT 31 16166/61222; Donnybrook Blocks Mining Syndicate Ltd., PRO File No. BT 31 8363/60768.Google Scholar

18 Neal, J., Beyond the Burdekin, p.135; Warden (Ravenswood), QVP, Vol. 4, 1897, pp.86–92; New Ravenswood Ltd., PRO File No. BT 31 16166/61222.Google Scholar

19 North Queensland Herald, 15 May 1899; MacLaren, J., ‘Queensland Mining and Milling Practice’, QVP, Vol. 4, 1901, p.540; Warden (Ravenswood), QVP, Vol. 2, 1900, p.234.Google Scholar

20 Neal, J., 1984, Beyond the Burdekin, p.135; Caspani, ‘A. L. Wilson and the New Ravenswood Company: A Study of the “Wilson Era” in Ravenswood 1899–1917’, p. 10; ‘List of Crushings 1899–1917’, Reel 6, (unpaginated section), New Ravenswood Mines Records (hereinafter NRM), held on microfilm at the James Cook University Library.Google Scholar

21 By 1902, the subscribed capital was £35 559. An additional 4 418 £1 shares were purchased at a premium of £4 per share during 1904. New Ravenswood Ltd., PRO File No. BT 31 16166/61222.Google Scholar

22 Undersecretary for Mines, Queensland Parliamentary Papers (hereinafter QPP), Vol. 3, 1912, p.623.Google Scholar

23 Mengheni, D., 1982, ‘Extraction Practices and Technology’, pp.13–14.Google Scholar

24 Ibid, pp.13–14; MacLaren, J., 1901, ‘Queensland Mining and Milling Practice’, p.540; Warden (Ravenswood), QPP, Vol. 2, 1903, p.978.Google Scholar

25 Undersecretary for Mines, QPP, Vol. 2, 1907, p.1010.Google Scholar

26 Reynolds, J., Of Men and Mines, Melbourne, 1974, p.106.Google Scholar

27 QGMJ, 15 January 1909, p.46.Google Scholar

28 QGMJ, 14 December 1907, p.662; Neal, J., 1984, Beyond the Burdekin, p.137.Google Scholar

29 Warden (Ravenswood), QPP, Vol. 3, 1911–12, p.375.Google Scholar

30 Wilson to Directors, 24 September 1901, NRM, Letterbook 1, p.177.Google Scholar

31 Wilson to Directors, 15 April 1903, NRM, Letterbook 1, p.490; Wilson to Directors, 5 May 1911, NRM, Letterbook 4, pp.765–766.Google Scholar

32 Wilson to Directors, 25 June 1908, NRM, Letterbook 3, p.900; Wilson to Directors, 9 November 1903, NRM, Letterbook 1, p.626; Wilson to Directors, 31 January 1901, NRM, Letterbook 1, p.39.Google Scholar

33 Wilson to Directors, 22 May 1906, NRM, Letterbook 3, p.174.Google Scholar

34 Warden (Ravenswood), QPP, Vol. 2, 1903, p.977. For details of Wilson's directorships, see Nash, R. L., The Australasian Joint Stock Companies' Year Book, Melbourne 1902, 1904 and 1907 editions.Google Scholar

35 Undersecretary for Mines, QPP, Vol. 2, 1905, p.64.Google Scholar

36 Neal, J., Beyond the Burdekin, p.136; Warden (Ravenswood), QPP, Vol. 2, 1907, p.1123.Google Scholar

37 Nash, R. L., The Australasian Joint Stock Companies' Year Book 1914, pp. 457–458.Google Scholar

38 Neal, J., Beyond the Burdekin, p.138.Google Scholar

39 For details see Hunt, D., ‘The Ravenswood Strike’, in Dalton, B. J. (ed), Lectures in North Queensland History No.4, Townsville, 1984.Google Scholar

40 Warden (Ravenswood), QPP, Vol. 3, 1914, p.678.Google Scholar

41 Warden (Ravenswood), QPP, Vol. 1, 1918, p.1507; Neal, J., Beyond the Burdekin, p.140.Google Scholar

42 Ian Black & Co., Ravenswood, Ravenswood 1976, unpaginated; QPP, Vol. 2,1906, p.1149; QPP, Vol.3, 1919–20, p.43.Google Scholar

43 MIM Holdings Ltd., Annual Report to Shareholders, 1989. unpaginated, held at the James Cook University Library; Bruvel, F, J., “Queensland Mineral Commodity Report”, QGMJ, January 1994, p.18; QPP, Vol. 1, 1918, p.1425.Google Scholar