Etheridge

First impressions of Croyden one sees the interesting welcome sign. The funny looking lizard is supposed to be a Gilberts Dragon. He waves happily as you drive into town. It is an interesting and quite neat sign.

Next stop is the True Blue info centre. Here there is quite a lot of history to take in. Things to do, places to go. Lots of ideas. There is some old mining machinery on display that tips you off to why Croyden was settled. Gold fever of course. I don't think the miners got rich, but the big companies certainly did. Hotels ans adult entertainment would have been certain winners. It was a seriously hard life.

From the info centre sign.
The Croydon goldfield produced at least 23,675 kilos (761,167 fine ounces) of gold and 25,008 kilos (804,023 fine ounces) of silver between 1886 and 1935. Most of this was recovered between 1886 and 1906, and from an area of about 645 square kilometres.

There were at least 110 mines on the Croydon goldfield, though the main ones were Golden Gate (the biggest), Tabletop, Golden Valley, Mountain Maid, Goldstone ("the 12 Mile"), Homeward Bound, and in Croydon itself Iguana Hill, Lady Mary, The Queen and Highland Mary.

Croydon gold lay in reefs - it was not found on the surface, so miners had to go underground for it. But it was generally not very deep - the deepest mine on the Croydon field went down 1367 feet (417 metres) at Golden Gate.

The Croydon field began to run down by 1909 and when the miners left for World War 1 many of the mines filled with water and never reopened.

In admiration for his feats during the siege of Mafeking the Croydon miners presented General Baden Powell with a 1 lb gold ingot encased in a pom pom shell inscribed, "to General Baden Powell from his admirers on the Croydon gold field, North Qld. This 1lb of Croydon gold is 24 carat and so are you."

Croydon has a golden past

It was the last of Queensland's gold towns, in its day the fourth largest town in the state. For 40 years from 1886 until the mining warden's office left Croydon in 1926 thousands came in search of wealth. They built these streets, and in the face of drought, flood and economic depression made their lives here. A few got rich, many did not. Many died, from disease, in the mines or from the climate.

Croydon had grown from nothing in 1885 to about 7000 people by 1887. The town boasted wide streets and many fine buildings.Read more