WELCOME
The Herberton Mining and Visitor Information Centre is situated in Herberton
, the oldest town on the Tropical Tablelands. The town sits on a hilly landscape
with streets dotted with jacaranda trees.
Herberton’s main claim to
fame was Tin Mining.
Tin had been reported in the district by James Venture Mulligan in
1875 but Jack's follow-up prospecting party in 1879 could not find commercial
quantities. On their second trip, Willie Jack and John Newell found tin in
payable amounts in Prospectors Gully, where the town of Herberton now stands,
and smelted some in a tree stump to prove it actually was tin. This was in
April, 1880.
John Newell rode overland to Thornborough to register the
discovery. Further finds came rapidly, resulting in the founding of new towns
such as Watsonville, Irvinebank, Montalbion, and many more. The tin boom
also sparked closer settlement and paved the way for the modern towns of
Atherton, Mareeba, Malanda, Ravenshoe and confirmed Cairns as the major
port in far north Queensland.
The Herberton Mining and Visitors Information Centre seeks to
interpret the mining history, and to showcase the present town and its beautiful
surroundings.
For Site Map Click Here
Contact Us at the Mining Museum and Visitor Information
Centre
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