WELCOME

The Herberton Mining Museum and Visitor Information Centre is situated in Herberton , the oldest town on the Tropical Tablelands 90 minutes west of Cairns Queensland Australia.. 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 Museum and Visitors Information Centre seeks to interpret the mining history, and to showcase the present town and its beautiful surroundings.

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The Herberton Mining Museum and Visitor Information Centre is operated by the Tablelands Regional Council . Staffed largely by volunteers, it houses mining displays and local history archives. The Museum manages the heritage listed Great Northern Mine Site on which the Museum stands.

The Mining Museum is registered with the Australian Tax Office as a tax deductible Gift Recipient .

Contact us at the Mining Museum and Visitor Information Centre

Phone/Fax (07) 40 963 474