Monday 31st May 2021
We didn’t have a good sleep. Madeline was restless. Unsure if it was the cold, her tummy or something else. We were all pretty tired waking up today.
The night in Tolga was cold, it got down to 14 degrees overnight and around 17.5 inside the van. Madeline had her long PJs, cover and quilt on. We turned the heater on at around 4am to start heating the van for morning wake up. Thank goodness for diesel heaters.
We managed to get ourselves together and left the Memorial Park at 845am.
We travelled southwest up the mountains and over the mountain flats. It rained and it was foggy in the ranges.
We arrived at Herberton Visitor Information centre at 9am.
The visitors centre is set of 14Ha of land which made up the Great Northern Mine. It was a substantial tin producer.
The history and material in the centre was absolutely outstanding. See below for a more detailed look at our visit and the history behind it all.
We drove on further south and started westward at a little town called Ravenshoe. We made our way to our rest stop for 2 nights, at Archer Creek, Millstream.
Eva was pronouncing the town Ravenshoe as Raven-Shoe. Now we aren’t sure if it’s Ravens-hoe instead. We plan to find out.
After a spot of lunch we walked down to the creek just next to us. The river rocks were abundant as were the significant number of different rock types in the sand. Eva was abuzz with excitement over the geological findings on the banks.
Jason was spotting areas for fishing in the rapidly moving waters of Archers Creek.
While Jason went fishing Madeline and mummy painted inside the van.
Looking out the window we spotting…you guessed it, not one but two roosters walking around the rest area.
Jason is convinced local caravan parks release them to stop people free camping.
Jason didn’t have very much luck fishing. As we were all tired, we had an early night.
Tomorrow
We are visiting Millstream Falls and Innot Hot Springs.
Herberton
Is a rural locality on the Tablelands of Queensland. It sits 918m above sea level on the Great Dividing Range.
Early History
The first European exploration of this area, part of the traditional land of the Dyirbal, was undertaken in 1875 by James Venture Mulligan. Mulligan was prospecting for gold, but instead found tin.
The town of Herberton was established on 19 April 1880 by John Newell to exploit the tin find, and mining began on 9 May 1880. By September 1880, Herberton had a population of 300 men and 27 women. Herberton Post Office opened on 22 November 1880.
The town’s name is attributed to John Newell. It is believed he named it after the Herbert River whose northern tributary (Wild River) flows through Herberton. The Herbert River was named after Robert George Wyndham Herbert, the first Premier of Queensland.
Tin History
We were able to watch and walk through the recovery of Tin from the rock.
The Great Northern tin lode was discovered in 1879 and four prospectors, William Jack, William Ronald Joss, John Newell and Thomas Brandon, who had been working in the Tinaroo and Wild River area for some time. They applied on 12 April 1880 at Thornborough for a sixty-acre Mineral Freehold.
The foundations were laid by November 1880 for the Great Northern Battery.
Within a year, over 150 mines were being worked in the area and the town of Herberton soon become a thriving centre.
Tin mining here ceased in 1978.
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