Angor to Zillmanton

 

Mount Cuthbert smelter remains

Stories of 520 deserted towns and mining camps in North Queensland.

The story of mining in Australia is only partly about finding ore, mining and processing it, and reaping the financial rewards or suffering the losses.

It is equally about the people in it - the men and the women, and their families. (by Arvi Parbo).
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Colin Hooper, Townsville, September, 1993.

Mount Cuthbert smelter remainsWriting this book has been a journey. Its well springs covered most of Queensland from a boy running through the scrubs with a dog and a rifle, learning of the bullockies and their teams and the old fossickers' huts of beaten kerosene tins on White Hill at Clermont, to the man receiving instruction in tin prospecting with old miners at Herberton and gold with the solitary prospector on the Palmer.

Mount Cuthbert smelter remainsIt travelled back through our past and on into our future with the hospitality of the bush folk, their stories, theories and dreams. It lead past the realisation of changes in attitudes of all the people who made and make up this country.

It let to the secret places, the lost places and deserted towns.

Mount Cuthbert smelter remainsWith a great deal of help from sources too numerous to mention these stories, plans, and photos have melded from vague semblance to clear coherence. To those willing helpmates and encouragers I offer my heartfelt gratitude.

The journey was partly completed by visiting all those old towns with a dog and battered Landrover as companions. The book itself is the real journey, completed only when it leads back to oneself.

The story of mining in Australia (cont)

... is only partly about finding ore, mining and processing it, and reaping the financial rewards or suffering the losses. It is equally about the people in it - the men and the women, and their families. It is about their hops and ambitions, the houses they built, the towns they lived in, the hardships they faces, their joys, their sorrows, and the wonderful contribution they made to building the Australian nation.

Colin Hooper has admirably recorded the fascinating story of the adventurous people in the now deserted towns of North Queensland. He has done us all a great service by collating these stories into an easily read, well illustrated volume, which will provide a very useful reference for mining, and family historians. I do not know of any similarly comprehensive record for the many other mining districts of Australia. After reading this manuscript, I can only hope that there will be others who will follow his lead.

History is important because it helps us gain a perspective of ourselves and the future. In today's world we need this more than ever. I suspect that our successors will need it even more.

I congratulate Colin Hooper on a marvelous book and commend it to readers.

Arvi Parbo, Melbourne, 18 October, 1993.