Historical Australian Towns: Irvinebank, QLD: A Mining Museum Town

Irvinebank is an almost abandoned old mining town west of Herberton on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland.

In its heyday, Irvinebank was a bustling tin-mining frontier town. Today, this isolated and picturesque spot operates as an outdoor museum, boasting more than 50 restored period buildings.

Bar Barrum People

The Bar Burrum (Mbarbaram) people of the Atherton Tablelands and surrounds lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle around the lands, which included Irvinebank, before the 1880s and the arrival of Europeans.

The prospector, Michael O’Leary, who arrived in the upper Tully River area in the early 1880s, wrote about the Bar Burrum People in his newspaper column:

Before the white man’s time, those people had no utensils for boiling water. They had a bag made from the nupa bark that they used for carrying honey, etc. It was sometimes used for water purposes. The native bee supplied them with honey and also wax, so that the fastenings where string was used could be made more secure. This vessel was called the nupa, and the honey and wax was known as myee. Water would be mixed with the honey and then it would be lapped up with the aid of pieces of vine that they had purposely chewed into shreds. This nupa tree came in for a good many purposes. The shoots or saplings supplied them with very strong rope. From the bark they made their blankets. The tree when dead decomposed very quickly and it was a favourite timber for the beetles to deposit their larvae in. When hatched they formed into grubs, and, of course, provided those people with food. This grub is known to them as the chambonne. Before using, the bark is carefully smoked. Those trees [nupa] are often ringbarked so as to cause their decay. The young vine tree [Calamus spp.] is somewhat similar to the nupa. From it they get material for ropes, blankets, vessels, and the tree is often stripped for making humpies (Coyyan 1918, part X:2).

O’Leary was also critical of the impact that Europeans and government policies were having on the life and culture of the Aboriginal rainforest people.

Swedish scientist Eric Mjöberg, who led the first Swedish scientific expedition to Australia in the early 1900s, hired Aboriginal guides, but he did not ask them much about their culture other than the names of the lands that he visited. Later, before he died in poverty, back in Sweden, Mjöberg had nightmares that he was being pursued by Aboriginal people and the Wondjina, creation spirits of the Dreamtime.

The Bar Burrum people were driven from their traditional lands by the Native Mounted Police force. However, after a massacre at Irvinebank in 1884, when Native Troopers and a Sub-Inspector Nichols killed at least four Aboriginal people, Nichols was discharged, and the use of Native Police was mostly abandoned. The Herberton Advertiser reported on this event, and the word "massacre" was used for the first time in the Queensland Parliament.

Aboriginal man climbing a large eucalypt, Atherton Tablelands, n.d. Queensland. State Library QLD

Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Thursday 11 January 1934

1840s

In 1848, Edmund Kennedy, the Assistant-Surveyor of NSW, Aboriginal tracker Jacky Jacky, and a group of men arrived at Cape York Peninsula, where they battled mangrove swamps and rainforest. They reached the Herbert River and crossed it just east of Mt Garnet and went around the mountains near Irvinebank.

Only Jacky Jacky made it back to the ship. Kennedy was killed by Aboriginal people somewhere near the Escape River.

Sketch of Kennedy's death, SLQLD

When tin was discovered in 1882 by three prospectors, James Gibb, Andrew Thompson and James McDonald, Irvinebank was known as Gibbs Creek.

In the following year, John Moffat of the Glen Smelting Company in Herberton, acquired several of the tin shows, including the Great Southern Mine, at Gibbs Creek in 1883, and opened a battery and smelters and renamed the town Irvinebank, after the River Irvine, near his home in Scotland.

John Moffat

John Moffat (1841–1918), who lived at Irvinebank from 1883, was an interesting and unusual man. He may have been an enterprising visionary, but he was also very shy and would often hide if people approached him.

Moffat was a Swedenborgian who followed the theologian Emanuel Swedenborg rather than Jesus. He read philosophy, theology, engineering and science books, which he carried about in a swag during his days working as an outback shepherd.

Moffat was frugal, and he was known to be honest.

English: John Moffat (mining pioneer), 1904

James Gibbs

James Gibbs, one of the miners who first discovered tin at Irvinebank, moved to Watsonville, not far from Irvinebank, which is famous for the windmill that stands in the middle of the road. Gibbs went into the hotel business and died in 1906, where he is buried in the local cemetery.

Watsonville Cemeter, Mareeba Shire, Queensland

1880s: Prospectors Come

A tin battery and a dam were constructed by Moffat on the hillside above Tail's Commercial Hotel and Gibbs Creek. And a five head stamp mill, with crushing facilities that attracted many hopeful miners to the area.

The battery and smelter, were christened the Loudoun Mill, named after the place where Moffat was born in Scotland, by Janet Jack, daughter of William Jack, a business partner of Moffat in 1884.

After the ceremony, 150 guests sat down to lunch in the garden of Moffat's home, Loudoun House, later enjoying various sports.

In late 1884, Irvinebank became infamous for a massacre of Aboriginal Australians by Native Police led by Sub-Inspector William Nichols. John Moffat alerted authorities and an investigation was held.

Western Star and Roma Advertiser (Qld. : 1875 - 1948), Wednesday 11 November 1885

Louden House Irvinebank residence 1886, SLQLD

Eventually, the Irvinebank crushing capacity was considerable, with forty head of stampers and a Huntingdon Ball Mill. A tin smelter was added in the 1890s, and a second in 1904 that required very large amounts of firewood.

The Italians

Italians became involved in the supply of firewood and charcoal used by the smelter and the blacksmiths at Irvinebank.

Italians became involved in the supply of firewood and charcoal used by the smelter and the blacksmiths at Irvinebank. In September 1888, a group of these Italian woodcutters and miners - Harry Maranta, Alexander Leone, Battista Leone and Giuseppe Lampatta, discovered the Vulcan tin lode.

But a syndicate of local miners purchased the Vulcan mine from the Italians in 1890 for £2,100. The Vulcan Mine became Australia’s deepest (1440 feet) and richest tin mine, operating for over 40 years.

Pit head of the Vulcan tin mine in the Irvinebank mining district. Town of Irvinebank is 12 miles (about 20 kms) by rail west southwest of of Herberton. Circa 1904. SLQLD

Vulcan Tin Mine at Irvine Bank, QLD, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 1 January 1908

Tin refining floor, Irvinebank Company's treatment works, Irvinebank, circa 1909

Getting There

In the early days, Cobb & Co coaches were the most reliable way to get to Irvinebank.

Bill McDonald ran a line of coaches from Herberton to Irvinebank, through mountainous country and later, Manny Borghero bought the Irvinebank Company's teams (other drivers: Rod McCrea, Bill Wall, Jack Connors, Jack Williams, Bill Arbouin, Albie Bimrose, Bernie and Spout, Harry Chatfield and Wesley Stiff).

Tin was carried by drays, pack horses and pack mules.

Irvinebank township is a place of some note as Northern mining townships go. It has a store, three hotels, post office, police barracks. School of Arts (with over 1000 volumes), State school, and butcher' and baker's shops. There is also a Roman Catholic church, and Anglican and Presbyterian ministers visit the place occasionally. The population is about 350 persons, of all ages.

Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 10 October 1896

Irvinebank Mining Companys horse drawn wagon Montalbion 1914, Queensland State Archives

Cobb & Co's mail coach on the Port Douglas - Herberton Road, Queensland, 1887, SLQLD

1900s

The Stannary Hills Tramway opened in 1902, and construction on The Junction to Irvinebank began in August 1906, opening in the following year.

The tram passed Hales Siding, Orient Camp and then Montalbion, following Gibbs Creek to Irvinebank. The trip was not for the fainthearted, as travelling to Stannary Hills and Irvinebank involved passing through deep ravines, travelling around a frightening horseshoe bend and climbing steep inclines.

Stannary Hill tramway, 1902, SLQLD

Irvinebank Tramway - very early 1900s

Irvinebank, QLD, Week (Brisbane, Qld. : 1876 - 1934), Friday 24 January 1908

Pack mules at Irvinebank, QLD, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 1 January 1908

Steam tram crossing Irvinebank bridge over Gibbs Creek, circa 1911. SLQLD

View of Irvinebank from the hospital, 1904, SLQLD

Two of the earliest hotels established at Irvinebank were the Mining Exchange Hotel (later Orient Hotel) and Tait's Commercial Hotel. Other names were Fraser's Hotel, Australia Hotel, Royal Hotel, Picnic Hotel and Vulcan Hotel.

Irvinebank, QLD, North Queensland Register (Townsville, Qld. : 1892 - 1905), Monday 16 March 1903

Entrance to the Tornado tin mine in Irvinebank, QLD, 1904, SLQLD

Great Southern Mine in Irvinebank, QLD, 1904, SLQLD

Pit head of the Vulcan tin mine in the Irvinebank mining district, SLQLD

Employees at Jack and Newell's Sore at Irvinebank, North Queensland Register (Townsville, Qld. : 1892 - 1905), Monday 3 April 1905

Irvinebank Dam, ca. 1906, QLD. SLQLD

View of houses, church and horse team on the road behind the Irvinebank tin mill, circa 1906. SLQLD

Church of England Sunday School, Irvinebank, ca. 1907 Mrs. Stovell is standing to the right in a black hat, circa 1907

Irvinebank Tramway, Qld - Passenger Car, very early 1900s, QLD

Portrait of three Chinese gardeners from Irvinebank, Queensland, 1908. SLQLD

Australia Irvinebank Town Band, circa 1908

Gathering near Ganes Siding and Picnic Hotel, Irvinebank, ca. 1909, SLQLD

Inside the fitting shop, Irvinebank Company's tin treatment works, Irvinebank, 1909, Queensland Government Mining Journal

Heyday

During the town's heyday, around 1912, there were two brass bands, a school of arts, primary school, hospital and telegraph services available at the Jack and Newell's Store and a branch of Armstrong, Ledlie & Stillman's store.

The stamper battery was working away 24 hours of the day, and other machinery added to the general cacophony.

View of Wade's Royal Hotel at Irvinebank. Timber dwellings surround the hotel. State Library of Queensland, ca. 1912

Irvinebank Township and Dam 1913, SLQLD

Ted Busbridge and family at Irvinebak, QLD. Ted was a brick maker at Irvinebank and the family lived lived at Mango Cottage. He died at the age of 76, at the Irvinebank Hospital in 1930

Irvinebank Cricket Team, Northern Herald (Cairns, Qld. : 1913 - 1939), Thursday 6 March 1919

View of Irvinebank, Queensland, Wade's Royal Hotel on the left. SLQLD

Dr William Evan McFarlane's Observatory

Dr William Evan MacFarlane, who was appointed surgeon at the Walsh District Hospital at Irvinebank in 1906, was born in 1866 on the island of Lifou near New Caledonia and graduated as a medical doctor from Edinburgh University in 1900.

Not only did Dr McFarlane play the organ and appear in a local variety show, but he built a small roller-skating rink under his house for the local children. He was also an amateur astronomer. McFarlane built an observatory with a rotating dome at his house at Ivirnebank, installing a 7-inch refracting telescope.

Dr McFarlane's Telescope & observatory, Irvinebank. This telescope now at Riverview College, circa 1910, State Library of Queensland

Premier Of Queensland

Edward Granville Theodore, who served as the Premier of Queensland from 1919 to 1925, worked at the Vulcan Mine at Irvinebank in 1907. Theodore was born in Adelaide, the son of a Romanian immigrant father and English-born mother.

Edward Granville Theodore, 1884 – 1950) was an Australian politician who served as Premier of Queensland from 1919 to 1925

José Paronella

José Paronella (1888 –1948), a Spanish immigrant who later built the heritage-listed tourist attraction located at Mena Creek, Queensland, named Paronella Park, had been a tin miner at Irvinebank.

Paronella's Tin Mine, Irvine Bank, circa 1942

Henry Dalziel V.C.

Born and bred at Irvinebank, the son of a tin miner, Henry (known as “Harry”) Dalziel, was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry, during the First World War. The Henry Dalziel Oval at Irvinebank, is named in his honour.

Private Henry Dalziel in England circa 1918, wearing a bandage under his hat. AWM. He was born at
Ragged Camp, Irvinebank, QLD

The town began to decline when the price of tin fell in 1907.

In 1919, the State Government bought the Irvinebank works for local ore. By1934, businesses had closed, as had the hospital and the local police station. A newspaper report of this year mentions that houses at Irvinebank are being removed at an "alarming rate"; people were packing up and taking their home with them.

1920s

Irvinebank football team, QLD, 1920, State Library of Queensland

Irvinebank football team, QLD, 1920, SLQLD

Ted Busbridge and family at Irvinebak, QLD. Ted was a brick maker at Irvinebank and the family lived lived at Mango Cottage. He died at the age of 76, at the Irvinebank Hospital in 1930

Today, Irvinebank operates as an outdoor museum.

Around Irvinebank

Loudoun House, is also known as Moffat's House, was built c. 1883-1884, is now operated as the Loudoun House Museum by the Irvinebank School of Arts & Progress Association

School of Arts (1900) on the right was the third school of arts to be built at Irvinebank, QLD. National Bank on the left with Loudoun House Museum on the hill behind

Memorial to John Moffat at Irvinebank, QLD and to the memory of Allan Waddell

Map and information about Irvinebank, QLD

Mango Cottage, former home of the Busbridge family, Ivinebank. QLD

Grave of Mannie Borghero at Irvinebank, QLD. A packer used pack horses to carry goods across rough terrain

Queensland National Bank (former) Federation style, Irvinebank, QLD, at Jessie Street, was built circa 1905. The first manager to occupy the Queensland National Bank building at Irvinebank was Mr Harry Bathurst