Historical Australian Towns: Mount Britton, QLD: Once a Gold Rush Town

Mount Britton is 130km west of Mackay, QLD.

Mount Britton (originally Britten) was a gold-mining town in the Mackay region, that was named by William Landsborough in 1856, for, James Britton.

Aboriginal Peoples

Norman Tindale estimated the tribal lands of the Barna as covering around 3,200 square miles (8,300 km2), centering on the headwaters of the Isaac River, and running west as far as the Denham Range. Their southern frontiers were around Cotherstone. They were also present around Grosvenor Downs. The Wiri lay to their north, and their eastern flank bordered the western boundaries of the Barada.

Mackay region Aboriginal people, 1872

1880s

Post and telegraph station at Mount Britton, QLD, ca. 1880, SLQLD

Men standing outside the Mount Britton Hotel, Mackay district, QLD, 1881?, SLQLD

Early In January of 1881, a party of prospectors, comprising W. Orange, D. Nolan, and Thompson M'Fadzcn started out from Nebo In search of gold or any other valuable metal. They travelled via Lake Elphinstone, Mt. Gothard (an old copper mine on the. head of Bee Creek), thence across to the head of Cooper Creek to what Is known as The Stork, near Mt. Roberts. So far they had not found anything payable, so they turned for home again. On their way they camped a night at a little station called Tongwarry, about six miles from Nebo.

Here they met a man named Ward, who had just finished a job of fence repairing. He was also a prospector, and in conversation he mentioned that a man named Jim Heenan had worked with him for a few weeks, and showed him some gold which ho said he'd Just got up in the ranges, at the same time pointing towards Mount Britten and Marling Spikes (some peaks that are visible for a great distance). Orange was in favor of turning back and prospecting the ranges referred to, but Nolan and M'Fadzen, who were married men with homes in Nebo, said "No." Then Ward suggested he would go back with Orange, so that was agreed upon.

Next day Nolan and M'Fadzen went on to Nebo. Orange and Ward went prospecting. They followed Cooper Creek up to the junction of Oakey Creek, then along the latter until up to very near the head. They made camp and started fossicking. They got colors in several places, and as they went farther up the gully they found traces of some other prospector's presence, such as pot holes here and there. However, next day they struck payable gold. This was early in February, 1881. They called the place Nuggety Gully, and they pegged out a prospecting area. (Twenty men's ground, also two men's ground, making a total of 22 men's ground) .

I may here mention that a miner's right entitles a man to 50 x 50 feet, and the prospectors are allowed twenty times that area for a period of, I think, three months, in which to prove it payable or otherwise, and if payable they have priority over any claim they care to peg out within that area. The rest of the area is thrown open to the public. After they marked trees at the four corners, also put in pointed pegs and written notices in prominent places, claiming the ground, they returned to Nebo, each sworn to secrecy.

Orange wired to Clermont warden's office their applications for the areas pegged out. However, Ward got too much rum in and gave the show away and within a week there were ovcr 20 men on the field. Claims were pegged nut all along the gully, end everywhere near it.

RUSH BEGAN. Tho news spread like wildfire and people came from all parts, some on horseback, others on foot, and a few with wheelbarrows. Tents sprung up like mushrooms.

During the- latter part of 1882, the Government had a telegraph line erected from Nebo to the field.

Cobb & Co. ran a line of coaches from Mackay to the field for three months.

Reckitt and Mills had a very fine reef, much nearer the town, colled the Edith Mary. This reef was very rich in what the miners call pockets.

After the reefs got going in full swing, quite a little town sprung up in their vicinity— a sort of mining suburb of the main settlement, Mr. Dick Absolon built a hotel and Mr. E. J. Marryatt, of Lamberts, built a nice little store and post office....

There was a lot of gold got over on Moonlight Creek, a couple of miles west of Mt. Britten.

The distance by road was approximately 90 miles. Business' men of Mackay thought a shorter way could be found, so arranged with that great bushman, the late James Muggleton, to try and find a short cut to the field; and he did.

WRITTEN FOR THE 'MERCURY' BY MR. JAMES PERRY here

The gold field was opened in 1881, when several nuggets were found in the alluvial deposits of Nuggety Gully and Oaky Creek. (Information taken from: B. Dunstan, Queensland mineral index, 1913)

Royal Mail Hotel and doctor's cottage, Mount Britton Goldfield, ca. 1881 Two rough bush buildings made from bark are pictured on the Mount Britton Goldfield, ca. 1881. Gold miners can be seen standing outside the hotel building on the right. SLQLD

Mount Britton Goldfield, QLD, ca. 1881, SLQLD (The goldfield was known as the Nebo Goldfield and it was about 20 miles south west of Eton Railway Station and 43 miles by rail and road south west of

John Mills and his wife, Mt. Britton, QLD, SLQLD

In 1881, gold was discovered not far from the Finch-Hattons' station. Harold Flnch-Hatton (1856-1904) wrote his memoirs "Advance Australia", in1885 (Finch-Hatton, the fourth son of the Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham, spent eight years in Australia between 1875 and 1883.

While I was on Mount Britten diggings, a man came in, wheeling his Lares and Penates [his personal effects] before him in a wheelbarrow. The whole certainly weighed over 150 pounds, and he had wheeled it through 200 miles of heavy blacksoil country, in pouring rain, in just a fortnight's time.

Queenslanders feared the arrival of Chinese miners, and placed legal obstacles to keep them off the goldfields (45 Chinese miners eventually came to Mount Britton in 1886):

By and by a mob of Chinamen, the most patient, persevering, hard-working of all the races under the sun, will start and systematically "gound-sluice" the whole course of the creek, from one end of the workings to the other, and make a real good thing of it.

When I first arrived on Mount Britten goldfield there were seventy men on it, all living in tents. The only building that had any appearance of permanence about it was a butcher's shop and store, made out of a few sheets of bark and saplings. Flour had run out, the drays having all stuck in the mud half-way from port to the diggings; but there were tea, sugar, and tobacco, and a few tools to be had, and any amount of beef, supplied by fat cattle from the neighbouring run, two or three of which were run in every week into a sapling yard near the butcher's shop, and killed. For some time beef was all we had to eat; but it was very good, and there was plenty of it, so we were glad enough to get it. ...

The rush to Mount Britten was stopped before it assumed a serious phase, but at no time was the field capable of supporting more than 200 men on payable gold. Most of those who came were rank new-chums at digging. Instead of setting to work to look for a new run of gold, they generally confined themselves to the melancholy pastime of sitting down and watching others getting it, and by and by, finding that, with a few exceptions, gold is no more to be picked up without hard work on a diggings than anywhere else, they cleared out, leaving the fortunate ones who had secured good claims to work them out.

Read here

A duel was ‘“ought'"on the
Mount Britten goldfield in 1880s. The
principals were a Polish doctor and three
Italian gold-claim jumpers. The doctor
was a colourful figure in early Queensland
history. His usual dress while in camp
consisted of green-striped pyjamas, a red
shirt, red cotton night-cap, and untanned
— greenhide— slippers.

As a goldfield the Mount Britten diggings

did not amount to much; but the
doctor — and other early comers — got pay
able gold. It was while he was away from
his claim, attending an injured miner,
that the three Italians took the opportunity

of “jumping’" it. There was only
one policeman on the field, an Irish constable,

and when appealed to by the doctor

he would not interfere in any way.
The doctor then challenged the leader of
the trio to fight a duel for possession,
and the challenge was accepted. Although
shots were exchanged, the duel proved
inconclusive, as the policeman put in an
appearance and brought it to an end
before damage was done to either combatant.

That night the doctor loaded
both his horse pistols and went down to
the Italian's camp. The following day the
doctor was in possession of his claim and
the Italians were nowhei'e to be found. An
abandoned tent with its sides riddled with
large-bore bullet-holes gave a hint as to
the haste of going .

(1.)

Mount Britten lies west of Mackay some
65 miles, and is reached via Eton Railway
Station, the terminus of the railway line, and
is noted for the large number of nuggets
which were unearthed at the opening of the
field in March, 1881. (2.)

View of the Edith Mary mine at Mount Britton, ca. 1885, QLD, SLQLD

Edith Mary mine at Mount Britton,, QLD, ca. 1885, SLQLD

The Mount Britten field lies about a mile from the township, which is very picturesquely situated between the mountains and Oaky Creek,...(3.)

Queensland Figaro and Punch (Brisbane, Qld. : 1885 - 1889), Saturday 24 September 1887

1900s

School group belonging to Mount Britton Provisional School in Mount Britton, QLD, ca. 1901, SLQLD

Albert Reckitts established, along with John Henry Mills, a photographic studio "Reckitt and Mills" in Mackay before moving to Mount Britton. His gold mine was named named in 1881, after Albert's daughter Edith Mary Reckitt, who died. Read here

Thc Late Mr. Albert Reckitts.The Late Mr. Albert Reckitts, with his wife, came from England to Queensland in 18G4, and was for a short, time in business at Toowoomba, at which place his wife died in 18GG, leaving ono surviving child out of four. Mr. Reckitts returned to England, taking with him his daughter throe years old, and having placed her with his two sisters ho returned to Queensland, and entered Into the sugar growing industry at Tallegalla Plantation, Maryborough district. After a few years ho sold out, and started a photographic business at Cooktown, being an early arrival at that place. Subsequently, he joined partnership with Mr. J. H. Mills, of Brisbane, and together they toured the south-western and western part of Queensland, in 1S81 tile Mount. Britten gold rush broke out, and there tho partners went into book keeping and gold mining, having secured a valuable reef known as thc "Edith Mary." In 1887 Mr. Reckitts again wont to England, but returned to Mount Britten, and took up his residence with his old partner in a property owned by himself. Here ho continued in apparently good health till he died, on March 24, after an Illness of about threo weeks. Although of a very retiring nature, ho was loved and respected generally. (Albert was related to the creator of the Reckitt’s Bag Blue washing whitener)

Mills family, Mt. Britton, QLD, ca. 1906, SLQLD

Pugh's (Queensland) official almanac, directory and gazetteer.(1907)

Australian South Sea Islander family home at Mount Britten near Mackay, Queensland, 1907,SLQLD

Children standing outside Cairnedie residence at Mount Britton, QLD, ca. 1907, SLQLD

WWI

When World War I broke out in 1914, William James O’Grady enlisted at the age of 32 on 8th December 1915, in Rockhampton, Queensland. No. 4522. His profession is listed as a farmer from Mackay. At the time, he was working on his mother’s and brother’s farm in Sarina which they had purchased only three years prior. Born in February 1883 at Mount Britton (Sarina),

1940s and WWII

Daily Mercury (Mackay, Qld. : 1906 - 1954), Friday 26 March 1943

2000s

In July 2016, the Barna people were gramted Native Title to approximately 2,699 km2 (1,042 sq mi), together with another portion of land, 530 km2 (200 sq mi), to be shared with Widi people, covering land and waters south-west of Mackay and north-west of Rockhampton in the Bowen Basin.

In the 2021 census, Mount Britton had a population of 4 people.

Around Mount Britton

Old mining equipment & materials on display.

Trolley at the Mt. Britton historical village. Mount Britton is a historical township in Nebo Shire, Queensland, Australia. The township began in 1881 with the discovery of a gold field, and at its height had a population of 1500 inhabitants. At the 2006 census, Mount Britton and the surrounding area had a population of 255. When alluvial and shallow reef gold diminished by the late 1880s, the town experienced a decline and was eventually abandoned. It currently exists as a historical site maintained by Nebo Shire.