Golden Gate Mining and Town Complex

Straddling the Normanton to Croydon railway are the remnants of the Golden Gate mine and town complex. Located about 10km north-west of Croydon, it contains evidence of mine workings, battery, cyanide plant, township and a cemetery. It also includes the largest surviving assemblage of early boiler and steam engine power plant recorded in North Queensland. Gold was discovered in Croydon in 1883 and it was formally declared a gold field in 1886. The first claim in this location was the Golden Gate Prospecting Claim, taken up by Joseph Hardy and James Fulton in April 1886. However it was the nearby Golden Gate reef (registered as Rogers No 1 mine) that proved to be most lucrative, and this mine produced one third of the gold of the Croydon district between 1886 and 1911. By the turn of the 20th century Golden Gate was the chief mining centre of the region. The small township of Golden Gate was serviced by a railway station on the Normanton to Croydon line. The population reached 1900 by 1892 and the town included 11 hotels, eight stores, three churches a school and post office. The cemetery is on the southern side of the railway line.