Twenty eight kilometres from Atherton is the old mining town of Herberton. It’s a typical mountain mining town with steep hills and a collection of old buildings in the main street. It was a tin town with both a mine and a smelter nearby. In recent times it has taken its commitment to tourism seriously. The most significant atrraction in town is the Historic Village which has been expanding include a collection of over 60 relocated buildings and memorabilia.
The most impressive building in the main street is the Royal Hotel. It is an historic landmark, established in 1880 by two men after they struck gold on the Palmer River. It is one of the longest continually licensed hotels on the Atherton Tablelands, and its original structure was a single-story building, later expanded with a second story. The hotel has a traditional public bar, lounge bar, dining room, and upstairs accommodation. The dining room has its original silky oak casement windows and sets of double doors as its main features. It faces the main street and is used for town meetings and small functions
We had a look at the railway station which is just an ordinary sort of building although the history of the railway itself is much more interesting.
Following the discovery of tin at Herberton in 1879, the ports of Cairns and Port Douglas were established. The problem seemed to getting the minerals to these ports. The summer tropical rainfall in the region made roads virtually impassable in the wet season, leading to the need for better land transportation in the region. The region to the west of this section of the Queensland coast was relatively rugged, being mountainous rainforest.
Three potential routes were investigated to reach Herberton, via Port Douglas, Cairns and Geraldton (now Innisfail). The shortest route was from Innisfail, but it was the steepest and through very rugged country. The Port Douglas route was the easiest but longest. Cairns had the best port, and the selected route required the construction of many tunnels and bridges. By the time the railway reached Herberton in 1910 the tin mining boom was long over, and the line was being built to facilitate development.
The town’s most significant tourist attraction is the Historic Village and Museum – a remarkable collection of over 60 buildings all of which have been relocated to its site. Herberton Historic Village is reputedly the largest collection of Australiana in Queensland. Its buildings include an old school, a coach and livery stable, a miner’s hut, a slab hut dating from 1870, a bank, a presbytery, a telephone exchange, a pub (which is a composite of a number of buildings) and many more.
The museum was on the side of a hill and the slope challenged Jill somewhat but we did spend a good bit of time looking at the exhibits. Most were older than my memory but I could relate to some like the grocers shop which reminded me of my first memories of my grandfather’s business.
The school room had some interesting items in its exam questions on the black board that I don’t think I could answer. One of them was “What is the total cost of 1 1/2 gallons of milk at 4 1/2 pence per pint plus 3 gross of pencils at 2/6 a dozen and 7 1/2 yards of calico at 2 pence per foot.” Thank heavens for metric measurements!
The pharmacy would have been just in the right place as a building in the main street of a country town.
Other displays included a butcher’s shop and a collection of old vehicles from the mining and war days
One of the beenefits of staying in a cabin in the NRMA Hoilday Park is that we can cook our own meals. We have found a good IGA supermarket in town that has a wide selection of food. We are back to motels and pub food for a while after we leave here on Saturday.
