Golden Gate Mining and Town Complex is a heritage-listed mining camp at Normanton Road (Gulf Developmental Road), Croydon, Shire of Croydon, Queensland, Australia. It commenced in 1886. It is also known as Golden Gate Township, Croydon Consols Pump Shaft, Golden Gate No.10 North Mine, Golden Gate Cemetery, Croydon Consols Battery and Cyanide Plant, and Golden Gate Mine. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 14 August 2009.
History The Golden Gate reef on the Croydon Goldfield, northwest of the town of Croydon, was first worked in 1886 but abandoned in 1887. Work recommenced in 1891 with production continuing until a decline in 1915. The Golden Gate proved to be the most productive reef on the field, attracting commercial interest and capital in mines such as Golden Gate No.1, Croydon Consols (which distributed in dividends in 1896), No. 7 North, Nos. 3 and 4 South (which distributed over in dividends in 1900), and No. 5 South. The township was surveyed in 1893, although buildings were established before this. The population of the township declined until it was deserted in 1922.
Croydon Goldfield The earliest gold finds in the Croydon district were made by pastoralist William Brown and two of his station hands, who discovered a reef in mid-1883. Additional finds soon followed, mostly around the developing township of Croydon. On 18 January 1886 the area was declared the Croydon Goldfield and by the end of the year the population had grown to approximately 2,000. During 1887 the field boomed, the population trebling to around 6,000. At this period, gold yields from the Croydon field were second only to those recorded from Charters Towers.
Some mines close to Croydon township failed around 1890 when the ore was found to be cut by a wall of granite. However, rich discoveries in 1891 at the Golden Gate reef to the northwest compensated for this. The 1890s proved to be the most productive years for the Croydon Goldfield, despite increasing competition from emerging mining enterprises in South Africa and Western Australia. Most mining companies on the field were local concerns and Croydon brokers established a local stock exchange in 1892. The bank crash of 1893 was a setback for local capital and economic activity on the field waned temporarily.
The township of Croydon, which emerged as the social, administrative and commercial centre of the field, was declared a municipality in 1892, under the control of the Croydon Divisional Board. In 1907, administration passed to the Croydon Shire Council. From the mid-1880s satellite communities were established at many of the outlying reefs, with townships being formed at Golden Gate, Tabletop, Gorge Creek, Golden Valley, Goldstone, Carron and Twelve Mile, and campsites at Homeward Bound, Croydon King, Mark Twain, Lower Twelve Mile, Mulligan's, Flanagan's, Morning Light, Moonstone and Alluvial Springs.
Golden Gate reef The first claim on the reef, the Golden Gate PC, was taken up by Joseph Hardy and James Fulton in April 1886. However, yields from the Golden Gate claims were meagre until 1891, when a rich ore chute was discovered in Rogers' No. 1 Golden Gate mine. The large, well defined, north/northwest bearing Golden Gate reef contained gold- bearing quartz with abundant sulphides and was mined over a total length of . Records suggest that payable ore was limited to a vertical depth of approximately . Its most productive years, between 1886 and 1911, showed a yield of of gold from of ore. This production totalled more than one-third of the entire Croydon yield.
Important reefs in the area included the Golden Gate, Nancy Lee, Banner of Freedom and Winning Post. Mines in the area included Golden Gate Nos. 5, 7 and 10, Golden Gate United, Golden Gate Consols, Tracey's Block, Morgan's Block, Roger's No.1 and Plant's Block.
In 1900 the Golden Gate was still producing prodigious amounts of gold, but despite this, the profitability of the Croydon Goldfield was in decline. Despite extensive efforts to secure new payable lodes, it was the lack of success of deep exploration that spelled the end of mining at Croydon. Gold production declined during the years leading up to World War I and by 1915 most mining activities had ceased.
Rogers' No. 1 Golden Gate Rogers' No. 1 Golden Gate mine was one of the three major mines on this line along with the Golden Gate Consols and Golden Gate Nos. 3 and 4 South. James Rogers, an Irishman who came to Croydon in 1889 from Charters Towers owned and developed several mines on the Golden Gate reef and was also mayor of Croydon. The largest shareholder on the Golden Gate, Rogers obtained a government subsidy for deep sinking in 1894, which paid off with a rich find at in 1896, with of gold obtained. The reef had been traced to a width of ten feet in 1897 and produced of gold that year from of quartz. This provided an excellent advertisement for selling the Golden Gate No. 1 on the English market. An English company completed the purchase and Rogers received one fifth of the shares. The company intended to spend on machinery and development and on changeover in 1899 they immediately proceeded with a further deep sinking project.
Further development work was required to enable the mine to be worked systematically and the Rogers' Golden Gate produced of quartz yielding of gold in 1900. The mine was worked with two steam engines of eight and ten horsepower, two sets of double winding gear, one steam pump, and one whip, valued at . In 1902 additional plant was erected including three steam engines with a total of 51 horsepower, one single and two sets of double winding gear. The straight shaft was done to and the underlie of the extended shaft down to . The mine kept 15 head of stamps at the Golden Gate mill constantly employed. The mine was partly tributed in 1904 with the tributers doing well. In 1906 Rogers' Golden Gate was the Golden Gate line's largest producer - for by the tributers.
No. 3 and 4 South Golden Gate Mine and Mill Site This mine was one of the most successful on the field and went to a depth of approximately . In the two years after its establishment in 1898 they produced of quartz for a yield of of gold valued at . The mine was known as Cashman's and the private syndicate of owners was preparing in 1900 to work the mine towards the Golden Gate United reef end on an extensive scale. The ore from the mine was crushed at the Enterprise mill and in March 1900 James Davis had purchased the whole of the tailings of Golden Gate No. 3 and 4 South to be cyanided at the new Station Creek cyanide treatment works. Frederick William Cuthbert, a well known Croydon mining agent, purchased the No. 3 and 4 Golden Gate South and profited handsomely in 1902.
The mine produced a total of of quartz yielding of gold bullion valued at , the largest of any of the Golden Gate mines. Gold production quickly dwindled at the mine after 1905, down to in 1908.
Golden Gate Consols Mine
This mine was known initially as Golden Gate No.8 North and is located at the western end of the Golden Gate complex, between Rogers Gully and Golden Gate Creek. A reef, located at in 1893, produced of gold that year.
In 1894 the mine was sold to an English company, Croydon Consols Limited (nominal capital of in 400,000 shares), for , to be paid in instalments. The new company managed the mine well, straightening and timbering the shaft, erecting a headframe and introducing steel buckets in place of greenhide. In 1896 the main shaft was sunk to , making Golden Gate Consols the deepest mine on the field. In that year the mine produced of gold, which enabled the company to declare a dividend of - in excess of profits obtained from any mine on the Croydon goldfield to that date. The following year the company undertook further sinking and produced of gold from of quartz.
In September 1900 a rich leader was discovered, which sent shares up to a shilling. A new underlie shaft sunk in 1900 was equipped with winding plant (engine and boiler) made locally by Messrs Stuart and McKenzie of the Union Foundry, Croydon. During the next decade this mine was one of the leading producers on the Croydon Goldfield, yielding from of stone (an average of per ton) or 19% of the total gold produced from Croydon field quartz crushing in the period.
Croydon Consols Battery and Cyanide Plant Ore from the Golden Gate line of reefs was crushed initially at the Enterprise battery on Station (now Belmore) Creek. Owned by the Golden Gate Milling Company, the Croydon Consols battery (also known as Richardson's mill) comprised one 18 horsepower steam engine, 15 stamps weight nine hundredweight, six Berdan or Wheeler pans, and one pump and was valued at in 1900. The mill was effectively double in size the next year with one 32 horsepower steam engine, 30 stamps weighing ten hundredweight, 12 Berdan and Wheeler pans, three Whifley concentrators, and four pumps valued at . The following year another steam engine was obtained and a dam was constructed bringing the value to . The mill's production declined rapidly after 1906, however it was still employing 16 hands in 1913 and had five or six others employed obtaining lime from Sweers Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Cyanidation of tailings commenced on the Croydon Goldfield in 1894. The Croydon Consols cyaniding plant operated between 1897 and 1904, during which period of tailings were treated for a yield of of gold bullion. In 1897 the plant comprised one 12 hp steam engine, ten vats each of each, two sumps each of , two solution vats each of , four recovery boxes and six pumps, the whole valued at . It was reduced in 1901 to a 6 hp steam engine, four vats, two sumps each , one solution vat of capacity, two recovery boxes and a pump, valued at .
Croydon Consols Pump Shaft Continued exploitation of the Croydon reefs required deep exploration, which proved difficult: as the mines became deeper and were interconnected for ventilation or prospecting, water in one would mean water problems in all. This difficulty was partially solved in 1898 by the construction of a large pump at the Croydon Consol mine.
Following a huge and costly inundation of the Golden Gate Consols mine in 1898, then the deepest mine on the field, the owners let a contract for to Walkers Limited of Maryborough for pumping equipment. The plant was installed by Emslie Limited of Croydon in the first six weeks of 1899 and commenced operation in February that year. In 1901 the plant incorporated both single and double winding gear, three steam engines of 54 hp, six pumps, an air compressor and a rock drill, valued at . It was by far the most valuable pumping equipment on the goldfield and technically the most up-to-date. The pump also delivered water to the Golden Gate Milling Company mill in 1900. The pumping equipment remained in use until the closure of the mine in 1911.
Golden Gate No.10 North Mine It is not known when the Golden Gate No.10 mine on the northern edge of the Golden Gate reef commenced operations, but it is marked on Rands' 1896 map. At the northern end of the line of reef, at varying distances from Golden Gate Creek, a number of prospecting shafts were sunk to try and find a continuation of the reef, which had proved so productive further south. No.10 North was at the northern end of the field and here the reef became well defined, although there was a convergence of faults. Mining operations were conducted on a large scale in exploring the reef up to 1906.
In 1923 there is again record of the Golden Gate No.10 North mine being worked. By August that year Messrs. Hayman and Ah Foo, supported by a strong local syndicate, had de-watered the mine and were sinking a monkey shaft in the No. 2 North level in the hope of picking up the reef.