Chapel Street Bridge

Chapel Street Bridge is a heritage-listed road bridge at Chapel Street, Ravenswood, Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1895 to 1898. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 29 November 2019.

History The single-arch, red-brick road bridge on Chapel Street, over Slaughter Yard Creek, Ravenswood, was most likely constructed by the Ravenswood Divisional Board –1900, to replace an earlier timber bridge and improve access between Ravenswood and the gold mines at Sandy Creek (and their associated town of Evlinton), located almost 4 km southeast of Ravenswood. The Chapel Street Bridge is important in illustrating the importance of mining to the economy of Ravenswood during the 1890s. It is also rare as the only known example of an early brick-arch road bridge in Queensland.

Ravenswood, part of the traditional land of the Birriah people, is located about 85 km south of Townsville and 65 km east of Charters Towers. The Ravenswood goldfield, which included the John Bull reef near Sandy Creek, was the fifth largest producer of gold in Queensland during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main mining periods were:

alluvial gold and shallow reef mining (1868–72) attempts to extract gold from sulphide ores below the water table (–98) the New Ravenswood Company era (1899–1917) small scale mining and re-treatment of old mullock heaps and tailings dumps (1919–60s) modern open cut operations from 1987 onwards

European settlement of the Kennedy Land District in north Queensland commenced with the founding of Bowen in 1861, and the spread of pastoralists through the hinterland. Pastoral stations were established up the valley of the Burdekin River, including "Ravenswood" and "Merri Merriwa".P Bell, "Ravenswood Conservation Management Plan: report to Ravenswood Restoration and Preservation Association Inc", Peter Bell Historical Research Party Ltd, Adelaide, June 2000, p.7. Alluvial gold was discovered in tributaries of Connolly Creek, on Merri Merriwa Station, in late 1868.'The Ravenswood Gold Field, Queensland', Australian Town and Country Journal, 1 October 1870, p.15 Prospectors soon established "Middle Camp" (later Donnybrook) on Tucker's Creek, and "Lower Camp" on Trieste Creek, with about 700 miners on the field by early 1869. In April 1869, the goldfield's richest alluvial discoveries occurred in three dry creek beds close to the site of Ravenswood.'Ravenswood Conservation Management Plan', p.9'Ravenswood', The Brisbane Courier, 8 April 1870, p.3'The Ravenswood Gold Field', Australian Town and Country Journal, 1 October 1870, p.15. The parent reefs of this alluvial gold were soon located, but a lack of water meant that miners did not establish Ravenswood (initially called "Upper Camp") until October 1869, after a storm temporarily resolved the water issue. The first machinery for crushing quartz ore to extract gold was WO Hodkinson's five stamp crushing battery, called the Lady Marion (or Lady Marian) Mill. It operated at Burnt Point (south of Upper Camp) from 18 April 1870.'Ravenswood Conservation Management Plan', p.10M Brumby, "Ravenswood: a history", June 2015).

The Ravenswood goldfield (about 300 square miles) was proclaimed on 3 November 1870, and the town of Ravenswood was proclaimed on 19 May 1871. The town area initially comprised an area of one square mile (259ha). This was increased to four square miles (1036ha) on 13 July 1883.Queensland Government Gazette, 1870, Volume XI, p.1440Queensland Government Gazette, 1871, Volume XII, p.735Queensland Government Gazette 1883, Volume XXXIII, p.259 In 1871, the population of the goldfield was 900, with over half being in Ravenswood. The town developed on either side of Elphinstone Creek. A temporary bridge (a log) existed by 1870.'Mining News', Mackay Mercury and South Kennedy Advertiser, 16 April 1870, p.5 The first permanent bridge over the creek was constructed, of timber, in 1873.D Menghetti, 1992. Ravenswood: Five heritage trails, Townsville, Department of History and Politics, James Cook University of North Queensland, p.5'Ravenswood Conservation Management Plan', pp.10, 13Ravenswood Miner, 7 June 1873, cited by Applicant, 1 August 2019 (first bridge)'Ravenswood', Mackay Mercury and South Kennedy Advertiser, 21 June 1873, p.2

Despite its promising start, in 1872, the Ravenswood goldfield entered a "period of depression", as its most important mines reached the water table, and difficult to process "mundic" ore, at about 70 ft (21m) deep.JM Maclaren, "Report on the Geology and Reefs of the Ravenswood Gold Field", 29 October 1900, p.2, Votes and Proceedings Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1900. Although the oxidised quartz ('red stone' or "brown stone" quartz) close to the surface yielded its gold using traditional methods of mechanical crushing, below the water table the gold was in fine particles, mixed with sulphide ores, and was not easily recovered by mechanical means. Although only a percentage of the gold was recoverable from the mundic ore with the technology available at the time, Ravenswood's mines continued to be viable into the 1880s.Menghetti, Ravenswood: Five heritage trails, p.6

There was an increase in productivity in the mid-1880s, due to good returns from the mines on the John Bull reef, located on the east bank of Sandy Creek, almost 4 km southeast of Ravenswood. The returns from the John Bull reef "have on several occasions alone prevented Ravenswood from drifting into a state of absolute stagnation". The ore in the John Bull reef was more easily recovered through mechanical means (more "free"), than in other reefs on the goldfield.Maclaren, "Report on the Geology and Reefs of the Ravenswood Gold Field", pp.2, 8'Annual Report of the Department of Mines, Queensland, for the year 1887', pp.33, 36 The Chapel Street Bridge is a product of the success of the John Bull reef, and the resulting need for a road link between Ravenswood and Sandy Creek. By 1896, Chapel Street headed northeast out of Ravenswood, to the south of Elphinstone Creek, crossed Slaughter Yard Creek and then connected to Evlinton Road, which turned southeast towards Sandy Creek/Evlinton.DNRME Survey Plan N25507, August 1896

Work on the John Bull reef, just south of the later site of the town of Evlinton (initially known as Sandy Creek), had occurred from 1879 - and by October that year crushings from a stamper battery on the John Bull were being carted into Ravenswood. Reef mining at Sandy Creek had started after the discovery of the Politician and Australia Felix reefs, southwest of the John Bull reef, in 1871. The John Bull claim, "laid off in May last", had proved payable, with a 5-stamper battery erected on the claim.'Ravenswood', Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 29 July 1871, p.4DNRME Survey Plans MP17942, February 1884 and E4741, 1890 (location of the John Bull reef)'Ravenswood', Telegraph, 10 October 1879, p.3 (several crushings had been carted to Ravenswood, "a stronger battery will therefore be put up".)Ravenswood', Brisbane Courier, 18 October 1879, p.6Report of the Department of Mines, Queensland, for the year 1879, p.21 The John Bull Gold Mining Company Ltd (formed in 1881), worked the John Bull PC lease on the reef, while the John Bull Block lease, to the south, was worked by Hugh Hawthorne Barton and Andrew Trenfield by July 1882. A 15-stamp battery was erected on the John Bull Block in 1883, when it was reported that "Sandy Creek bids fair to become a very busy little place at no distant date". By 1885, Sandy Creek had a population of 181, the fourth most populous centre on the Ravenswood goldfield, after Ravenswood, Ravenswood Junction, and One Mile.Brisbane Courier, 10 August 1881, p.2'Report of the Department of Mines, Queensland, for the year 1881', p.22 (formation of the John Bull GMC)'Ravenswood', Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 27 July 1882, p.2 (Barton and Trenfield hit the mundic at 95ft)'Ravenswood', Queenslander, 22 September 1883, p.489 (15 stamper battery being erected on the John Bull Block)'Annual Report of the Department of Mines, Queensland, for the year 1883', pp.30, 32 (leases).'Annual Report of the Department of Mines, Queensland, for the year 1885', pp.32-6 Although the John Bull's ore was low quality, the reef was large, and it continued to produce well during 1884 – the year that the railway reached Ravenswood from Ravenswood Junction on the Great Northern railway. The Black Jack, Mellaneur, and John Bull reefs had the largest yields on the gold field that year.'Queensland, Annual Report of the Under Secretary for Mines, for the year 1884', p.26 Ravenswood Junction was previously called Cunningham's water holes. The railway opened to Ravenswood, with a station north of Elphinstone Creek, in December 1884. Later plans for railway extensions to Ravenswood from Bowen (approaching Ravenswood from the northeast, via Hillsborough) and Clermont (approaching Ravenswood from the south) never eventuated.'The Phillips' report on the Wangaratta-Ravenswood extension', Northern Miner, 22 November 1897, p.3'Clermont to the Northern Railway', Capricornian, 6 May 1899, p.31

By 1886, the settlement at Sandy Creek was called "Evlinton", and was part of a mail route.'Mail service tenders', Queenslander, 31 July 1886, p.182 (tender 364: "Ravenswood and Evlinton, by buggy daily"). Although Sandy Creek Provisional School, established in 1885, was renamed Evlinton Provisional School in 1886, the town of Evlinton was not surveyed until early 1890. A school reserve, of two acres (0.8ha), was gazetted in 1896. Evlinton Provisional School became a state school in 1909.Queensland State Archives Agency ID9007, 'Evlinton State School'DNRME Survey Plan, E4741, March 1890 ('Town of Evlinton')

A timber bridge was extant over Slaughter Yard Creek on Chapel Street, on the road between Ravenswood and Evlinton, by 1887.A narrow bridge, with four piers, is shown over Slaughter Yard Creek on the map "Town of Ravenswood, 4 chains to an inch", Surveyor General's Office, 1887, in Queensland State Archives Item 7114 (Series 11942, Colonial (later Home) Secretary's Office correspondence relating to local government), "Ravenswood Divisional Board", 1883-1914. This bridge was the scene of a fatal accident in August 1887, when Joseph Lane, a miner working at the John Bull Block, fell off his horse when it slipped on the bridge while he was riding into Ravenswood.Brisbane Courier, 16 August 1887, p.7Queensland Figaro and Punch, 27 August 1887, p.19. The Brisbane Courier article reported that the bridge was near 'Mr Griffin's house' (which was located just southeast of the Chapel Street Bridge, according to DNRME Survey Plan MPH4657, June 1894). The Ravenswood Divisional Board is likely to have built the bridge, as after the Divisional Boards Act 1879, responsibility for local roads passed from Queensland's Department of Public Works to local governments - although the Queensland Government still provided grants and loans.J Nissen, "Contextual History of Roads & Bridges in Queensland", for the Environmental Protection Agency, May 2008, pp.22-25 In 1880, the Ravenswood Divisional Board requested £500 for repairing the roads in and about Ravenswood, and for a culvert over One Mile Creek, on the main road from Ravenswood to Charters Towers, via Kirk and Rochford. Heavy rains in early 1882 severely damaged the bridge over the Elphinstone Creek in the centre of Ravenswood, and the Board applied for a government loan for repairs.'Ravenswood', Week, 1 April 1882, p.8 (large gaps in stone approaches to bridge, timber span canted)'Ravenswood', Telegraph, 13 May 1882, p.5 (Divisional Board loan application)