Mount Garnet Mine Assay Office facts for kids

The Mount Garnet Mine Assay Office is a special old building in Mount Garnet, Queensland, Australia. It was built a long time ago, between 1899 and 1900. An assay office is like a laboratory where miners test rocks and metals. They check how much valuable metal is inside the ore (rock with metal) and how pure the metal is after it's processed. This office is now listed on the Queensland Heritage Register, which means it's an important historical place.

History of the Mine and Assay Office

This old assay office was built in 1899. Its job was to test samples from the Mount Garnet Freehold Copper and Silver Mine.

Discovering the Mount Garnet Mine

The copper, silver, and zinc in Mount Garnet were first found in 1882. Two people, Albert Vollenweider and Henry Faasch, discovered them. They, along with James McLeod, who worked for John Moffat, claimed land in 1882. John Moffat was a very important person in mining in North Queensland. He started buying shares in the mine in 1884. By the end of the 1880s, he owned the whole mine.

Starting the Mining Operations

Moffat didn't start serious mining right away. He waited until copper prices went up in the 1890s. He opened the Mount Garnet mines in late 1896. By 1898, machinery was brought to the site. People also started buying mining leases and town lots in Mount Garnet.

Building the Assay Office

In 1898, Moffat and his partners created the Mount Garnet Freehold Copper and Silver Mining Company. They hired experts and ordered special equipment for testing. They even set up a brickworks and sawmill nearby. This allowed them to make their own bricks and cut timber for building. The clay for the bricks came from a nearby creek.

Work on the assay office began in 1899 and it was finished by 1900. Testing the ore on site was very important. It helped miners know the quality of the ore. This guided them on how best to dig and process the metals. The building had seven rooms. These included a furnace room, offices, a room for chemical treatments, and a room for scales.

Early Success of the Mine

In 1899, the company had about 150 workers. They dug shafts and tunnels to find more ore. By early 1900, they found a large ore deposit. Tests showed it had good amounts of copper and silver. The company decided to build large smelters. Smelters are huge furnaces that melt ore to separate the metal. They also built a dam for water and set up other powerful mining machines. A railway was also planned to help move the ore.

On January 15, 1901, the first smelter started working. In that year, the mine produced a lot of copper and silver. Mount Garnet grew very quickly. It became the second largest inland town in Queensland, with about 1800 workers.

Challenges and Closure

However, the mine faced many problems. They spent too much money on new buildings and machines. Metal prices started to fall. Also, some of the ore was hard to process. Because of these issues, the mine had to close.

The smelter reopened for a short time in 1902. But the company building the railway took over the mine because they weren't paid. A new company tried to run the mine. In 1903, they found that a lot of the ore had too much zinc. This made it too expensive to process. The main part of the mine also collapsed. The smelters stopped working in May 1903 and were taken apart.

The mine tried to reopen in 1906 and again in 1915, but only for a couple of years. In 1914, the Queensland Government bought the railway.

The Assay Office After the Mine

After the mine closed, the assay office was used for many years. It provided housing for workers from a nearby cattle station. In the late 1980s, it was bought and fixed up. It is now used as a home. Some original parts, like the fume cupboard and sample table, are still there. But other parts have been changed. For example, the furnace area is now a living room. This building is the only one left from the original Mount Garnet mine site.

What the Assay Office Looks Like

The Assay Office is about 500 meters southwest of Mount Garnet town. It's a single-story building made of brick and sheet iron.

Building Structure

The building has two main parts. The western part is made of brick. It has a living area and bedrooms. The windows and doorways have curved tops made with two rows of bricks. The roof is gabled and covered with corrugated iron. A verandah (porch) runs along the northern side. It has a curved metal roof supported by wooden posts. There's also a deep awning over the windows on the western side.

Inside the Building

The eastern part of the building is joined to the brick section. Its walls are covered in sheet metal. This section has a gabled roof that points in a different direction. It still has its original wooden floor. You can also see a special cabinet with a fan, called a fume cabinet. This was used to test ore and metal samples safely. This area now has a bathroom and kitchen. Both parts of the building have many windows, so it's very bright inside.

Surrounding Area

The area around the building has nice gardens with irrigation. You can also find some old metal pieces from the mine still in the grounds. There might also be remains of slag heaps, which are piles of waste material from the smelting process.

Why It's a Heritage Site

The former Mount Garnet Mine Assay Office was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on October 21, 1992. This means it's officially recognized as an important part of Queensland's history.

Showing Queensland's History

This assay office is the only building left from the Mount Garnet copper and silver mine. It helps us understand how the mining industry grew in North Queensland. It also shows how the town of Mount Garnet started. The mine, which was a project of John Moffat, didn't last very long. Its closure shows how risky mining could be in Queensland back then. Sometimes, mines spent too much money or found ore that was hard to sell.

A Rare Example

The former Mount Garnet Mine assay office is a rare building. Most assay offices from that time in Queensland no longer exist. Even though it's now a home, the building still looks mostly the same from the outside. It also has some original features inside. It's a special example of a mining facility that was once very important.