Author Topic: Mount Coolan  (Read 2155 times)

rustyengines

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Mount Coolan
« on: 17 September, 2019, 12:59:11 pm »
Went for a drive to Mount Coolan and visited the Barclays Battery
In 1923 this gold mine had the highest gold production in Queensland 
There is a piece of machinery from ?Hudson Brothers Limited Clyde NSW 1897?   
Nobody is sure how it was transported there as the roads back then if any were very poor most think it came by sail/steamer to Bowen then transported inland
Ian
Southern Cross Engines, Lawn Mowers and old tools * TOWNSVILLE

rustyengines

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Re: Mount Coolan
« Reply #1 on: 17 September, 2019, 01:00:20 pm »
Mount Coolan ,Barclays Battery
More pictures
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rustyengines

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Re: Mount Coolan
« Reply #2 on: 17 September, 2019, 01:01:30 pm »
Mount Coolan ,Barclays Battery
More pictures
Southern Cross Engines, Lawn Mowers and old tools * TOWNSVILLE

cobbadog

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Re: Mount Coolan
« Reply #3 on: 17 September, 2019, 04:48:14 pm »
So many things were transported by steam boat up and down the coast. The Manning River has a heap of sunken boats off the inlet because it was and still is a tricky bar to cross and not many try it.
Cheers, John & Dee. Coopernook. NSW.

isandian

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Re: Mount Coolan
« Reply #4 on: 18 September, 2019, 05:08:38 pm »
A bit like the boilers, engines and batteries out west of Tibooburra that were set up in the 1880's. They must have brought them up the Darling by paddle steamer, then across by bullock team. There must have been nearly insurmountable obstacles. Then the whole gold rush petered out not through lack of paydirt necessarily, but a total lack of water.
Ian

Ian

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Re: Mount Coolan
« Reply #5 on: 18 September, 2019, 08:01:25 pm »
Hi

If we take  a hard look at the Old roads into the goldfields of Western Qld going from Ports like  Bowen, Tlownsville, Port Douglas and others.  There is one common denominator that they had to overcome and that is the escarpments to the west of the coastal plains on the edge of the great divide.  To the west of Townsville we have the Mingala Range and Harvey's Range, these would have been fomidable obstacles in there day, however they overcame them.  While in the ADF in Townsville l was lucky enough to be able to drive a army landrover up the old Herveys Range bullock track, in was quite mind blowing to think that the old guys did take fully loaded bullock wagons up that mountain road.   YOU GOT TO TAKE YOUR HAT TO THEM.

Cheers

Ian
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Ian

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Re: Mount Coolan
« Reply #6 on: 18 September, 2019, 08:15:52 pm »
Hi

Another interesting fact about all those old escarpment roads was that during WW 2 most of them were undermined by Military Engineers and packed with explosives ready to blow if the Japs had invaded from the North.   I  was involved in an investigation into the tunnel on Harvey's Range because there was no record of the explosives being removed at the end of the war.  We spent several weeks digging out backfill only to find that the tunnel was empty.

Cheers

Ian
1 R&T Engine, 1 Simplex Model D Milk Pump, 1 Ajax Milk Pump, 1 Dawn 611 Post Drill, 1 Ajax 1.5 Piston Pump, 1 Goulds Pyramid 3x5 Piston Pump, 1 Cooper 1hp RV, 14 Chooks, 1 Dog, 2 Cats, 1 Wife & 1 Daughter