Mount Mulligan, Queensland

Mount Mulligan is a former mining town and rural locality in Shire of Mareeba, Queensland, Australia.[2] It is the site of the Mount Mulligan mine disaster, Queensland's worst mining disaster.

For the mountain officially known as Mount Mulligan, see Ngarrabullgan.

Mount Mulligan
Queensland
Chimney at Mount Mulligan (June 2006)
Mount Mulligan
Coordinates16°51′S 144°52′E
Population55 (2006 census)[1]
Established1910
Postcode(s)4871
Location
  • 1,869 km (1,161 mi) NW of Brisbane
  • 214 km (133 mi) W of Cairns
  • 143 km (89 mi) W of Mossman
LGA(s)Tablelands Region
State electorate(s)Cook
Federal Division(s)Leichhardt

History

It was a coal mining town from 1910 until 19 September 1921 when an underground explosion killed 75 miners (all the miners in the town). The mine closed, but reopened in 1923 and continued in production until 1957 when a hydro-electric scheme eliminated the need for the coal.[3]

The town's coal was mined from shafts dug into a Permian layer within the cliff face or escarpment of a large 18 kilometres (11 mi) x 6.5 kilometres (4.0 mi) free-standing conglomerate and sandstone massif (rising up to 400 metres above the township) known by the name given it by the small group of prospectors who first sighted it in 1874 while searching the Hodgkinson River for gold, under the leadership of James Venture Mulligan.[4]

The conglomerate and sandstone massif known to local Djungan aboriginal peoples as Ngarrabullgan[5] was given James Mulligan's surname. The name Mount Mulligan was later given to the township that grew in the shadows of the massif's escarpment.

The area of the township is no longer gazetted,[4] but is now a ghost town, with a single cemetery, a single occupied residence, a single chimney stack, and the overgrown remains of the once busy mining operations and electricity generator.[3] At the 2006 census, Mount Mulligan and the surrounding area had a population of 55.[1]

Mount Mulligan Post Office opened by July 1914 (a receiving office had been open from 1907) and closed in 1959. A Mount Mulligan RailPost Office was open between 1916 and 1920.[6]

A railway connected Mount Mulligan with Dimbulah on the Chillagoe Railway. It opened on 7 April 1915 and was officially closed in January 1958.[7]

Nearby towns are Julatten, Dimbulah, Mount Carbine and Mount Molloy.

See also

References
  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (25 October 2007). "Mount Mulligan (Mareeba Shire) (State Suburb)". 2006 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
  2. "Mount Mulligan - locality (entry 48788)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  3. "Place ID 100640". Australian Heritage Database. Department of the Environment. Retrieved 30 October 2007.
  4. "Mount Mulligan - locality (entry 48788)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  5. David, Bruno (1996) The Ngarrabullgan Homeland Project: Current Research in Kuku Djungan country, north Queensland, Australian Archaeology. 43. Pages 32-36.
  6. Premier Postal History. "Post Office List". Premier Postal Auctions. Retrieved 10 May 2014.
  7. The Mount Milligan Branch Milne, Rod Australian Railway History, December, 2004 pp467-474

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