Mount Garnet, Queensland 4.12

Mount Garnet is a small town and locality in the Tablelands Region in north-eastern Queensland, Australia. In the 2011 census, Mount Garnet had a population of 433 people.OverviewMount Garnet's population is around 400 people with 35% being Aboriginal. Various small communities populate the area around Mount Garnet. These include Tableland Tin, Innot Hot Springs, Silver Valley and Battle Creek.Mount Garnet is at the south-western edge of the Atherton Tableland and on the Kennedy Highway. Mount Garnet is about a three-hour drive from Cairns.HistoryMount Garnet is situated on the traditional lands of the Mbarbaram peoples. Mount Garnet was built as a mining community in the 19th century and several minerals can be found in the area, including tin, copper, zinc and garnet. Garnet Hill is situated a few hundred metres from the state school, was a main vein of tin and garnet in the late 19th century. Open mine shafts still litter the hill only covered with sheets of tin.In 1882 Albert Vollenweider discovered copper (and garnet) in the area formerly known as Mullaburra Station. He mined the copper in a small-scale operation but he later sold his lease to John Moffat in 1898. By 1899 Mt Garnet Freehold Copper and Silver Mining Company was producing high grade copper oxide. The township was surveyed and buildings sprang up making the township the second-largest inland town (Charters Towers being the largest). By 1906 the company was in financial difficulty and closed. People were moving away for work, buildings were being moved to other mining towns until the mining of the rich veins of tin, which was first discovered in 1901, started to take off. The town began to flourish again. Mount Garnet Post Office opened on 25 July 1899 (a receiving office had been open from 1897).