Mount Garnet

Mount Garnet is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia.

Mount Garnet is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Mount Garnet had a population of 430 people.

Mount Garnet is situated on the traditional lands of the Mbarbaram peoples.

Warungu (also known as Warrungu, Warrongo, and Waroongoo) is an Australian Aboriginal language in North Queensland. The language region includes areas from the Upper Herbert River to Mount Garnet.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).Mount Garnett Provisional School opened on 22 January 1901.Around 1901-1902 it became Mount Garnett State School.Nymbool Provisional School opened on 1905 and closed on 1930.Tin became the important mineral for the town. In 1928 a coal-fired dredge was built but didn't prove to be so successful losing more ore it retrieved. Eventually it sank in a flood. It was later refloated and adapted but eventually abandoned. In 1938 Tableland Tin Dredging N.L. established a new electrically-driven dredge, Nanyeta, later to be replaced by Nanyeta II. By the early 1950s another dredge owned by Ravenshoe Tin Dredging was in operation. Tin carried the town until 1986 when the price dropped forcing many families to move away.

In 2000 the original copper mine was reopened with copper, zinc, lead, and silver being processed by Kagara Limited. In 2012 Kagara Limited went into administration and was bought out in 2013 by Snow Peak Mining Pty Ltd, an Australian company with strong Chinese shareholding,with the mine being operated by Consolidated Tin Mines. They will eventually process tin. Another tin mining company, Mount Garnet Tin Resources (MGT), has a tin processing plant, Mount Veteran. This plant was built in 1980 and had been used intermittently until the recent resurgence in the tin price. MGT purchased it and are processing high grade tin.

Mining isn't the only industry at Mount Garnet, some of the best cattle producing properties are in the district. Crops of mangoes, corn and other crops are grown on the nearby Herbert River. Blencoe Falls on the Herbert River can be accessed from many of these cattle properties.

In 1938 land was donated to the people of Mount Garnet to use as a sports reserve. A grand racecourse was built. It and rodeo grounds were used by the troops for R & R during training in WW2. Soldiers volunteered their help with any construction needed. In return cattle station owners provided horses and bulls for their entertainment with races and rodeo. Passby parades of the troops were held there when General Blamey came to inspect the troops. This reserve now boasts a first class rodeo ground, racecourse and golf club, the greens being inside the racetrack, and permanent camps. These camps are controlled by trustees (Trustees of the LD Lucy Memorial Park). 2013 is the 75th year that the races have been run.

Not far from the base of Garnet Hill on the south east side is Warruma Swamp. This wetland is home to many variety of birds. Originally Warruma was a swamp and boasted a water source that never ran dry. Now it is used for a water supplyto the township. Fresh water is continually pumped from the Herbert River into Warruma, then pumped out of there into holding tanks for the town supply.

At the 2006 census, Mount Garnet had a population of 458.At the 2011 census, Mount Garnet had a population of 433 people.