From boom to doom
PETER MICHAEL HELEN Volkman is the sole survivor of her outback ghost town in a corner of Far North Queensland.
“I’m the last one standing,’’ the 80-year-old widow said.
“When I go, this town will die with me.”
But it is not only historic hamlets that are dead and dying – at least 10 new ghost towns can today be counted in rural Queensland.
Dwindling bush populations, no jobs, highway bypasses, loss of services, and automation of mining and agricultural industries are to blame, social demographers say.
“I don’t get lonely,’’ Mrs Volkman said.
“I like the peace and quiet, the emptiness of it all.”
Thornborough, population one, is the once-thriving main town of the Hodgkinson Goldfields that founded Cairns in 1876.
It was formerly home to thousands in the district with 17 pubs, three banks, butchers, bakers, jewellers and boot makers, located 160km west of Cairns.
At its peak, it had a police station, post office, school, hospital, market gardens, cordial factory, courthouse and a Catholic Church.
Today, buried beneath the dust and grassy paddocks, lie the ruins of a town that once bustled with life – but turned to dust when the mines ran dry.
Little is left but a tin homestead and time-worn cemeteries.
The 50-year resident holds up a large wooden stick she calls her “dingo equaliser” to keep packs of wild dogs at bay.
“It’s just me and wild dogs left. Five dingoes got hold of me a little while ago. I thought I was dead. But I got lucky, and got away.”
Nearby Tyrconnell gold mine, owned by Mt Mulligan luxury lodge, is an antiquity frozen in time for those wanting a glimpse of the halcyon days of the gold rush.
Author of the encyclopaedic Angor to Zillmanton: stories of North Queensland’s deserted towns, Colin Hooper, knows them well.
“History is today repeating itself in our dying bush towns,’’ the Townsville engineer and historian said.
He can name at least 10 empty villages to be added to his almanac of 524 deserted towns. Maxwelton, Gilliat, Nonda, Quamby, Balfes Creek, Silky Oak, Emuford, Cardstone, and Martyville are but some in the north. Acland and Allies Creeks, too, in the state’s south.
“When services move out, if a mine closes, and the school closes, if no-one can make any money, then what’s the point of being there,’’ Mr Hooper said.
“The loss of these bush towns, once proud communities, is immeasurable and we lose touch with a part of our living history. It’s not long before these places get swallowed by the earth, buildings eaten by white ants or razed to the ground by bushfire. “And all that’s left is rubble.’’ When Kareeya hydroelectric power station was automated, the town of Cardstone was demolished and removed.
Up until 1991, the tiny township in Tully Gorge had 29 houses, a school, recreation hall, post office, tennis and squash courts, men’s barracks, and mess.
“It was the best place to live in Australia”, ex-residents Gordon and Ellen O’Neill said.
“All pleas to save the town failed. Despite public meetings and a writing campaign to Premier Wayne Goss, the trucks and bulldozers moved in. There was no reprieve.”
Local Eddie Wickerson said: “Leaving Cardstone ruined me. This was a great little town. I didn’t want to go but I had to. They bulldozed it out of existence.” peter.michael@news.com.au