A small mining town on the southern edge of the Atherton Tableland. It has a reputation as a good starting place for gold prospectors and gem fossickers.
Location: 165 km, 185 km or 205 km from Cairns depending which route is taken.
Places of interest: Mount Garnet; Wurruma Swamp; Bill Brotherton and His Rocks; Assay House remnants; mining relics
Brief history: Mount Garnet was first settled in 1885 after copper was found in the area. Within months the Mount Garnet Freehold Copper and Silver Mining Company Ltd had built a smelter and was busy hiring miners. At first the smelted copper was shipped out by camel but by 1902 a railway branch line connecting the town to the line from Mareeba to Chillagoe opened and copper was railed out to Lappa Junction and then to the coast.
Quite suddenly, the price of copper dropped and the company, eager to cut its losses, closed the mine in 1904. It is said that when a rumour went round that the original copper mine was going to close down, half the men didn't wait for their notice to quit. They simply packed up their few belongings and were gone by lunchtime. A few remnants of the mine are still in evidence. After 1904 the miners who remained turned to the excavation of tin.
Origin of name: the earliest reference to the name Mount Garnet relates to the Swiss Albert Vollenweider s discovery of copper on a slope of what was known as Garnet Hill in 1882 and there has been a continuous title for that area under various ownerships since 1885. Garnet is a hard stone that can be found in different colours. The local ones found in abundance here are dark green.
