Cloncurry is a regional and administrative centre in a region where cattle and sheep grazing is a significant industry.
Where is it?: Queensland: Outback. Cloncurry is 766 km west of Townsville at the junction of The Matilda Highway and The Overlander's Way.
Things to see and do:
Cloncurry's most important museum is that dedicated to Rev. John Flynn. It was at Cloncurry that the Royal Flying Doctor Service was established in 1928. Flynn's choice of Cloncurry was based on its proximity to the mining camps and scattered pastoralists, all of whom were poorly served by any kind of medical services. John Flynn Place, a Bicentennial Project, is an excellent overview of the Flynn legacy. It moves progressively from an image of outback conditions at the turn of the century to the history of Flynn himself.
Mary Kathleen Memorial Park and Museum recalls the uranium mining town of Mary Kathleen 969km west). When the mine closed and the town folded, its contents were sold off. The Clomncurry museum obtained a number of buildings and some important relics from the site like the town's 'welcome' sign. The museum also houses an excellent collection of rocks from the area. Its prize possession is Robert O'Hara Burke's water bottle. The museum's mineral and gem collection is ranked by experts as one of the most comprehensive in Australia.
Ernest Henry Mine is named after the father of Cloncurry, Ernest Henry, who explored the district in 1866 with Roger Sheaffe. The Ernest Henry Mine Pit is 382 metres deep and 1,280 metres wide. Tours run from May to September on Wednesdays and Fridays subject to numbers.
Copper was discovered in the small mining community of Duchess (132km south) in the late 1890s but it wasn't mined until 1904 when it became the richest mine in the area producing considerably more copper than Cloncurry's Great Australian Mine. The town eventually went into decline. However, it was revitalised when phosphate was discovered to the south in the 1960s.
Brief history: When Burke and Wills passed through in January 1861, Burke named the nearby river after his cousin, Lady Elizabeth Cloncurry. The name was extended to the town when it was surveyed and gazetted in 1876. The town came into being through the discovery of copper. Ernest Henry first found copper in the area and established the Great Australian Mine, which operated continuously until the 1920s when the bottom fell out of the copper market, ending over 50 years of growth for the town. In time it became a major transportation centre in Western Qld. The railway from Townsville arrived in 1908. The first regular Qantas flight landed at Cloncurry and John Flynn established his first Flying Doctor Base in the town.
The discovery of uranium at Mary Kathleen brought wealth to the community in the 1950s. Until the development of Mount Isa in the 1960s, Cloncurry was the administrative centre of the region.
Natural features: Cloncurry River; The Granites Built features: John Flynn Place; mining community of Duchess (132 km south). Heritage features: Post office (1885): Courthouse (1898); Chinese and Afghan cemeteries (with the headstone pointing towards Mecca); The Great Australian Mine; ; Fountain Range (20 km south of Mary Kathleen)
