Remnants of gold mine machinery, tall chimneys throughout town and buildings showcasing a bygone era make for a trip back in time to the 1860s for visitors of the once thriving gold mining town.

In its heyday Ravenswood, 130 km south of Townsville was home to more than 5000 people and had over 50 pubs. Today, there are only two pubs, a few shops, a school and a few houses.

The town’s short main road comes to an end, as the sight of the reopened Ravenswood Gold mine sound bar made from mined rocks begins to form.

Ravenswood’s gold mining heritage which began in the 1860s and lasted up until 1909, when the largest mine ceased operating and the population began to decline.

By 1917, the gold boom was over and many buildings were demolished or moved to other areas of town.

Mining recommenced in 1987 mostly from open pits and large-scale mining commences in the Nolan’s and Sarsfield pits in 1993 and 2001. Open pit mining then ceased in 2009.

In 2020 a new company, Ravenswood Gold, purchased the mine from Resolute and returned to open pit mining in the Buck Reef West Pit.

Today, Ravenswood Gold is Queensland’s largest gold mine, employing more than 700 people and more than 100 millions tonnes of gold retrieved since December 2020.

For Brian Smith, a trip to Ravenswood was a time to recall old memories and see how the town he grew up in looks like now.

Mr Smith, now aged 82, stopped by Ravenswood with his daughter and her family to see how the town had changed, stopping in at the Thorps Building and Heritage Tea Room and Treasures for a cuppa and scones.

Mr Smith, who now lives in Brisbane with his family, last visited Ravenswood for the 125th anniversary of the Ravenswood State School in 1998.

Born on Bell St in Townsville in 1941 Mr Smith, his two older siblings and his parents lived in Ravenswood from 1939 to 1948 where his father John Patrick Smith was the principal of the Ravenswood State School.

Mr Smith’s brother recently compiled some of the family history during their time in Ravenswood and noted there was a surge in enrolments in 1942 with 70 students attending the school, due to children being evacuated from Townsville to Ravenswood during the war.

Mr Smith said Ravenswood was ‘a great place to grow up’ and the main difference now was ‘back in the day there were a few extra pubs’, as well as the relocation of the Ravenswood State School.

In 2020, the entire heritage-listed school was relocated across town to allow for the expansion of the gold mine, with the original 1873 building and principal’s residence now forming part of the newly refurbished school.

Complete with two new buildings, an oval, a multipurpose sports court and a playground, principal Katee Wakefiled said the school was small — just 14 students as of 2024 — but was integral to the town.

“It’s a fantastic little school. We are wise with our funding and we use targeting learning,” she said as she took a short break from tending the school’s gardens during the holidays to chat to the Townsville Bulletin.

Ravenswood SS celebrated its 150th anniversary in March with an event welcoming back old students and families.

Before living in Ravenswood Ms Wakefield lived in Townsville and overseas. She said the school had ”a great community” with children whose parents include farmers and mine workers.

“It feels like we are a little museum, there’s so much history,” she said.

“People have such fond memories and it’s great to have the new and old history of the school together.”

Ms Wakefield said events including the annual Halloween Ball and billy kart races brought the town alive throughout the year, with a few hundred attending each event.

Many of the locals in Ravenswood reported a great new addition to the town was a Telstra 5G tower, which had greatly improved the connectivity and reception around the town.

Owner of the Thorps Building and Heritage Tea Room and Treasures Jacqueline Palma moved to Ravenswood four years ago, when the opportunity to buy the heritage-listed building came up.

Originally a hardware store, the building has now been transformed into a tea room and antique museum, showcasing many treasures of times past including old tools, paintings, an old oven, bottles, magazines and newspapers and more.

Ms Palma said she was keen for a lifestyle change after raising her children.

“I’d always been a stay at home mum,” she said.

“I love Ravenswood and have a strong connection to the town. I used to come here a lot as a kid and when I found out the building was for sale I thought I would like to set it up,” she said.

“We do coffee, homemade scones and have a large selection of antiques on display. There is a lot of the history of Ravenswood that has been preserved.”

Ms Palma and her partner live upstairs on the building’s second storey, which also has rooms available for rent on Airbnb.

With her youngest son still at high school in Townsville, Ms Palma said they split their time between the two locations.

She said business was going well, with a steady stream of visitors coming along to check out the historical town.

“We have a lot of grey nomads that stop here, many of them are from Melbourne or elsewhere in Victoria,” she said.

“They just like to have a trip down memory lane to go back in time. We also have some local regulars who come in for a cup of tea and a scone.”

Wanting to try something new, a recommendation from a friend led Townsville’s Michael Salkeld to Ravenswood.

Serving as the current manager of the longstanding heritage-listed Railway Hotel, which has been running since 1902, Mr Salkeld said Ravenswood was a “great little town with great people” and had lived there for the last two years.

“I was looking for work, I am a qualified chef, and I asked a mate if there were any jobs going around,” Mr Salkeld said.

“He mentioned that the Railway Hotel in Ravenswood had a job going. I got in contact and I came out the next day, I’ve been here ever since.” he said.

On his role at the historic pub, Mr Salkeld said he does it all.

“I am the bartender, the chef, the cleaner. It’s usually just me here so I’m a jack of all trades,” he said.

From XXXX Gold to the actual precious metal, Ravenswood Gold CEO Brett Fletcher sees a huge future for the industry in town, backed up by the recent announcement of the Ravenswood Gold Project being renewed for another 16 years.

The mine produces around 35 million tonnes of gold each year.

“High grade ore is one gram of gold in a tonne of rock,” Mr Fletcher said.

“We took over on the first of April 2020 and recommenced mining, with the large-scale open pit mining beginning in December 2020.”

“In that time we have bought $120 million worth of mobile equipment. We have had a lot of exploration success, but spent about $350 million on the processing plant upgrades.”

“We have a new tailings dam and have been working on setting up the mine for continued success and the environmental rehabilitation and sustainability.”

A game-changer for the gold mine was the introduction of the Chrysos PhotonAssay machine in late 2022, which is able to deliver faster and more accurate gold analysis.

The machine allows for sample of mined rocks to be place into the machine, with an accurate recording of how much gold is present to be sent real-time to a computer for the machine technician to see.

Mr Fletcher said this new asset allows for ‘state-of-the-art technology’ to be housed right in the middle of the mine.

“It’s an incredible piece of equipment,” he said.

“We can place in sample of 500g and instantaneously see the gold grade of that sample.”

“Other methods of detecting gold take a much longer time, and this also allows us to do it on site.”

Mr Fletcher said understanding the history of Ravenswood and the community was integral to future success.

“The big challenge and the big opportunity for us is that Ravenswood gold field first commenced in 1868,” he said.

“Ravenswood is still the oldest inland town in Queensland that still exists. The community and the mine have basically evolved on top of each other for the last 150 years.”

“Being involved with large scale mining operations, working with the community is key for us. A lot of our focus is on noise suppression, keeping light and dust pollution down and doing everything we can to be good corporate citizens.”

Noting the town’s mining history, Mr Fletcher said it was also important to acknowledge the Indigenous heritage of the Ravenswood area.

“We work closely with the Birriah community, who are the indigenous custodians of the land.”

He noted that some residents are critical of the mine, in terms of the influx of workers and operations. He said Ravenswood Gold owns several homes in town and that around 150 workers live in Ravenswood itself.

Other workers travel from the surrounding areas such as Townsville, Burdekin and Charters Towers and beyond.

Mr Fletcher said 90% of the workforce live within a two-hour drive.

“I think some people would like to see it back when it was nice and quiet and less people around, but there are other people that want to see progress and development to keep the gold mine alive for this historic gold mining town,” he said.

Mr Fletcher said the mine and mine history was a big drawcard for tourists, something that Ravenswood Mine was looking to take advantage of.

“A lot of people who come into town are really interested in it,” he said.

“We have had lookouts that look down into the pit previously. We will eventually put a lookout at the top of the sound bar, which would be good for people coming into town to be able to see an operating gold mine. I think that could be a huge win for the community,” he said.

Ravenswood Gold environmental technician Blaise Horan never imagined she would one day work at a mine site, but says she loves working with ‘such great people’.

“I started just as part of a Birriah and Ravenswood Gold environmental traineeship,” she said.

“I was just looking for a new career path, I was working at a servo and my friend told me about this position and said I should go for it.”

“I am part of the Birriah community which resides in the area of Ravenswood and the Burdekin.”

Starting her traineeship in 2020 and finishing near the end of 2021, Ms Horan said she was then offered a permanent position as an environmental technician.

“My role consists of looking after the pumps and the pump system, looking after dust monitors. We have water samplers that we look at and service. So we look at how the environment of the mine is going and work towards keeping it running well.”

Ms Horan said it was great to see so many young workers at the mine, especially young women.

“Everyone is so supportive, they are just an amazing bunch of people to work with.”

Fellow environmental technician Jessica Smith has been working at Ravenswood Gold for almost a year and said the mine has a large focus on rehabilitation planning.

“We make sure the plans are in place for post-mining land use,” she said.

“We do rehabilitation planning for the pits that are recovered over and make sure we get native plants and animals back into that area to ensure the future of the land area.”

“Rehabilitation planning means we assess the best plants based on the local ecosystem and think into the future of how we can plan to ensure the health of the environment.”