Charters Towers (pop. 9000) is the commercial center for the cattle farms and citrus fruit plantations in the surrounding area and also a school center. Many handsome 19th C. buildings bear witness to the town's great days as the first gold-mining town in Queensland. On Christmas Day in 1871, it is said, an Aboriginal boy named Jupiter made the first strike in the hills along the Burdekin River while looking for cattle which had bolted during a thunderstorm. The owner of the farm, Hugh Mosman, staked his claim; the gold rush began, and soon the population of the little settlement had risen to 30,000. Mosman thereupon adopted and educated the boy Jupiter.
The town took its name from a mine overseer named Charters, with the addition of Tors (hills), which became Charters Towers.
In its heyday Charters Towers claimed to be the second largest and the wealthiest town in Queensland, and the inhabitants referred to their town as 'the world'. In those days it had 90 hotels and a stock exchange open every day, including Sundays (which can still be seen). After the alluvial goldfields were worked out, around 1880, underground mining continued for another 30 years, yielding large quantities of gold. The mine finally closed in 1910 and many of the prospectors left the town.
Many fine examples of classic Queensland architecture, with deep verandahs, roofed balconies, colonnades and rich wrought-iron ornament, have been preserved, e.g. Ay-Ot Lookout (a private house at the corner of Hodgkinson Street and High Street), the City Hall (corner of Gill and Mosman Streets), the Civic Club (Ryan Street), the Excelsior Hotel (Church and Gill Streets), the former Australian Bank and Lyall's Jewelry Store in Mosman Street, the former Bank of New South Wales (Gill Street), Pfeiffer House (which belonged to a German mine owner of that name; now a Mormon temple) in Paull Street, the Post Office (corner of Gill and Bow Streets), with a clock tower, and above all the Stock Exchange Arcade in Mosman Street, now occupied by the offices of the National Trust and the Gold-Mining Museum.
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