The historic and abandoned remains of one of remote Queensland’s most profitable but short-lived mining booms have been entered into the Queensland Heritage Register.
The Wee MacGregor tram and rail complex, and the former towns of Ballara and Hightville, between Mt Isa and Cloncurry, date from the early 1900s.
Copper prices soared through the period of World War I. In 1912, the Cloncurry mining fields produced 45 per cent of Queensland’s copper production, with annual copper earnings exceeding earnings from gold. Some 1,485 miners worked the copper mines in the area, which was Queensland’s foremost producer of this mineral.
But it was short-lived. By the 1920s prices plummeted and by 1926 the towns, which included a police reserve, a hotel, post office, hospital and school, and the tram and railway (which had its own Act of Parliament), were largely abandoned.
The tramway closed in 1921 and the railway in 1929, and the tracks were removed. Hightville was largely abandoned by around 1920 and Ballara similarly by around 1926 and the foundations and ruins of buildings and residences are all that remain.
An application to enter the Wee MacGregor tram and rail complex and the former towns of Ballara and Hightville into the Queensland Heritage Register was made by a local heritage organisation, with the Queensland Heritage Council approving the listing in March 2019.
The Wee MacGregor tram and rail complex, and the former towns of Ballara and Hightville, lie south of the Barkly Highway, in the Argylla Ranges between Mt Isa and Cloncurry.
“The Wee MacGregor tram and rail complex and the former towns of Ballara and Hightville are representative of the very temporary nature of many mining towns and associated railways in Queensland, and their vulnerability to commodity prices.
“What’s been left behind, however, is important in revealing to us vital information about the construction and operation of remote mining infrastructure and the people who lived and worked in these far-flung mining operations.” - George Seymour, Deputy Chair, Queensland Heritage Council
Further information on the tram and railway complex, and the former towns, can be found at Wee MacGregor tram and rail complex.