The Mine Headframe at the Gold Mining Museum

 

Gympie
Large and rambling township built around a once-successful gold mine.
Red Creek Rush was not a duffer
Far from that.
Even the most benighted buffer
Struck it fat.
For the wash with gold was teeming
And the strings of men came streaming.

This humorous poem by George Essex Evans, one time district registrar in Gympie, gives some insight into why this remarkable town proclaims proudly that it was 'The Town that saved Queensland'. This grandiose and unusual claim is more fact than wishful thinking. In 1867 Queensland, less than a decade old, was facing possible bankruptcy (there was widespread unemployment and two banks had closed in Brisbane) when James Nash discovered gold near the present site of Gympie. Overnight the wealth from the goldfield (it was to go on to produce over 99 million grams of gold) led to Queensland's first goldrush and pulled the state back from potential disaster.

The story of Nash's discovery is a typical quixotic tale of luck. Nash was so down on his luck at the time that he literally had nothing more than a dog, a pick and a panning dish. When his pick broke he walked to Maryborough where, with an ounce of gold which he had panned, he bought rations and some more equipment. He returned to the Gympie area, went up a dry creek bed and within a week had 75 ounces of gold which he sold in Brisbane for £200. He registered his find and the rush was on. Tales of the early months in Gympie are typical of a swashbuckling mining town. One observer noted, 'Every night it was brawls and fights. Often you would not know which fight to look at first: the cause in nearly every case was beer and barmaids.' Nash managed to make £7000 from the field.

Located 166 km north of Brisbane and 95 m above sea level, Gympie is one of those strange towns which stretches for kilometre after kilometre over hill and dale to a point where, if you don't take the correct turn off the Bruce Highway, the town centre can be quite hard to locate. In recent times the town centre has been by-passed by the highway which makes the town centre's ribbon development (once it stretched along the Bruce Highway) seem quite strange.

Named after a local stinging tree which the local Aborigines reputedly called 'gimpi gimpi' and briefly called Nashville after James Nash had discovered gold in the area, it officially became Gympie in 1868. At this time all that existed was a mining shanty town with endless tents and numerous small stores and liquor outlets.

The growth of Gympie was remarkable. Within months there were 25 000 people on the goldfields. Within a year a gold battery had been built. It was proclaimed a municipality in 1880, became a town a decade later and was a city by 1905. The railway arrived in 1881 and in 1888 it became one of the few towns in Australia to have its own stock exchange. The gold mining continued until 1925. The city then became the most important regional centre for the area servicing the rich variety of agricultural activities which spread from the coast into the hinterland.

Today Gympie is the centre of the Mary River Valley agricultural district in which beef cattle and pigs are raised, tropical fruit and vegetables are grown and an active dairy industry operates.

Things to see:   

The Gympie Gold and Mining Museum
Gympie has two superb tourist attractions which should not be missed. The Gold and Mining Museum, complete with Andrew Fisher's House, is set in attractive parklands which are ideal for picnics and The Woodworks Forestry and Timber Museum has to rate as one of the best and most fascinating working museums in Australia. Both are clearly signposted on the Bruce Highway.

The Gold and Mining Museum (at 215 Brisbane Rd) is an outstanding folk museum with an interesting range of buildings. Spread over a number of hectares, distinguished from the road by its reproduction of a mine headframe and gantry, and located beside attractive lakes and lawns, the Gold Mining Museum is much more than just another folk museum.

One of the highlights is the very important Retort House of the Scottish Gympie Gold Mines which, remarkably, is the only mining building still standing in Gympie. It is listed by the National Trust.

Also in the museum grounds is Andrew Fisher's House. Fisher was Australia's first Labor Minister for Trade and Customs. He later became the first Prime Minister to hail from Queensland. He was Prime Minister three times in the years leading up to World War I and is credited with the famous declaration of Australia defending the British Empire to her 'last man and last shilling'.

The other buildings in the complex range from old school houses to a blacksmith's shop and the displays include an old camera and movie room, a military museum, a railway display, a trophy room celebrating Gympie's sporting achievements, and a dairy display. Other attractions include horse-drawn equipment, a blacksmith and a 1931 Leyland bus. Some of the goldmining equipment is fired up with steam-powered equipment on special occasions. Near the entrance to the park beside the Bruce Highway is a large statue commemorating the gold miners who 'saved Queensland'.

The complex is open daily from 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. and at other times by appointment. Detailed brochures on all the buildings in the complex are provided with each entry ticket. The cost is $6.60 per person except under 13s who are $1.10 apiece. Groups are booked in at $4.40 per person. For further details contact (07) 5482 3995.

 

 

Cutting timber at the Mill, Woodworks Forestry and Timber Museum

 

The WoodWorks Forestry and Timber Museum
The WoodWorks Forestry and Timber Museum (just beyond the northern end of town at the corner of the Bruce Highway and Fraser Rd) proudly declares that it has old tools and equipment including bullock wagons used in the early timber industry, a 1925 Republic truck used to winch logs, timber sample displays of 101 species, a number of videos on aspects of the timber industry, a cross section of a kauri pine that was 619 years old which was logged in north Queensland in 1939.

Outside there are displays of pit sawing, cross cut sawing (visitors can have a try), there is a timber cutters bark hut, a shelter shed with shingle roof, a blacksmith's shop and a steam driven saw mill. There are demonstrations of the old tools by experienced timber cutters and explanations of the transport equipment. The steam driven sawmill is only operated about 8 times a year and for dates it is wise to contact the Museum on tel: (07) 5483 7691. The working demonstrations of pit sawing and cross cut sawing and other timber cutting activities are held on Wednesdays at 10.00 am and 1.00 pm and Sundays at 2.00 pm.

This is one of the finest working museums in Australia. A genuinely fascinating and educational adventure into the history of the timber industry. To see two men actually involved in the rigours of pit sawing is to understand just what the early pioneers went through.

 

Buildings
There are a number of attractive and historic buildings in the town. The most important would almost certainly be the Court House.

The Gympie Court House, on the corner of Channon and King Streets, was designed by the Queensland government architect and built between 1900-1902 at a cost of £6000. It is an attractive and imposing brick building with an impressive corner tower. It is a significant landmark in Gympie.

One of the town's interesting little idiosyncracies is on display over the road from the Australian Hotel at Murphy's Convenience Store (south of the business centre on the old highway). On the front of the building there is a tethering ring for horses which was used when customers arrived at the General Store by horse.

The Australian Hotel, one of the many historic buildings in Gympie, has remained largely unchanged since it was built in 1883. It is things like this which make Gympie one of the most interesting inland towns on the Sugar Coast.

People wanting to explore the architecture of Gympie in much greater detail should refer to The Town That Saved Queensland by W. E. Mulholland and published by the National Trust of Queensland. It is a superb and comprehensive study of the city's most interesting buildings which is divided into Dwellings, Public Buildings and Commercial and Industrial Buildings. A detailed history of the Shire from Noosa across to Kilkivan and from Conondale to Gympie titled Winds of Change has been written by Ian Pedley.

 

Events
The Toyota Country Music Muster is one of Australia's biggest country music dos, with just a leavening of blues. It is held in Amamoor Creek State Forest Park every year in August (see www.muster.com.au). The Gympie Gold Rush Festival, in October, is a week-long festival which incorporates the Qld Goldpanning Championships, the Australian Rock Drill Titles and a Twilight Street Procession (see www.goldrush.org.au).

 

Kybong
Kybong is located 14 km south of Gympie. A local information centre is located at the Matilda Truck and Travel Stop, on the Bruce Highway at Kybong, 14 km south of Gympie,

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