As part of the Queensland Heritage Trails Network (QHTN), Charters Towers has developed a fascinating and exciting project that depicts the region’s past and present life.
The project gives Charters Towers the opportunity to let visitors know the story of their area. It has divided Charters Towers into three linked precincts, known as the One Square Mile Precinct, the Venus Battery Precinct and the Towers Hill Precinct.
“We had this wonderful heritage city with key attractions scattered all over the place, but with no packaging or no professional help to draw it all together so that people would find it interesting enough to send their friends and relatives back,” said Charter Towers Mayor, Brian Beveridge. “The Queensland Heritage Trails Network’s Charters Towers project will provide that one big link needed to tie it all together, to develop major attractions that have largely been unexploited and, basically, to put the jigsaw together for people.”
Among some of the features for the project is The Stock Exchange building located in One Square Mile, which will present the significance of the town’s first 100 years. This building retains its character as one of Australia’s great pioneer settlements.
Also proposed is a newly constructed amphitheatre on Towers Hill which will present a film in the evenings, recreating the daily dramas that played out as 25,000 people crammed into the area searching for their fortune in gold. There are also hands on gold panning and fossicking activities with the potential for processing demonstrations using a working, mini battery on site.
The Queensland Heritage Trails Network’s Charters Towers project is expected to be completed by October this year.
