Etheridge
Local government area in the Gulf Savannah region, originally Einasleigh Division, created on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions under the Divisional Boards Act 1879. It became a shire on 31 March 1903 and was renamed Etheridge Shire on 15 March 1919.
Mining district south-west of Cairns. Augustus Gregory charted the Gilbert River in 1856 and others, mainly with pastoral intentions, travelled through the district in the 1860s. Richard Daintree made several journeys in 1866-69 and found good indications of gold at the headwaters of the Gilbert River in 1868 and at Georgetown, originally known as Etheridge. Daintree probably named the locality after Robert Etheridge senior, a prominent palaeontologist and his son, Robert, appointed assistant field geologist to the Victorian Geological Survey four years after Daintree's departure from Victoria.
By 1869 prospectors had entered the area, and by the middle of the year the Gold Commissioner estimated the population at 3000. A major gold reef was found in 1870 at Etheridge, renamed Georgetown in honour of the local gold commissioner in 1872. The town was on the Etheridge River and in 1919 the name of the local shire was changed from Einasleigh to Etheridge because mail addressed to Einasleigh Shire was being sent to Einasleigh township instead of the shire offices at Georgetown.
Overshadowed by Gympie, Palmer and Charters Towers, mining records for the Etheridge reveal 121,000 ounces of alluvial gold extracted in 1873, with 21,000 ounces were extracted in 1879-80. Another 227,000 ounces came from from battery-crushing of stone between 1877 and 1890.
After the discovery of payable copper at Einasleigh a private railway was opened from Einasleigh to the Cairns-Chillagoe line in 1908, enabling ore to be transported to Chillagoe. Two years later the line was extended from Einasleigh to Charleston (now Forsayth) to tap into another ore body. The railway was taken over by the government in 1915 and, despite operational losses, continues to run as The Savannahlander twice weekly tourist service through Mt Surprise, Einasleigh and Forsayth. Mining continued until 1914 when the Chillagoe smelters closed. South of Einasleigh the Kidston gold mine and battery (1921-45, 1984-2000) was the largest open-cut gold mine in Australia.
River towards the base of Cape York Peninsula, the only major tributary to the Gilbert-Einasleigh system, which joins the other two east of Normanton, Richard Daintree found gold on the Etheridge in 1869.
Eton
Rural settlement south-west of Mackay, dating back to 1865, when its first sale of township lots came three years after the settlement of Mackay. The Great Northern Hotel opened shortly afterwards. In 1885 a railway connection from north of Eton to Mackay opened, and in 1886 it was extended across Sandy Creek into Eton to coincide with the opening of the North Eton central sugar mill.
The North Eton mill was refinanced by the Queensland Government and changed over to a co-operative in 1928. Cost pressures on the sugar industry brought about the amalgamation of five mills around Mackay, including North Eton, as Mackay Sugar in 1988), and North Eton was closed at the end of the 1988 crushing season.