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Tennant Creek Gold RushPrint Page Print this page

Tennant Creek Gold Rush
Tennant Creek Gold Rush

Photographs supplied by Diane Watson

The metal etching of a miner panning for gold recognises that Tennant Creek was the site for the last gold rush in Australia during the 1930s.  At that time it was the third-largest gold producer in Australia.

Gold  was discovered in the ranges three miles north of the current town area in 1926 by J Smith Roberts. In 1927 Charles Windley, a telegraph operator, found gold on what would become Tennant Creek's first mine, The Great Northern. Australia's last great Gold Rush did not commence, however, until after Frank Juppurla, a local Indigenous man, took gold to telegraph operator Woody Woodruffe in December 1932. The population quickly grew to about 600, 60 of whom were women and children. “Battery Hill” which overlooks the town of Tennant Creek is the site of one of the last two operating ten-head stamp batteries, a Government owned ore crushing machine.

Location

Address:Peko Road & Stuart Highway, Peko Park, Tennant Creek, 0860
State:NT
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -19.645739
Long: 134.191361
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Art
Monument Theme:Technology
Sub-Theme:Industry

Dedication

Approx. Monument Dedication Date:2003
Front Inscription

                        TENNANT CREEK
                     Australia's last goldrush town

           Gold was discovered in the region in 1932
        
         Men hoping to make their fortunes came from 
            All parts of Australia to be part of the gold
             Rush and it is this spirit of the early days that
                 Lives on in the community today

         Initiated by the Tennant Creek Tourist Association
Welding process carried out by Dexter Barnes Electrical in 2003

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au