Millchester is a

rural residential A hobby farm (also called a lifestyle block in New Zealand, or acreage living or rural residential in Australia) is a smallholding or small farm that is maintained without expectation of being a primary source of income. Some are held merely to ...

town and

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

in the Charters Towers Region,

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. In the , the suburb of Millchester had a population of 543 people.

Geography

Although historically the town centre is on Jardine Street Street (between Macdonald Street and Palmer Road) opposite the

Venus State Battery Venus State Battery is a heritage-listed stamper battery at MacDonald Street, Millchester, Charters Towers, Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1872. It is also known as Venus Gold Battery and Venus Mill. It was add ...

, most of that area is currently used for

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

. The land use is a mix of residential, grazing and some quarrying.

History

Millchester State School opened on 21 September 1874. Charters Towers School of Distance Education opened on 27 January 1987 as part of Australia's School of the Air. When the school opened, it relied on

HF radio High frequency (HF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) between 3 and 30 megahertz (MHz). It is also known as the decameter band or decameter wave as its wavelengths range from one to ten ...

(using six 1000 watt transmitters) to speak with the students (with one person speaking at a time), the postal system to deliver printed materials, with occasional face-to-face opportunities in the field or at "camps" held in a major town. In 2002 the school replaced radio with

teleconferencing A teleconference is the live exchange of information among several people remote from one another but linked by a telecommunications system. Terms such as audio conferencing, telephone conferencing and phone conferencing are also sometimes used t ...

, enabling simultaneous conversations between teacher and student. From 2010 it became possible to incorporate

video-conferencing Videotelephony, also known as videoconferencing and video teleconferencing, is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real time communication.McGraw-Hill Concise Ency ...

. In the , Millchester had a population of 581 people. In the , the suburb of Millchester had a population of 543 people.

Heritage listings

Millchester has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

sites, including: * MacDonald Street:

Charters Towers mine shafts Charters Towers mine shafts are a heritage-listed group of mine shafts and ruins at Charters Towers, Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1883 to 1916. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 29 April 200 ...

* Stone kerbing, channels and footbridges of Charters Towers

Education

Millchester State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at on the corner of Bluff and Phillipson Roads (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 162 students with 15 teachers (12 full-time equivalent) and 11 non-teaching staff (8 full-time equivalent). Charters Towers School of Distance Education is a government primary and secondary (Early Childhood-12) distance education school for boys and girls in

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

locations without access to conventional schools. The teachers are at 15-23 Brisk Street () in Millbank. In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 2,137 students with 70 teachers (69 full-time equivalent) and 20 non-teaching staff (18 full-time equivalent). It includes a

special education Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

program (Prep-12). There is no conventional secondary school in Millchester. The nearest conventional secondary school is

Charters Towers State High School Charters Towers State High School (CTSHS) is a public high school in Charters Towers City, Charters Towers, Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Aust ...

in Charters Towers City to the north-west.

Attractions

Venus Gold Battery is a tourist attraction showcasing the gold mining history of the area (). It has guided tours and video-presentations.

References

External links

* {{Charters Towers Region Suburbs of Charters Towers Towns in Queensland Mining towns in Queensland