Mount Molloy is a rural town and

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

in the

Shire of Mareeba The Shire of Mareeba is a Local government in Australia, local government area at the base of Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, inland from Cairns, Queensland, Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mareeba, Queensland, Mare ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It is a historic

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

town, north of

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

. The dominant industry in the area is cattle

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

; the town itself consists of a few shops and an old

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

. In the , the locality of Mount Molloy had a population of 266 people.

Geography

Mount Molloy lies within both the

Mitchell River Mitchell River may refer to: Australia *Mitchell River (Queensland) *Mitchell River (Victoria) *Mitchell River (Western Australia) *Mann River (New South Wales) is sometimes referred to as Mitchell River. Canada *Mitchell River (Cross River) *Mit ...

and Barron River water catchment areas. Nearby towns are Julatten, Mount Carbine and

Mount Mulligan Mount Mulligan is a former mining town and now a rural locality in the Shire of Mareeba, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Mount Mulligan had "no people or a very low population". It is the site of the Mount Mulligan mine disaste ...

Quaid Road Southedge-Wangetti Road Corridor (formerly and unofficially Quaid Road) is a stretch of road in Far North Queensland. It links the Captain Cook Highway at Wangetti on the coast just north of Cairns, to the Mulligan Highway at Southedge, just ...

terminates south of Mount Molloy. The town lies in the western part of the locality, with the central and eastern part protected within

Kuranda National Park Kuranda National Park is a national park in Far North Queensland, Australia. Like many national parks in the area it belongs to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. The park protects an important wildlife corridor in which rainforest and open ...

and the Kuranda West Forest Reserve.

History

Djabugay (also known as Djabuganjdji, Tjupakai) is a language of Far North Queensland, particularly the area around the Kuranda Range and Barron River Catchment. The Djabugay language region includes the land within the local government boundary of

Cairns Regional Council The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. ...

. Mount Molloy was named after Patrick Molloy, an early teamster for a stock route and the person who discovered

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

at what was to become Mount Molloy in 1885. At its height, in the 1890s, Mount Molloy was a copper

town. It was commonly used as camping grounds, and

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

market gardeners used to grow grain and other foodstuffs for the miners nearby. Molloy Post Office opened by July 1905; it was renamed Mount Molloy in 1982. Mount Molloy School of Arts officially opened on Monday 13 November 1905. It was . Mount Molloy Provisional School opened on 23 July 1906 at Bakers Road. By June 1907, it had enrolment of 75 students with an average daily attendance of 60 students. It became Mount Molloy State School on 1 January 1909. It was relocated on two occasions due to flooding, officially opened in 1976 at its current location. A private railway was constructed to Mount Molloy, junctioning from the

Mareeba Mareeba is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Mareeba in Far North Queensland, Australia. Between 2008 and 2013, it was within the Tablelands Region. The town's name is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ''meeting of the water ...

line at Biboohra, opening in August 1908. It was built by Mount Molloy Ltd to serve its smelters. Ownership was transferred to

Queensland Railways Queensland Rail (QR) is a railway operator in Queensland, Australia. Queensland Rail is owned by the Queensland Government, and operates both suburban and interurban rail services in South East Queensland, as well as long-distance passenger t ...

on 1 March 1917 following the liquidation of the company, and the line was extended to Rumula on 5 December 1926. The branch closed on 1 May 1964. Between 2008 and 2013, Mount Molloy (and the rest of the Shire of Mareeba) was within the

Tablelands Region The Tablelands Region is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia inland from the city of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns. Established in 2008, it was preceded by four previous local government areas ...

Demographics

In the , the locality of Mount Molloy had a population of 273 people. In the , the locality of Mount Molloy had a population of 254 people. In the , the locality of Mount Molloy had a population of 266 people.

Heritage listings

Mount Molloy has a number of

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

sites, including: * James Venture Mulligan's Grave, Bakers Road () * Johnston's Sawmill Steam Plant, corner of Santowski Crescent and Peninsular Development Road ()

Education

Mount Molloy State School is a government primary (Prep–6) school for boys and girls at 30-40 Fraser Road (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 44 students with 3 teachers and 7 non-teaching staff (4 full-time equivalent). There is no secondary school in Mount Molloy. The nearest government secondary schools are Mossman State High School in Mossman to the north and

Mareeba State High School Mareeba State High School is a public, co-educational, high school, located in the town of Mareeba, in Queensland, Australia. It is administered by the Department of Education, with an enrolment of 790 students and a teaching staff of 64, as of ...

to the south.

Community groups

The Mount Molloy branch of the

Queensland Country Women's Association The Queensland Country Women's Association (QCWA) is the Queensland chapter of the Country Women's Association in Australia. The association seeks to serve the interests of women and children in rural areas in Australia through a network of loca ...

meets at the CWA Hall at 31 Main Street (

Mulligan Highway The Mulligan Highway is a state highway in Queensland, Australia. It runs for approximately 266 km between Mareeba and Cooktown, on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula where it terminates. It is signed as State Route 81 from Mareeba to ...

References

External links

*
Mitchell River Watershed Management Group
{{authority control Mining towns in Queensland Towns in Queensland Shire of Mareeba Localities in Queensland