Peak Downs is a geographic area, and formerly a station, in the vicinity of Clermont,

Central Queensland Central Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Capricorn Coas ...

. The morphology of this region consisted of numerous distinct peaks of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

-capped

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

erupting from a plane, and the area has been worked for copper and

gold extraction Gold extraction refers to the processes required to extract gold from its ores. The great majority of gold is extracted from dilute ores using a combination of chemical processes. About 2000 tons are obtained from the earth annually, plus anothe ...

since as far back as the 1870s, when it was the primary source for material exported via nearby

St. Lawrence Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roma ...

, and perhaps earlier. At least one such peak remains, Wolfgang Peak, part of the

Peak Range The Peak Range is a small subrange of the Swannell Ranges of the Omineca Mountains, located on the northwest side of the junction of Toodoggone River and Finlay River in northern British Columbia, Canada. There is also a Peak Range in Central Q ...

between

Moranbah Moranbah is a coal mining town and locality in the Isaac Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Moranbah had a population of 8,735 people. In addition to the permanent population, Moranbah also has a large fly-in fly-out popula ...

, Clermont, and Dysart, first surveyed on 18 January 1845, by

Leichhardt Leichhardt may refer to: * Division of Leichhardt, electoral District for the Australian House of Representatives * Leichhardt Highway, a highway of Queensland, Australia * Leichhardt Way, an Australian road route * Leichhardt, New South Wales, inn ...

's expedition. Many of the peaks so mapped were named for members or supporters of this expedition. Much of that geography has been removed by

open-cut mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

, including that at the large

Peak Downs Mine Peak Downs Mine is a large open cut coking coal mine in Queensland located 31 km SSE of Moranbah. Peak Downs is one of seven mines in Bowen Basin owned by BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, Australia's largest coal miner and exporter. Productio ...

. The

Shire of Peak Downs Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the beginn ...

, was formerly defined in this area, but has since been amalgamated with neighbouring shires to form the

Central Highlands Region Central Highlands Region is a local government area in Queensland, Australia. History '' Wadja'' (also known as ''Wadjigu'', ''Wadya'', ''Wadjainngo'', ''Mandalgu'', and ''Wadjigun)'' is an Australian Aboriginal language in Central Queensland ...

shire.

References

{{coord, 22, 19, 30, S, 148, 0, 0, E, display=title Clermont, Queensland