Leadville is a town in
New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
, Australia. The town is located in the
Warrumbungle Shire
The Warrumbungle Shire is a local government area in the central western region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is traversed by the Newell Highway. The Warrumbungle mountain range and Warrumbungles National Park are major tourist at ...
local government area, north west of the state capital,
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
. At the
2016 census, Leadville and the surrounding area had a population of 169.
History
Aboriginal history
The site of modern-day Leadville lies on the traditional lands of
Wiradjuri
The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...
people, close to the lands of neighbouring
Kamilaroi
The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous Australians, Indi ...
people that lie to the north and east. Early government surveyors were directed to use local language words for place names whenever possible and place names of surrounding settlements such as Dunedoo, Coolah, Goolma, Gulgong and Mudgee are settler interpretations of
Wiradjuri language
Wiradjuri (; many other spellings, see Wiradjuri) is a Pama–Nyungan language of the Wiradhuric subgroup. It is the traditional language of the Wiradjuri people, an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales, Australia. Wiraiari and Je ...
words. That tends to confirm that it is Wiradjuri country.
Mining town
The origins of the town are associated with the nearby silver-lead ore deposits; the former Mount Stewart, Extended, Mount Scott, Grosvenor and Latimer Mines are nearby.
An Aboriginal man, Tommy Governor—the father of
Jimmy Governor
Jimmy Governor ( – 18 January 1901) was an Indigenous Australian who committed a series of murders in 1900. A total of nine people were killed by Governor or his accomplices. Governor and his brother Joe evaded police for fourteen weeks befor ...
—found some interesting rocks, near what would become Mount Stewart, and showed these to Mr. George Stewart. The rocks were
lead carbonate
Lead(II) carbonate is the chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a white, toxic solid. It occurs naturally as the mineral cerussite.
Structure
Like all metal carbonates, lead(II) carbonate adopts a dense, highly crosslinked structure ...
and assays showed the presence of silver. Governor was later to complain that he had not received what he thought was fair compensation for his discovery.
Mining commenced at Mount Stewart in 1888. For the first few years, the miners used nearby
Denison Town for supplies and services.
In 1891,
Free Trader
Free Trader was a political label used in the United Kingdom by several candidates in the 1906 general election and January 1910 general election. Many were Conservative Party or Liberal Unionist politicians opposed to Joseph Chamberlain's campai ...
politician, gold-mining entrepreneur, and director of the Mount Stewart Lead and Silver Mining Company,
Charles Lancelot Garland, retired as the member for
Carcoar
Carcoar is a small town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire. In 2021, the town had a population of 271 people. It is situated just off the Mid-Western Highway 258 km west ...
and bought , at what is now Leadville, immediately to the east of the Mount Stewart mine site. He subdivided the land into 250 town allotments. The new 'private town' of Leadville took its name from another silver-lead mining town,
Leadville, Colorado
Leadville ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Statutory city, statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only List of municipalities in Colorado, incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, Lak ...
. Private ownership of the town was the reason that Leadville was a 'town', while nearby Dunedoo and Coolah were officially only 'villages'. The streets of the new town were named after directors of the Mount Stewart mine—Clarke, Garland, Cox, Channon, Stewart, Plumb—and others—Denham, Davis (a mine manager), and Robinson.The growth of Leadville caused
Denison Town to fade away, as business migrated to the new town;
One of those to move was storekeeper, William Latimer.
Mining at Leadville occurred in three distinct phases, 1888 to 1894, 1913 to 1935, and 1950 to 1952.
Beginning in 1888, silver and lead ore was mined. In 1889, the Mount Steward mine shaft had reached a depth of and was driving east and west from the level. In 1890, the Mount Stewart Mining Lead and Silver Mining Company was floated.
For fourteen months, from early 1892, there was also a smelter at Leadville, which produced 1,539 tons of lead and of silver, from 15,000 tons of ore. The smelter had an 80-ton
water jacket furnace (a cold-blast furnace), with steam-driven blast engine, and a high brick chimney. The furnace used coke—brought from Newcastle to Mudgee by rail and then carted from there to Leadville, an expensive proposition—supplemented by locally burned charcoal. The fortunate accidental discovery of a deposit of limestone, within the mine itself, provided a local source of limestone for flux used in the furnace.
The initial success of the Mount Stewart Mine prompted others to explore and take up leases in the area. A second mine, the Mount Steward Extended Mine—just north of the original Mount Stewart Mine and close to its smelter—was sunk in 1892 and a company floated to fund it; Garland was also a director of this company. The Dynevor Silver and Gold Mining Co. was floated in Melbourne in 1891, and began to mine a deposit of sulphide ores approximately one kilometre/mile away from the Mount Stuart Mine. Storekeeper William Latimer's freehold paddock also became a mine.
Three miles from Leadville, yet another company sank a shaft, the Mount Scott Mine, which seems never to have gone into production.
Mining activity peaked in 1893, and with it the town's population—growing from 26 in 1891 to around 1000
—before the silver price crashed in a
worldwide financial panic. By 1894, complicating the problem of the silver price, the carbonate ores at the Mount Stewart Mine were becoming exhausted, as miners reached the sulphide zone, consisting mainly of
iron pyrites
The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue g ...
and
zinc sulphide
Zinc sulfide (or zinc sulphide) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula of ZnS. This is the main form of zinc found in nature, where it mainly occurs as the mineral sphalerite. Although this mineral is usually black because of various i ...
. Mining ceased around the end of 1894,
and also effectively ended land sales in the town, leaving Garland with many unsold town allotments.
After silver-lead mining ended, some ethnic-Chinese shearers and
station hands settled in the town, which had been vacated by the miners. There was an ethnic-Chinese presence in the town for some years.
Charles Garland bought the Mount Stewart Mine from the liquidator in 1898
and was joined in the venture by James Channon,
a Sydney manufacturer and mine owner.
Pyrite
The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...
(iron pyrites) was used to make
sulphuric acid
Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...
, providing a potential market. In 1913, a trial shipment of 100 tons of pyrite was sold. Garland was soon advocating—despite his earlier political stance in favour of
free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold Economic liberalism, economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist politica ...
—the imposition of a duty on imported iron pyrites, claiming his mine would be a local source.
Prior to 1920, the closest railway connection was at Craboon, on the
Gwabegar railway line
The Gwabegar railway line is a railway line in the Central West and North West Slopes of New South Wales, Australia, which passes through the towns of Mudgee, Gulgong, Dunedoo, Coonabarabran
Coonabarabran ()
is a town in Warrumbungle Shi ...
. In 1913, the construction of a branch line from Craboon to Coolah—passing through Leadville and servicing the mines there—was already under active consideration. Garland advocated the new line, as a means to lower the cost of Leadville iron pyrites to
superphosphate
Superphosphate is a chemical fertiliser first synthesised in the 1840s by reacting bones with sulfuric acid. The process was subsequently improved by reacting phosphate coprolites with sulfuric acid. Subsequently, other phosphate-rich deposits suc ...
fertiliser manufacturers. An act to build the line was passed in December 1915; it opened in March 1920.
In 1916, iron pyrites was shipped to the Wallaroo-Mount Lyall Superphosphate Works, and in 1920 to the
Cockle Creek Smelter
Cockle Creek Smelter was a zinc and lead smelter located at the northern end of Lake Macquarie near Boolaroo in Newcastle, New South Wales. The smelter was built in by the Sulphide Corporation in 1896 and the first attempts to refine zinc using t ...
,
over the new railway line. Around this time, in 1919, the population of Leadville and its surrounding area was still 772. However, misfortune followed; Channon died in December 1920
and, on 14 October 1921, many buildings in the town and at the mine were damaged by a violent storm. Garland lost his earlier enthusiasm for operating the mine, and with it the support of the town.
In late 1926, the "Leadville Mines"—consisting of the Mount Stewart, Grosvenor, and Extended Mines— were on the market, "For the purposes of winding up a partnership", presumably the partnership of Garland and Channon's heirs. Garland had lost interest in reopening the mine, by 1929, further angering the people of the town whose future prosperity depended upon it. Garland died in 1930.
In 1932 the Mount Stewart Syndicate reopened the mine and began shipping iron pyrites to Australian Fertilisers Limited at
Port Kembla
A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inla ...
but, in 1935, the mining ceased.
In 1934–1935, there had been a bitter
demarcation dispute
A demarcation dispute may involve disagreement between trade unions, craft organisations or professional groups over which workers are to perform certain tasks or which trade union or organisations will represent a particular group of workers, es ...
between the
Miners Federation and the
Australian Workers Union
The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 members.
Acc ...
, at Leadville, and, in April 1935, there was suspected sabotage at the mine. The dispute may have been a factor in bringing about the mine's closure. However, it was another industrial dispute—at distant Port Kembla—that was held responsible for the cessation of iron pyrites mining at Leadville and putting 50 men out of work. Imminent reopening was anticipated—for some years—but did not occur.
In 1951, the Leadville Mining Company, produced a small amount of ore and concentrate and, in 1952, Mr R.H. Spence attempted to recover silver from the
mine tailings
In mining, tailings or tails are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different from overburden, which is the waste rock or other material th ...
using the
cyanide process
Gold cyanidation (also known as the cyanide process or the MacArthur–Forrest process) is a hydrometallurgical technique for extracting gold from low-grade ore through conversion to a water-soluble coordination complex. It is the most commonly u ...
, unsuccessfully. That was the last mineral production at Leadville.
After the First World War, two locations near Leadville, 'Pine Ridge' and 'Lawson Park', became
soldier-settlement areas. Consequently, a number of returned servicemen settled in the area. Leadville became a soldier-settler town, during the inter-war years, as mining declined.
In 1935, Leadville had a population of 250 (the district 600), a public school, post office, two hotels, two churches, bakery, butcher, billiard hall, fruiterer, newsagent, stock and station agent, a commercial store,
a brand new community hall, and a passenger train from Sydney, every day except Saturday.
Around 1960, the town experienced a serious decline, as businesses and services drifted away to Dunedoo.
In 1960 and 1965, town allotments—including many still owned by Charles Garland's estate—were sold to recover unpaid
rates
Rate or rates may refer to:
Finance
* Rate (company), an American residential mortgage company formerly known as Guaranteed Rate
* Rates (tax), a type of taxation system in the United Kingdom used to fund local government
* Exchange rate, rate ...
.
The school—opened in 1892—closed in 1972.
The post office—opened in 1891—closed in 1991.
Leadville railway station opened in 1920 and closed in 1975. It was located just to the north of the town. The Coolah branch railway last carried trains in 1982.
For a time, a railway from Leadville to
Merriwa was proposed as an alternative to the
Sandy Hollow to Maryvale railway; in the end neither line would be completed.
The town's most famous son was
Major-General Sir Ivan Dougherty (1907-1998). The continuation of Garland St, after it crosses the town's boundary, is named Sir Ivan Dougherty Drive in his honour.
Remnants
Modern-day Leadville is a quiet place. What remains of the town today lies just to the east of the site of the former Mount Stewart Mine. Most of the town allotments have been subsumed into larger blocks and paddocks but can still be viewed using
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...
. The town's cemetery still exists.
See also
*
Denison Town, nearby ghost town
References
External links
*
Media at Wikimedia Commons - Leadville, New South Wales
A history of the Mount Stewart mine and 'Australia's Little Leadville', central New South Wales- Ken McQueen (Uni. of Canberra), ''Journal of Australasian Mining History'', Oct. 2023.
{{authority control
Towns in New South Wales
Warrumbungle Shire
Mining towns in New South Wales