Mount Surprise 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 Etheridge The Shire of Etheridge is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia in what is known as the Savannah Gulf region. Its economy is based on cattle grazing and mining. It covers an area of , and has ...

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. In the , the locality of Mount Surprise had a population of 138 people.

Geography

The town is located in the

Gulf Savannah The Gulf Country or North West Queensland is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also c ...

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...

on the

Gulf Developmental Road Gulf Developmental Road is an Australian highway linking the Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and Normanton, Queensland, Normanton regions in northern Queensland, Australia. It is the only sealed (Asphalt concrete, asphalt) road linking these two reg ...

, north west of the state capital,

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

and west of the regional centre 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 ...

History

The town was founded by Ezra Firth, from the English county of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, who along with his family settled in the area in 1864. The property struggled at first; relations with the

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

inhabitants of the country were hostile and the country was not suited for wool growing. The discovery of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

in the 1880s and the subsequent

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...

allowed Firth to sell his sheep to the miners, convert his holding to cattle and become wealthy selling goods to the miners. In 1908, the Etheridge railway line reached Mount Surprise. Mount Surprise Post Office opened by July 1908. In October 1942 detachments of 16 Australian Field Company,

Royal Australian Engineers The Royal Australian Engineers (RAE) is the military engineering corps of the Australian Army. The RAE is ranked fourth in seniority of the corps of the Australian Army, behind the Corps of Staff Cadets, Staff Cadets, Royal Australian Armoured C ...

travelled to

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the '' Endeavour'', for ...

, Mount Surprise and Coen to build Repeater Huts. Mount Surprise State School opened on 12 February 1917.

Demographics

In the , the locality of Mount Surprise and the surrounding area had a population of 162 people. In the , the locality of Mount Surprise had a population of 306 people. In the , the locality of Mount Surprise had a population of 169 people. In the , the locality of Mount Surprise had a population of 138 people.

Heritage listings

Mount Surprise 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: * Gulf Developmental Road:

Radar Hill Har Adar () is an Israeli settlement organized as a local council (Israel), local council in the Seam Zone and the Maccabim sub-region of the West Bank. Founded in 1986, it had a population of in . It is located near Abu Ghosh and the Green Lin ...

* Via Mount Surprise: Quartz Hill Coach Change Station * Etheridge railway line: Mount Surprise railway station

Education

Mount Surprise State School is a government primary (Early Childhood-6) school for boys and girls at Garland Street (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 23 students with 3 teachers and 5 non-teaching staff (2 full-time equivalent). There are no secondary schools in Mount Surprise, nor nearby.

Distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

and boarding school are options.

Amenities

The town has a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

, one cafe, two

petrol stations A filling station (also known as a gas station [] or petrol station []) is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Fuel dispensers are used to ...

with a small store, a post office, a train station, a gem-shop, a police station and two trailer parks or caravan parks. One park, Bedrock Village Caravan Park & Tours, has camp sites, cabins and a pool. It is one of the tour operators for guided tours to the lava tubes at Undara Volcanic National Park. At the Mount Surprise Tourist Park, a large bird aviary is open to the public.

Attractions

Some of the Savannahlander tourist rail services start from, passes through, or stop at Mount Surprise. Collins Lookout is in the north of the locality (). It is within the Byrimine cattle station. The town is near the Undara Volcanic National Park and Forty Mile Scrub National Park. Other activities in the area include gem

fossicking In Australia, New Zealand and Cornwall, fossicking is prospecting, especially when carried out as a recreational activity. This can be for gold, precious stones, fossils, etc. by sifting through a prospective area. In Australian English and New Z ...

Gallery

Image:Bedrock Village Caravan Park, Mount Surprise, Queensland Australia.jpg, Bedrock Village Caravan Park Image:Elizabeth Creek, Mount Surprise, Queensland Australia.jpg, Elizabeth Creek behind Bedrock Village Image:Bottle Tree in Undara Volcanic National Park.jpg, A '' Brachychiton australis'' (Broad-leaved bottle tree) in Undara Volcanic National Park

References

External links

{{authority control Towns in Queensland Shire of Etheridge Localities in Queensland