Mary Kathleen Town Square - QLD

Mary Kathleen is an abandoned uranium mine townsite. This marker locates the town square, however the town covers a large area. All the buildings have been dismantled but all the streets, concrete slabs, and the swimming pool remain and make interesting exploring (refer to the historic town map for details).

The now ghost town has become a popular free camping area and visitors often drive or ride MTB bikes out along the 6km 4WD track to the east of town that leads to the abandoned Mary Kathleen open cut mine. Refer to Nearby Places for specific details of each site in the area.

History

Burke and Wills passed through the Mary Kathleen area in 1861 and it was duly settled by pastoralists in the late 1860s. It wasn't until 1954 that uranium (then the largest known deposit in Australia) was discovered by Walton and McConachy. The latter bestowed the name of his late wife, who had died a couple of weeks earlier, upon the town.

In the next four years an eight-man syndicate was formed, a model town was built, a contract was signed with the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and the mine was brought into production.

The town had two brief lives. Between 1958 and1963 a total of 4500 tonnes of uranium were produced. A world oversupply of uranium led to the mine lying idle from 1963. It was reopened in 1974 but closed again in 1976. It was finally closed down in 1982 and the following year everything in the town from the houses to the public buildings and the equipment was put up for auction.