View in Copperfield, Queensland-Messrs. Thompson and Cashion’s Stores.

Very rare engraved view of shops in the town of Copperfield near Clermont, Queensland.

Clermont’s mining industry took on greater permanency in 1863 when the Peak Downs Copper Company began mining a rich copper lode a few kilometres south of the town. Around the mine grew the town of Copperfield, with its smelters producing 17,000 tonnes of refined copper over 15 years. A separate Copperfield municipality was created in 1872, and by 1876 had an estimated population of 2000 people.

By the end of the 1870s, Copperfield’s population had halved, for London copper prices had fallen and competition had arisen in the form of new mines at Cloncurry and Mount Perry. Mining revived in the late 1890s and the school re-opened, staying open until 1942.

From the original edition of the Town and Country Journal.