Summary

The Great Northern Mine site was listed on both the Register of the National Estate and the Queensland Heritage Register in 1979. The site is now in public ownership and is available for visitation.

The following is an extract from the Cultural Heritage Branch, Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland.

Discovered in 1880 by a group of prospectors including future trading partners William Jack and John Newell, the Great Northern Freehold Mine became one of Australia's leading lode tin producers. John Moffat, who was to establish a mining empire in North Queensland, had acquired an interest in the mine by September 1880. Within a year, over 160 mines were being worked in the area and the town of Herberton had become the thriving centre of the tinfield. Herberton thus became the first town on the Atherton Tableland. The Great Northern Mine remained profitable for investors for many years until commercial mining operations ceased in the early 1960s.

Today the mine is of significance because of the rarity and the intactness of its original plant, which surpasses any in Queensland. The Great Northern Mine has a significant place in Queensland's mining history for its central role in the development of the mining industry on the Atherton Tableland and the development of Cairns as the major port in far north Queensland.