It is now a little over 76 years since
gold was discovered on Charters
Towers, which later became famous as
a reefing goldfield. Before its discov­ery there were both alluvial and reefing
gold fields. in the Kennedy electorate.
The field embraced an area nearly as
large as Victoria and at the time was
represented by only
one member of Par­liament. In the lat­ter part of 1871 Mosman and party discovered gold but it was not till the 2nd January, 1872, that the fact was reported to the Gold Commissioner then stationed at Ravenswood and a prospecting protec­tion area and four, men's ground was
	obtained from Comissioner Charters.
The report by Mr. Mosman of the dis­covery by his party of rich reefs near the "Towers Moun­tain" (Towers Hill), which he named the North Australian, General Wyndham and Washington, soon brought about
a great influx of people to the
locality of the new rush and a gold­
field was immediately proclaimed un­der the name of the CHARTERS TOWERS GOLDFIELD, so called out
of compliment to the then Commissioner
of Ravenswood, Mr. W. E. S. M. Char­ters. As to the first part of the name,
the other part being intended to desig­nate the mountains which resembled the hills or mountains called tors or towers
in many parts of England. Many of
those who 'came with the rush expressed
the opinion that it was no good, that
the stone was white and hungry and that
all the gold in the stone could be seen.

Results have shown the fallacy of that opinion, yet some of those who made this assertion took up claims which gave them handsome returns.

Had it been an alluvial find on the same scale, its rapid development would have caused no surprise, for diggers flock more eagerly to where gold, is easily obtained and returns quicker than to where capital and machinery is required. Wit h i n four or five months after the prospect­ing area had been granted, a large population had set­tled on the field and a town and stores, hotels, banks and other businesses had sprung into ex­istence, the build­ings would, not have shamed the old es­tablished towns of the colony, which Queensland was at the time of the discovery.
The number of the reefs which crop­ped on the surface were legion, most
of them showing gold, which was the main factor. The extraordinary progress of the field, the alluvial lead found to the east of Millchester called the DEEP LEAD was discovered in July, 1892, the town being first laid, out in this local­ity on account of it being the only creek then available for water, but later on the superiority of the site now occupied .by the present town caused the popula­	tion to settle down here.
The first store and- hotel built on the Towers was called the Royal. It was on the ground the present Royal Hotel oc­cupies and was owned by men of the name of Owen and Woodburn. They previously kept a store at the Cape, sub­