Source: Bureau of Meteorology, Australia, data: 1942–2002, 1882–1992, 1882–1992
Charters Towers is a city in the Australian state of Queensland and is located inland about 130 km southwest of Townsville at an altitude of about 310 m.
Charters Towers was created as a result of the gold rush at the end of the 19th century and was at times the second largest city in Queensland after Brisbane with up to 27,000 inhabitants . It was also the only non-capital in Australia with its own stock exchange. By the First World War, over 200 tons of gold had been extracted, making the Charters Towers gold fields the most productive in Australia. After that, you had to go deeper and deeper and gold mining became unprofitable. Estimates assume that the mines will contain at least the same amount of gold that has already been mined.
The population of Charters Towers has now dropped to around 8,000. Nevertheless, the place remains worth seeing, as the buildings and architecture still bear witness to the former wealth of the city and its residents.
