This historic goldmining city is called the Queen of the Murchison.

With a inhabitants of of simply 215 in 2021, it’s onerous to think about this sleepy Western Australian city was as soon as the thriving centre of the Murchison Gold Subject. When Might Vivienne revealed Travels in Western Australia in 1901, she wrote, “Eventually I noticed the lights of Cue. Electrical lights within the streets, horses and carts, the shrill whistle of the railway engine, boys calling out the night papers…all instructed me that I had emerged from the ‘again blocks’ and was as soon as extra nearing the metropolis.”

Cue was established within the Eighteen Nineties by miners decided to make their fortune on the wealthy gold reefs surrounding the city. Its inhabitants waxed and waned, relying on the altering fortunes of the gold business, however at its peak, Cue boasted a inhabitants of greater than 10,000. By 1894, everlasting buildings have been constructed from domestically quarried limestone slabs, suggesting that the “metropolis” was predicted to final for generations, if not centuries.

As we speak, these stone buildings – most notably the Gents’s Membership, Previous Gaol, Courthouse, Police Station and Masonic Lodge – are straightforward to search out (most are on the principle avenue). The distant city is surrounded by the blood-red sand of WA’s Mid West area, in addition to salt lakes and breakaways. Every spring, the district blooms with spectacular shows of wildflowers.

Location:

Cue is 642km north-east of Perth through the Nice Northern Freeway and 420km east of Geraldton.

Origin of Identify:

In 1893, Cue was formally named after the prospector Tom Cue, who travelled to Nannine and registered a gold declare. Mockingly, Tom Cue was not the one who found gold on the web site, however he did discover gold at what’s now referred to as Agnew.

Customer Data :

Cue District Customer Centre
72 Austin Road.

Helpful Web sites:

cue.wa.gov.au

westernaustralia.com

1. Masonic Lodge

In Dowley Road stands the Masonic Lodge, one of many few buildings in Cue not constructed from stone. The plaque exterior particulars its historical past: “Inbuilt 1899 of timber and galvanised iron with a pressed tin inside, this uncommon constructing is alleged to be the most important corrugated iron construction within the Southern Hemisphere.” Month-to-month conferences of Masons have been held right here till the early Seventies. The lodge closed in 1979 and was later purchased by the Nationwide Belief.

2. Band Rotunda

The band rotunda is a ravishing monument in Austin Road, constructed over the “Previous Properly”, which was sunk in 1893 and have become the lifeblood of the city in the course of the goldrush. The rotunda was in-built 1904 and is devoted to the pioneers of the Murchison area. The octagonal bandstand was as soon as a preferred assembly place. Within the early years of the settlement, bands performed right here each Saturday evening.

3. Cue Shire Workplace – Gents’s Membership

On the northern finish of Austin Road is the Shire Workplace. This good-looking stone constructing was financed by the London and Western Australian Funding Firm and had 18 places of work and two outlets. In January 1901 the higher flooring grew to become dwelling to the Murchison Membership, utilized by Cue’s main enterprise, mining, pastoral {and professional} males. It later grew to become often known as the Gents’s Membership.

4. Ruins of Cue Hospital

Cue’s first hospital was a canvas and bough shed erected north of the city in July 1892 after an outbreak of typhoid fever. Three years later, a brand new hospital was constructed from native stone and boasted spacious wards and shady verandahs. The hospital closed in 1942 and fell into ruins. A number of partitions nonetheless stand, together with the crumbling stays of the hospital crematorium’s chimney.

5. Aboriginal Artwork – Walga Rock

About 50km west of Cue is one among WA’s best galleries of Aboriginal rock artwork. Of explicit curiosity is a portray of a white, square-rigged crusing ship with two masts and sq. portholes – apparently, this space is greater than 300km from the ocean. No correct date might be positioned on the artwork, however it was nearly actually painted earlier than 1900.

6. Authorities Buildings

Spectacular authorities buildings, constructed between 1895 and 1897 – together with the Warden’s Courtroom, previous Submit Workplace and Police Station – are discovered on Austin Road.

7. Previous Gaol

The Cue Caravan Park now homes the Previous Gaol that was in-built 1896 to a design offered by the WA Architectural Division. It was not designed as a everlasting gaol however somewhat as a brief place to carry prisoners being transported to the bigger centres on the coast. The gaol formally closed in 1914, however it was nonetheless used as a lock-up till the Thirties.

Historical past

Earlier than European settlement, the world was dwelling to the Wajarri First Nations individuals.

Gold was found at Cue in 1892. Inside days, 400 miners had arrived within the space.

The city of Cue was gazetted in 1893.

In 1894 Premier John Forrest visited Cue and promised to construct a telegraph line, a railway and everlasting authorities buildings. The telegraph was accomplished that yr.

By 1895 one other city – Day Daybreak – was established south of Cue, near the Nice Fingall Mine (pictured).

By 1896 Cue and Day Daybreak boasted three newspapers between them: The Murchison Miner, The Murchison Occasions and Day Daybreak Gazette and The Murchison Advocate.

Cue Railway Station opened in 1897.

By 1900 Cue had a inhabitants of about 10,000.

The Nice Fingall Mine at Day Daybreak closed in 1918.

By 1933 there have been fewer than 500 individuals residing in and round Cue.

In 2006 Cue was categorized by the Nationwide Belief.

The city received WA’s Tidy Cities award in 2006 and the Tidy Cities Nationwide Litter Prevention class in 2007.

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Picture credit score: courtesy State Library of Victoria

Associated: An entire information to Aussie cities