Maytown, Queensland
| Maytown, Queensland | |
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,_stumps_of_the_former_school%3F.jpg)
Maytown ruins, possibly stumps of the former school, 2003
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| Location | Maytown Town Reserve, Palmer, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 16°02′59″S 144°17′16″E / 16.0497°S 144.2878°ECoordinates: 16°02′59″S 144°17′16″E / 16.0497°S 144.2878°E |
| Design period | 1870s - 1890s (late 19th century) |
| Built | c. 1874 - 1920s |
| Official name: Maytown Township | |
| Type | state heritage (archaeological, built) |
| Designated | 1 June 2004 |
| Reference no. | 602255 |
| Significant period |
c. 1874-1920s (fabric) 1874-1945 (historical) |
| Significant components | oven, cemetery, fence/wall - perimeter, pole/s - telegraph, memorial - rock/stone/boulder, kerbing and channelling, hut/shack, signage - interpretative |
 Location of Maytown, Queensland in Queensland
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Maytown was the main township on the Palmer River goldfields in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is now a ghost town within locality of Palmer in the Shire of Cook, having been active from c. 1874 to the 1920s. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 1 June 2004.
After James Venture Mulligan's discovery of gold on the Palmer River in August 1873, a rush followed and was sustained for several years by further alluvial finds. An estimated twenty to thirty thousand people made their way to the field or Cooktown in the early years. It was regarded as an ideal "small man's field" for diggers without capital and experience had the opportunity to get rich quickly.
The alluvial mining communities tended to concentrate in ephemeral canvas camps. The most substantial were Palmerville, on the eastern edges of Kokomini territory, Maytown and Byerstown, whose establishment reflected an eastward movement of the mining population along the river. In May 1875 Maytown became the administrative and business centre of the field.
Originally called Edwardstown after the local butcher, John (Jack) Edwards, the town was surveyed in 1875 by Archibald Campbell MacMillan. It has been claimed that MacMillan named it Maytown after his daughter; however, his only daughter Mary Eleanor (but known as May) was not born until 3 July 1880 and the name Maytown had been in use since at least 1874. In 1876 there were 12 hotels, 6 stores, 3 bakers, 3 tobacconists and stationers, Edwards the butcher, lemonade factory and a surgeon. The sheer size of the population, estimated in May 1877 at 19,500 for the field, kept money circulating among commercial houses for essentials and luxury goods, but at the same time, there was little financial investment in the permanent manifestations of settlement.
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