mining

The caves on the east side of Mount Etna before the limestone mine, north of Rockhampton, 1965. Slide by Warwick Willmott. Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland.

Before Mount Etna was mined, from the 1930s to the 1962, G.M.Pilkington & Co quarried lime on Limestone Ridge, producing burnt lime which was used in processing sugar. The quarry where stone was hewn by hand, four kilns, ore shutes, compressor housing, sheds and tram tracks remain as evidence of an operation which in 1939 employed 26 men. The kilns were wood burning, lit at night, when dense smoke filled the valley, undisturbed by environmental concerns. A picturesque ruin remains of this pioneer industry. Pilkington’s Quarry, 2009.  Kilns are at the base of the structure.