Chiilagoe Station

Half a million pounds was spent on erecting smelters at Chillagoe and constructing a railway to transport the ore from the district's mines. A regular Cobb and Co. coach service began in 1898 and the first Land in the new township was auctioned in 1900. After recovering from the Chillagoe Company's earliest financial crisis in 1901, the town became established, with a rapid increase in population and the construction of houses, shops and community buildings.

By 1908, Chillagoe had over 1500 residents. A school, police station, school of arts and library were opened, as well as a store, shops and hotels. There was a strong union representation and members included miners such as Edward Theodore and William McCormack, who both later became premiers of Queensland. Further economic failure by the company caused mining in the area to cease during World War I, when the smelters closed and only a handful of people in the town remained employed.

In 1919, following the election of a Labor Government, Chillagoe Smelters were taken over by a state-appointed manager. Until its closure in 1943, the plant was run as an instrument of Queensland's welfare policy to ensure continuing work in the town and create jobs in the district's depressed mining industry. By the 1950s, only about 60 people remained in Chillagoe. A store and two hotels were all that remained of the town's commercial life as it struggled to survive as a service centre for the local cattle industry. In recent years, the opening of the beef cattle road, new trucking yards and the development of a thriving tourist industry based on the nearby Chillagoe Caves have secured the town's future.