Croydon Travel Guide
Croydon accommodation, Croydon activities and attractions, Croydon maps, transportation to and around Croydon - the ALL NEW Jasons Croydon Destination Travel Guide is your complete visitor guide for Croydon.
Croydon, a historic gold mining town in
Tropical North Queensland, was the scene of Australia’s last major gold rush. Located 562km west of
Cairns, Croydon was once the biggest town in the Gulf Savannah. Settled in 1800, by 1885 gold had been discovered - at a time when other North Queensland goldmines had been exhausted. Vast numbers of miners moved to the area and a railway joining Croydon to
Normanton was constructed to transport gold and people. The railway is still running (although it hasn’t shown profit since 1907) and visitors can still ride the ‘rattler’ now known as the Gulflander.
By the end of WWI the gold had run out resulting in Croydon becoming a ghost town, but some interesting historic buildings still exist such as the old shire hall, the courthouse, the mining warden’s office and the club hotel. Reminders of the 5000 odd gold mines in the area are scattered about the country side.