Majorca & Craigie Historic Tour

Majorca and Craigie are located south east of Maryborough and are rich in history and heritage.

Historic Craigie

The township of McCallums Creek became known as Craigie in 1875. The McCallums Creek Primary School was opened in 1870 and closed in 1941. There was also an abundance of hotels, which caused the township a lot of hard-ship with a high number of summonses issued to each hotel for the illegal sales of alcohol whilst being unregistered. The Talbot Butter Factory opened its creamery in Craigie in the 1890's to take the milk from the surrounding farmers.

The cry of gold in February 1863 started the Tent Township of Majorca. The township of Majorca was foundered by a group of Spanish miners. In April of the same year the landscape looked like a war zone amongst the sea of canvas tents, with an abundance of good gold still being found. By April of 1866 Majorca took the appearance of an American township from the Wild West, consisting of many general stores, billiard rooms/ hotels and timber yards. The Majorca General Store established in 1866, is still in operation today even though its location has moved into Maryborough, The original store in Majorca is now a private residence. In May of that year there was an increase of Chinese and Mongolian miners hoping to strike it rich and the beginning of the Kong Meng mine was formed. The Kong Meng mine stretched over approximately 50 acres being worked by steam machinery. It was owned by a successful merchant from Melbourne by the name of Mr Kong Meng. The miners would walk from Maryborough to Majorca wading their way through thick bush with lanterns made from clear whiskey or brandy bottles.

Ghost Townships

Both Majorca and Craigie like many other mining communities fell victim to the wandering habits of miners with their fickle mindset of locating the one big gold nugget. These miners were always moving on to the next area, which was said to be full of riches to chase their desire of finding gold. Leaving little or no business for the townships of Majorca and Craigie, with only a skeleton of the buildings remaining the local traders would move along with the miners leaving nothing but memories. Majorca & Craigie were part of the Gold Escort Route where all gold from the area was taken to be stored in Adelaide after being sold to the banks. Commissioner Alexander Tolmer lead the first of 18 police, escorts which transported gold from Mt Alexander to Adelaide from March 1852 to December 1853 - transporting 328,509 oz of gold.