Adolphus William Copper Smelter

Adolphus William Copper Smelter is a heritage-listed former copper smelter and associated mining camp at Westwood and Oakey Creek in Rockhampton Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1874. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 13 May 2011.HistoryThe Adolphus William Copper Smelter, located 45 km southwest of Rockhampton, was one of a number of small copper operations established in central Queensland during the boom-bust period in international copper prices in the early to mid 1870s. The smelter operated between 1874 and 1876. The associated Adolphus William Copper Mine had a fluctuating history, being worked on and off between 1872 and the late 1870s, (possibly as late as 1879) then again in the early and mid 20th century. Little information exists for the associated Dee Township, which is believed to have been occupied during the 1870s boom period and was quickly abandoned when the mine and smelter closed for the first time. The last copper mining occurred in the area in 1940, and in 1942, the copper deposits in the area were declared unprofitable.Copper was the first metal commercially mined in Australia, commencing in South Australia in 1844. In Queensland, the Peak Downs Copper Mine at Copperfield (now part of Clermont) in Central Queensland, opened in 1862. It was Queensland's first successful copper mine and the first successful copper mine outside South Australia.