Mount Surprise

Mount Surprise is a town and locality in the Shire of Etheridge, Queensland, Australia. In the 2011 census, Mount Surprise had a population of 306 people.GeographyThe town is located in the Gulf Savannah in Far North Queensland on the Gulf Developmental Road, 1722km north west of the state capital, Brisbane and 285km west of the regional centre of Cairns.HistoryThe town was founded by Ezra Firth, from the English county of Yorkshire, who along with his family settled in the area in 1864. The property struggled at first; relations with the indigenous inhabitants of the country were hostile and the country was not suited for wool growing. The discovery of gold in the 1880s and the subsequent gold rush allowed Firth to sell his sheep to the miners, convert his holding to cattle and become wealthy selling goods to the miners. In 1908, the railway reached Mount Surprise.Mount Surprise Post Office opened by July 1908.At the 2006 census, Mount Surprise and the surrounding area had a population of 162.