In the wild early days of the Queensland goldrush town of Ravenswood you could shack up with an obliging lady of the night . This cut out, which enables tourists to take a souvenir photograph of their visit , has a sign which says there were 10 prostitutes in the town and 600 men . Nowadays , Ravenswood, population 191 in 2006, described as a wonderful true ghost town , offers a range of shacks , two grand old hotels , and a flock of wandering peacocks devoid of their fine tailfeathers . Driving into town is like entering a fascinating time warp , relics of the past everywhere .
One of the stand outs is the Railway Hotel, below, which during WWll was taken over and turned into a school for girls from St. Anne's , Townsville , evacuated inland so the city could be turned over to the defence forces. While there the girls also knitted items for troops .
Through the window of an old shop, below, sporting what looked like a bullet hole in the glass, were painted and decorated cattle skulls . Inside the building more skulls could be seen lined up on the floor . And what looked like dresses, apparently made from plastic bags , that seemed to be cast offs by Dami Im in the Eurovision Song Contest were displayed on dummies .
Gold was first discovered in 1868 and the population grew to 5000 by 1900, there being 40 pubs . The only other surviving pub from those thirsty days is the Imperial , below, built in 1902 , little changed since then ,with spectacular stained glass windows and reported sightings of ghosts, in room 12A, not 13, one said to be a woman in period dress , perhaps like the ladies of the night across the road . Ringers were also known to ride horses up to the bar .
Goldmining is carried out today by Resolute Mining through a subsidiary, Carpentaria Gold , which was bought from Xstrata in 2006. There was a recent staff reduction at the mine . Still there is the imposing 1880 built School of Arts , below, used for many community functions .
There were many Chinese in Ravenswood and the cemetery is the last resting place of a considerable number .The Ravenswood Cemetery Records compiled by Carmel Whitton and Janetta Halvorsen is a handy and informative guide . A reminder of the Chinese involvement in the town in the early days is this metal silhouette , below , near the information centre .
Ravenswood is tailor made for a Tony Robinson Time Walk. From Townsville there is a bus tour which takes in the ghosts, gals and pubs of Ravenswood.
