Etheridge railway line
The railway stations at Mount Surprise, Einasleigh and Forsayth and the route of the Etheridge Railway between Mount Surprise and Forsayth, including surviving railway buildings, rails, sidings, turning forks, loading banks, stone pitched bridges and culverts, stone cuttings, sandboxes, water tank, signage, and signals and points infrastructure, are important surviving evidence of the efforts of the Chillagoe Railway and Mines Company to supply copper ore to its smelters at Chillagoe.
Quartz Hill Coach Change Station
However, changes in transportation were threatening the existence of the Change Station at Quartz Hill. In 1900 John Moffat of the Chillagoe Railway and Mining Company acquired an interest in the Einasleigh Copper Mine, which was to prove the premier base metal producer on the Etheridge. By 1901 the copper matte was being transported by camel to Almaden via Quartz Hill. Gold from the Etheridge gold field was also transported in this manner through Quartz Hill. This mode of transportation proved unsatisfactory and by 1902 the construction of a railway line was suggested between Georgetown and Almaden to join with the Chillagoe Railway. The potential route passed through Quartz Creek, but instead the Etheridge railway line was constructed further south, through Mount Surprise and Einasleigh, terminating at Forsayth (previously Charleston). The railhead reached Mount Surprise from Almaden in 1908, and opened at Forsayth in January 1910.