RV TRAVEL
Back in 1870 , major deposits of tin were discovered on the northern tablelands of New South Wales . These deposits were found predominately in Tingha , which was settled in 1841 by Sydney Darby looking for pastoral land . Within 12 months , more than 8000 people moved towards Tingha , including hundreds of Chinese people .
It wasn ’ t long before the mines became a commercial affair due to the huge amount of tin that was found and , as the majority of the tin was on the surface , little machinery was needed , allowing the miners to make good money .
THAT ’ S A LOT OF TIN !
The boom gave the town a school and a general store with a post office , but the boom was over by 1900 . The amount of tin that was mined was staggering , to say the least . Reports indicate that more than 70,000 tonnes were mined within a five-mile radius of the centre of town .
At the peak of the boom , Tingha was the largest tin-producing district in the state . In 1885 , it was established as a private town to service the mines . New dredges were brought in to rework the old ground in the 20th century with little success , and little remains of the old mines except for rusting relics and massive pits that were dug for extracting the tin .
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