Sunday History Photo / Qld

Mount Surprise is a town in Far North Queensland, Australia. Originally called Junction Creek The town is located in the Shire of Etheridge Local Government Area, on the Gulf Developmental Road, 1,364 kilometres North West of Brisbane and 205 kilometres South West of Cairns. At the 2006 census, Mount Surprise and the surrounding area had a population of 162.

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The town was founded by Ezra Firth, from the English county of Yorkshire, who along with his family settled in the area in 1864. He was among the lucky ones in the Ballarat and Bendigo goldrushes and with his fortune he returned to England to bring out his wife, Eliza, and their two children. 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. Junction Creek opened on 23rd October 1871. In 1876 Junction Creek had connection with the Cardwell – Normanton line and also to Cooktown via Tate River.

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The town today is little more than a pub, one cafe and two servos or petrol stations with a small store, a gem-shop, a police station and 2 caravan parks.
Mount Surprise also has a passenger rail service; The Savannahlander, with a weekly service from Cairns to Einasleigh and Forsayth to the west and return to Cairns. The town is nearby the Undara Volcanic National Park and Forty Mile Scrub National Park.

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