Jupiter Mosman

Michael Brumby

Jupiter Mosman discovered the first gold at Charters Towers in December 1871. And yet it took 30 years before this was acknowledged and a further 50 years before a monument was raised to celebrate Jupiter’s contribution to the making of the largest goldfield in Queensland.
This is the story of Jupiter Mosman’s slow emergence as the declared discoverer at Charters Towers where he spent most of his life. This is set against new research into how the city’s Indigenous People were also accommodated: from first contact in 1845 to self-determination in the 1970s.