John Moffat (mining pioneer)

John Moffat (1841 – 1918) was a Scottish-born entrepeneur who developed a mining and industrial empire around Loudoun Mill and Irvinebank in North Queensland which drove the development of north-eastern Australia.

He was a devout Swedenborgian who was famous for both vision and enterprise. He was born in Newmilns (New Mills), Ayrshire and spent most of his youth immersed in books. Extremely shy in temperament, he was known to hide whenever visitors approached. It was a habit he was to retain throughout his life.

After learning bookkeeping and working as a clerk in Newmilns and Glasgow, he immigrated to Australia, where he worked as a shepherd on a remote outback station west of Brisbane. He was known to carry a large swag of books and stuffed his saddle-bags with philosophy, theology, engineering and science books.

He frugally saved his pennies and entered into business with a Brisbane storekeeper. A lot of custom started coming from the tin-fields of Stanthorpe. Moffat started a branch of the business on the tin fields where he traded goods for tin and used his intelligence and savings to invest in the best prospects on the field.

Moffat invested the profits of his educated speculations on building a smelter, so the ore could be processed on the field and profits retained.

A prosperous community grew around these achievements. In 1881, Moffat sent two aspiring explorers, William Jack and John Newell to survey the wild frontier of north Queensland on the Atherton Tablelands, west of Port Douglas.

The area was known to have abundant resources of tin on what became known as the Tinaroo field, site of today's Lake Tinaroo. While prospecting there, word quickly passed around that a large find had been made on the Wild River, higher up in the wild ranges. Jack and Newell secured a claim for Moffat and Company and the town of Herberton was founded in 1881.

After a fact-finding and purchasing trip in Europe, Moffat returned to the Great Northern Mine and Mill in Herberton and learned of a new find 27 km to the west. After surveying the site, he founded a settlement there which he named 'Irvinebank', after the river Irvine of his birthplace, in Scotland.

John Moffat lived in Irvinebank from 1884 to 1912 and from there helped spur the development of north-eastern Australia by building mines, mills, smelters, towns, railways, tramways, aerial cableways and other infrastructure.