The Museum is located on the historic Great Northern Mine site where a tin-rush took place in 1880. Within a year, over 150 mines were being worked and Herberton had become the first town on the Tablelands.

The Great Northern Mine has a significant place in Queensland’s mining history for its central role in the development of the mining industry on the Atherton Tableland and the development of Cairns as a major port in far north Queensland.

The Museum explains how tin mining developed in Herberton via an interpretive mine walk through the adjacent bush and a diverse collection of mining objects in its displays. The Museum’s collections illustrate Herberton’s mining history from the 1880s when tin ore was discovered and the ‘tin rush’ started, until commercial operations ceased in the 1960s. Both alluvial and hard rock tin mining are displayed and interpreted for visitors. The Minerals room houses several collections of minerals, rocks, precious metals and gemstones, plus a world-class collection of tin ore specimens.