[3] Charters Towers township is only mildly elevated at 290 metres or 950 feet above sea-level, but this has a noticeable effect, with lower humidity and wider temperature variations compared to nearby Townsville.

The town was founded in the 1870s when gold was discovered by chance at Towers Hill on Christmas Eve 1871 by 12-year-old Aboriginal boy, Jupiter Mosman.

Jupiter was with a small group of prospectors including Hugh Mosman, James Fraser, and George Clarke.

The Borough of Charters Towers was proclaimed on 21 June 1877 under the Municipal Institutions Act 1864 with John McDonald being elected the town's first mayor.

[16] During 1888–89, the Charters Towers Stock Exchange and Royal Arcade were constructed at the northern end of Gill Street for local businessman and civic leader Alexander Malcolm.

[15] During World War I, labour was hard to find, and as the mines drove deeper, ventilation and water problems arose.

[9] The gold is concentrated into veins, and was Australia's richest major field with an average grade of 34 grams per tonne.

[18] During World War II, Charters Towers was the location of RAAF No.9 Inland Aircraft Fuel Depot (IAFD), completed in 1942 and closed on 29 August 1944.

[53] Hundreds of separate mining leases covering an area of 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi) were consolidated by James Lynch in the 1970s and 1980s and the company Citigold listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1993.

After 89 years, the goldfields were reopened, and gold was produced again from the Warrior Mine 4 km (2.5 mi) southeast of the town in November 2006 by Citigold Corporation Limited.

Citigold has announced plans to open three mines directly under the city to extract gold at a rate of 250,000 ounces per year.

[55] The Charters Towers branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association meets at the Jane Black Memorial Hall at 80 Mossman Street.

[56] Jane Black of Pajingo Station was a pioneer of the Charters Towers branch but also one of the founders of the Country Women's Association in Queensland as a whole.

[59] Such was its strength in those gold-mining days of the late 1880s that The Northern Miner installed a then-revolutionary linotype slug-casting machine before Brisbane's The Courier Mail.

[59] In 2000, The Northern Miner was linked for the first time to the North Queensland Newspaper Company and therefore News Limited's electronic layout system and website.

The publication's founder, Daniel Sumpton, has been referred to as "The man who brought Print Journalism back to Charters Towers.

The E-Village is the creation of local resident, Bryan West, following his frustration at not being able to find a suitable date for a kindergarten working bee.

The E-village derives its income from related web services, with any profits being returned to the Charters Towers community.

[63][64] The Bull FM88 is the only country music radio station in Charters Towers playing an extensive mix from the 1980s to today.