Young investigated routes for an overland telegraph line between Cardwell and Normanton, which was built between 1869 and 1872, and later became a lifeline for the northern mining fields.

Pastoralists followed these early explorers, bringing sheep in 1865, but by 1867 many had retreated because of fever, drought, low wool prices and distance from markets.

In the latter part of 1883, two of his employees James and Walter Alldridge found a leader of quartz carrying gold.

However it was not until 1885 that Richard and Walter Alldridge, acting under instructions from W.C. Brown, prospected the area and discovered twenty payable reefs.

The finds were reported in October 1885, and the Croydon area was proclaimed a goldfield on 18 January 1886, thus coming under administration of the Mines Department.

[1] Residents on the Croydon goldfields faced many hardships from inadequate supplies of water; pasture grasses and timber for fuel and construction purposes.

Industrial action in 1888 resulted in the formation of a branch of the Amalgamated Miners' Association, and a strike occurred in 1889 when mining companies again tried to lower wages.

A financial setback occurred in the "crash" of 1893, when most banks closed doors and gold buying ceased, throwing many miners out of work.

[1] As on many other Queensland goldfields, Croydon had a Chinese community which developed on the north west fringe of the town.

This figure is surprising given that the Queensland Goldfields Amendment Act of 1878 excluded Chinese people from new fields for three years unless they had made the discovery.

[1] The fields developed with Croydon as the main administrative and commercial centre surrounded by "satellite" communities established at outlying reefs.

Members of the outlying communities would visit Croydon on Saturday nights to shop, conduct their business and socialise.

There were townships at Golden Gate, Tabletop, Gorge Creek, Golden Valley, Goldstone, Carron, Twelve Mile, and campsites at Homeward Bound, Croydon King, Mark Twain, Lower Twelve Miles, Mulligan's, Flanagan's, Morning Light, Moonstone and Alluvial Springs.

This firm started their Townsville operation about 1896–97, subsequently extending to Cairns (1908) and in 1915 to Charters Towers and Mackay.

John, who assumed responsibility for his father's business in 1848, expanded the stonemasonry company to Charters Towers and Townsville in 1889.

The original survey plan noted sand with substratum of sandstone and drainage into Highland Mary Creek.

The variety of material used in headstones is varied and ranges from polished granite to marble, sandstone, sheet metal, cast iron, concrete and tiles.

The headstones show several stages of decay with sandstone weathering and marble deteriorating in the tropical heat.

Therefore, the surviving sandstone and small brick headstones at Croydon that denote intact burial sites are significant for their rarity.

The cemetery has the potential to yield information in regards to the early history of the inhabitants of the Croydon goldfields, their ethnic, social and religious backgrounds and standing within the community.

Nationality, health, social status, lodge affiliation, occupation, religion and cause of death are often included in the inscriptions.

The large number of single graves is illustrative of the hardship and isolation of pioneering life in north west Queensland.

The work of a number of significant Queensland monumental firms is evident in this cemetery including that of Melrose and Fenwick of Townsville, Ernest Greenway of Ipswich and that of J Petrie and JH Simmons of Brisbane.

The cemetery is significant for its high spiritual and symbolic value to the community because of its continuity of use as a burial place for the region for one hundred and ten odd years.