[1] The Kuridala Township and Hampden Smelter are located approximately 65 kilometres (40 mi) south of Cloncurry and 345 metres (1,132 ft) above sea level, on an open plain against a background of rugged but picturesque hills.

[1] The Cloncurry copper fields were discovered by Ernest Henry in 1867 but lack of capital and transport combined with low base metal prices precluded any major development.

However, rising prices, new discoveries in the region and the promise of a railway combined with an inflow of British capital stimulated development.

[1][2]: 221–223 The copper deposits at Kuridala (initially named Hampden) were discovered by William McPhail and Robert Johnson on their pastoral lease, Eureka, in January 1884.

[1][3] A world price rise in copper in 1905 combined with a government decision in 1906 to extend the Great Northern railway (then connecting Townsville to Richmond) to Cloncurry, stimulated further development.

[3] The company reconstructed in July 1909 by increasing its capitalisation, and concluding arrangements for a debenture issue to be secured against its proposed smelters.

[1] Concern over the dwindling reserves of high grade ore led to William Henry Corbould, the general manager of Mount Elliott mines, negotiating an amalgamation with Hampden Cloncurry to halt the fierce rivalry.

[2]: 230  In 1913, following a fire in the Hampden Consol's mine, Corbould convinced his London directors to reopen negotiations for a joint venture in the northern section of the field which still awaited a railway.

At its height the town supported six hotels, five stores, four billiard saloons, three dance halls and a cinema, two ice works and one aerated waters factory, and Chinese gardens along the creek.

[5]: 50 There were also drapers, fruiterer, butcher, baker, timber merchant, garage, four churches, police station, court house, post office, banks and a school with up to 280 pupils.

[6] Ore from other company-owned mines (Duchess, Happy Salmon, MacGregor and Trekelano) was railed in via a 1.2-kilometre (0.75 mi) branch line to the reduction plant bins, while the heavy pyrites ore from the Hampden mines was separated at the main shaft into coarse and fine products and conveyed to separate 1,500-long-ton (1,500 t) capacity bins over a standard gauge railway to the plant.

Its smelter treated 69,598 long tons (70,715 t) of ore in 1920, but the company was forced to halt all operations after the Commonwealth Bank withdrew funds on copper awaiting export.

[2]: 242  More negotiations for amalgamation occurred in 1925 but failed, and in 1926 Hampden Cloncurry offered its assets for sale by tender and Mount Elliott acquired them all except for the Trekelano mine.

With the rise of Mount Isa, Kaiser's bakehouse, the hospital, courthouse, one ice works and picture theatre, moved there in 1923 followed by Boyds' Hampden Hotel (renamed the Argent) in 1924.

Much of the money which built their Port Kembla works into one of the country's largest manufacturers came from the now derelict smelters in north-west Queensland.

[1][5]: 54 In 1942 Mount Isa Mines bought the Kuridala Smelters for £800 and used parts to construct a copper furnace which commenced operating in April 1943 in response to wartime demands.

These include food containers such as glass bottles, ceramic tableware, and metal tins for products from kerosene and matches to sardines and tobacco.

Examples of these sites include deposits of bottle glass, ceramic vessel fragments, metal artefacts, bricks and other domestic material.

Further south and about 200 metres (660 ft) east of the smelter is the Hampden No.1 mine and plant foundations at the base of a high tailings dump.

[10]: 559 [11]: 234  The Hampden Consol mine to the south retains an iron chimney on a rendered brick base which is inscribed AD 1913.

[1][11]: 25 Kuridala Township, Hampden Smelter and Mining Complex was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 12 June 2009 having satisfied the following criteria.

The Hampden Smelter is equipped with a rare, early water-jacket blast furnace, which is now unique as the only surviving example of its type in Queensland.

Archaeological examination of the smelter works will provide an understanding of the technology and practices in early copper processing in Queensland.

[1] Archaeological investigations of the township area of Kuridala will provide answers to a range of questions relating to the social dynamics of the community and its establishment, development, interaction, and decline.

Analysis of the archaeological artefacts particularly in domestic contexts will provide information on issues such as ethnicity, gender and the daily lives of the residents of Kuridala.

An understanding of the collective experiences of isolated mining communities may also be gained through further research into the site, particularly given the level of intra-site complexity.

Archaeological analysis of the remains of those buried in the cemetery also has the potential to reveal details of the health and living conditions of the residents of the township.

For example, as identified during previous archaeological surveys of the site in 1989 and 1995, the town plan shows neat streets to the east of the mines and smelter and southwest of the Hampden consol, but the archaeological evidence shows domestic settlement extending to the south, in isolated pockets to the north of the smelter and west of the mines.

[1] Archaeological investigations at the former Kuridala Township, Hampden Smelter and Mining Complex also have potential to answer important research questions including but not limited to labour relations, class, and capitalism.