It was proclaimed a municipality in 1877 and the construction of the Great Northern railway created easy access to the port at Townsville, solving the problem of high freight costs experienced by many other mining fields.

Charters Towers gold was in deep reefs and the equipment needed to extract and process it was financed by substantial southern and overseas investment.

After eighteen years of mining in Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand, Pfeiffer moved to Charters Towers in 1874.

In 1878, Pfeiffer and other members of the Day Dawn mining syndicate struck a reef of high grade ore.

[1] When Pfeiffer first arrived in Charters Towers he set up a tent on what was to become known as the Day Dawn Ridge, close to the entrance to his mine.

Longden worked as a mining engineer and architect in Charters Towers between and 1879 and 1882 and designed the first St Columba's Church.

He served as chairman of the hospital board for fifteen years, was a founder and benefactor of the Lutheran church, honorary Major of the Kennedy Regiment and was well known for his generosity towards community organisations and those in need.

[1] In order for his executors to wind up his affairs, a miner's homestead lease covering the site of the house was applied for and granted in 1915 as MHL 8206.

[1] The former Pfeiffer house stands on Day Dawn Ridge on gently sloping land and is a single storey timber building, L-shaped in plan, with an exposed stud frame.

[1] The entrance is reached by concrete steps and a cedar door with sidelights gives on to a hallway with a barrel vaulted ceiling with end panels of coloured glass.

Charters Towers, as an extraordinarily rich goldfield, made a major contribution to the economy of Queensland and to the development of the North in the late 19th century.

The former Pfeiffer house, a substantial residence built for a wealthy mine owner within a decade of the proclamation of the field, demonstrates this success.

It is also an illustration of the wealth of Charters Towers that this house was thought of as comparatively modest by the time of Pfeiffer's death in 1903.

It has a close association with the life and work of Frederick Pfeiffer, not only a major figure in the mining industry in Charters Towers, but a public spirited man who was highly regarded in the community.