The need to access and exploit gold finds determined the path of railways, the establishment of related industries and commerce and the location of settlements.

Other settlements based on goldfields became established towns with government and civic buildings, shops and family homes and survived as such.

Ravenswood was gazetted as a town in 1871 and such public buildings as a courthouse, a school and a Post Office and Telegraph Station were constructed within the first few years.

Many miners left for other fields, such as Charters Towers, discovered in 1871 and which quickly overtook Ravenswood as a gold producer and as the most important inland North Queensland town.

[1] Even so, the town continued to prosper, supported by a steady, though reduced, production of gold, the discovery of silver at nearby Totley in 1878 and as a commercial centre.

As single miners left, more families moved in and sawn timber buildings replaced the tents and shanties of the early field.

[1] In 1899, the New Ravenswood Company was formed by Archibald Laurence Wilson who raised overseas capital, reopened old mines and used modern methods to rework tailings more efficiently.

However, after 1908, the cost of extraction and continued exploration grew as returns lessened and after the end of World War I, it became apparent that it would not pick up again.

[1] The Post Office and Residence are located at the corner of Raven and Macrossan Streets, close to the bridge over Elphinstone Creek.

The town is located in a mining landscape which consists of disturbed ground with scattered ruins and mullock heaps, set amongst distinctive "chinkee apple" trees and rubber vine.

[1] The Post office is a single storey timber building with an exposed stud frame, set on low stumps.

Ravenswood is one of the earliest sites associated with major gold mining in North Queensland that gave significant impetus to the economic and social development of the region.