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 the markets.

However it was not until 1885 that Richard and Walter Alldridge, acting under instructions from WC Brown, prospected the area and discovered 20 payable reefs.

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

[1] Residents on the Croydon Goldfield faced many hardships including inadequate supplies of water; pasture grasses and timber for fuel and constructions purposes.

Pugh's Almanac of 1900 listed 3 banks, 6 blacksmiths, 5 bakers, 6 commission agents, 4 newsagents, 6 carriers, 2 chemists, 6 drapers11 share brokers, 18 hotels and 4 watchmakers, among many other assorted businesses.

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

[1] As on many other Queensland goldfields, a Chinese community was formed at Croydon, congregating on the north west fringe of the town.

At the end of 1888 Mining Warden Towner reported that Croydon had a population of 3500 of whom 300 were Chinese, Cingalese, Malay or African.

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.

However it appears that the level of Chinese involvement at Croydon was confined to the service industry and in occupations such as gardeners, carriers, bakers and cooks.

It is significant that, in a region that experienced racial discord, a person of likely Chinese heritage is buried amidst Europeans in the Tabletop cemetery.

[1] Mines serviced by Tabletop township included the Federation, Day Dawn, Mount Morgan, Bobby Dazzler, Happy Jack, Rising Sun, Ace of Hearts, Star of Hope, Black Diamond, Blackbird and Lady Jane.

By 1889, 20 children attended the Tabletop school and numbers evened out at 22 until the late 1890s, indicating a stable family community.

A Senior Sergeant and Constable maintained law and order and their presence in town is represented in the Tabletop cemetery.

[1] In 1893 Henry Hasenkamp was posted to Tabletop as the Senior Constable, Clerk of Petty Sessions and Inspector of Slaughterhouses.

Not long after they arrived their ten-year-old son, Henry Adolphous died on 19 October 1893, about 3 weeks short of his eleventh birthday.

[1] Families associated with mining communities often led a migratory lifestyle and many suffered the loss of a child due to the primitive living conditions and lack of medical supplies and expertise.

Eucalypts and other native trees are scattered throughout the area and tussocky grasses provide a dense ground cover during much of the year.

While it has not been properly determined whether these are actual burial sites, no similar features (i.e. stone piles, mounds) were seen to occur naturally outside the confines of the cemetery.

[1] The identifiable headstones within the fenced cemetery all face to the east, and all the individual graves (including the stone piles and mounds) are aligned in an east–west direction.

Four stone mounts are visible, one for each railing corner post, and the marks on these suggest that at some stage this grave may have been slightly repositioned.

Dating from c. 1887, Tabletop Cemetery demonstrates and contributes to our understanding of the pattern and nature of settlement in small frontier mining towns.