Captains Flat, New South Wales

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<!-- End Infobox template table -->Captains Flat is a town in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, in Palerang Shire. It is south of Queanbeyan.

It is suggested that a bullock named "Captain" from Foxlow station, 12&nbsp;km away, grazed here and hence the place name.

The area was originally inhabited by Ngarigu Aboriginals prior to European settlement. The town formed as a result of mining for gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper and iron pyrites in the hills surrounding the upper reaches of the Molonglo River. The town boomed from 1881 to 1899 then went into a rapid decline until 1939 when rail access revived mining activity for another 23 years.Copper was found in the area in 1874 by JE Wright of Foxlow station. The Molonglo goldfield was declared in 1882 and mining for gold and silver commenced at two mines, Koh-i-noor and Commodore, which were operated by two mining companies. Two blast furnaces were built in 1885. The two companies merged in 1894 and formed the Lake George United Mining and Smelting Company. Up to that time the mines had produced mainly copper with some silver and a small amount of gold. Processing was made harder because of the presence of zinc. To convey ore to the bins at the smelter, the company built a 2&nbsp;ft (610mm) tramway in 1897....
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