Situated less than a kilometre east of the Dawson River, Baralaba's development began with the Dawson River Anthracite Prospecting Company taking up coal prospecting areas in 1901. Serious mining began in about 1916 with a State coal mine, and the Mount Morgan Gold Mining Company opened a mine in 1921.

 

The key to the mining development was the railway line from Rannes to Baralaba (1917), and the infant township's first civic initiative was to request the opening of a school. A provisional tent school was opened in 1918, with the first permanent school building (today's administration block) erected a decade later.

 

The Mount Morgan mine was transferred to the Dawson Valley Coal Co which together with the State coal mine brought certainty to the township.