NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTION 



THE Cape York Peninsula, forming, as it does, the link 

 binding the two great islands of Australia and New 

 Guinea, is necessarily of the highest importance from a 

 geological, ethnological, zoological, botanical, historical, 

 political and strategical point of view. 



It so happens that the Peninsula is the first part of Australia 

 to which authentic written history refers. On the earliest landing 

 of Europeans there arose the complex questions which obtrude 

 themselves whenever civilisation comes into contact with bar- 

 barism. 



My practical interest in the Peninsula began with a tour 

 made in 1879 ' m tne course of my Geological Survey work. On 

 my way to the recently rushed and still more recently abandoned 

 " Coen " gold diggings, I crossed the base of the then almost 

 unknown Cape Melville Peninsula, where I found indications of 

 auriferous country, and also the rivers south of Princess Charlotte 

 Bay, down which the unfortunate explorer Kennedy had struggled 

 in vain to keep his appointment with the relief ship twenty-two 

 years earlier. From the Coen, I was only able to push out to the 

 north for a period inexorably limited by the condition of my 

 horses and the quantity of food remaining in my saddle-bags. 

 Even under these conditions, however, I penetrated for some 

 distance into the Mcllwraith Range, and on the heads of the river 

 which I named the Peach (unaware that it was the river named 

 the Archer by the Brothers jardine, who crossed it near its mouth) 

 I found widespread evidence of the presence of gold and tin. 



From the Laura Telegraph Office, from Cooktown, and 

 ultimately from my headquarters at Townsville, I made such 

 communications as were possible in anticipation of a complete 

 report to the head of the Department of Mines, which adminis- 

 tered the Geological Survey. 



My individual impression was that the reefs in the district 

 traversed were of more importance than the alluvial gold, but 

 there had been neither means nor time at my disposal to enable 

 me to satisfy myself of the value of either, and this view I duly 

 represented in my correspondence with the Department. 



I I 



