164 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



In the afternoon of the 3Otb, Captain Stokes, accompanied by 

 Lieutenant Gore and Messrs. Forsyth and Dring, took a boat back 

 to the west to the " important inlet " noted by Fitzmaurice and 

 Pascoe on 2ist July. They followed it to the south-west for about 

 40 miles as the crow flies, and more than 50 by the windings, until 

 the water had become quite fresh and the country had opened up into 

 the " PLAINS of PROMISE " 1 (ist August). It was named the ALBERT 

 River. At Stokes' "furthest south" (17 58*'), he was, in fact, 

 nearing the southern limit of the coastal plain in which the mouths 

 of the NICHOLSON, GREGORY and LEICHHARDT RIVERS anastomose. 

 The party returned to the ship on 6th August. Stokes indulged 

 in speculations on the facilities for INLAND EXPLORATION afforded by 

 the landing at the Albert, opening up into country of the most 

 inviting character. They were wise words, and if they had come 

 under the eye of Kennedy I might have averted the disasters which 

 overtook that unfortunate explorer in 1848. 



Up the ALBERT RIVER, about half-way to Stokes' furthest point, 

 now stands the town of BURKETOWN, which serves as the port for 

 a large pastorally occupied area, as well as for the northern portion 

 of the continuous mineral district extending from the heads of the 

 Burke and Wills Creeks (21 30' S.), through CLONCURRY COPPER- 

 FIELDS and the LAWN HILL SILVER-LEAD MINES. 



While Captain Stokes was occupied as above mentioned, 

 Lieutenant Fitzmaurice had been engaged in examining the coast 

 of the Gulf between the mouth of the Flinders River and what 

 was known to him as the Van Diemen Inlet of Tasman. Ten 

 miles from the Flinders, he found the BYNOE INLET (Tasman's 

 VAN DER LIJN REVIER), another mouth of the same river. Seven 

 miles further, there was another, which he did not name, in reality 

 Tasman's VAN DIEMEN REVIER, but now known as the NORMAN 

 RIVER, on which stands NORMANTON, the sea outlet for a large 

 pastoral country and the terminus of the railway to the CROYDON 

 GOLDFIELD. From this inlet, the coast-line begins to trend only 

 a few degrees to the east of north, and it continues so for 25 

 miles to the wrongly named Van Diemen Inlet (16 58' S.). North 

 of this, the coast-line trends north-north-east to the i6th parallel. 



Thirteen miles south of the supposed Van Diemen Inlet 

 (Smithburn River, a mouth of the Gilbert), " an opening of some 

 magnitude " was observed (17 n' S.), with ponds of fresh water on 

 its southern side. Two and 4 miles south of it were smaller 

 openings (marked in the modern chart in 17 13' and 17 15^ S.). 

 The " opening of some magnitude " was named ACCIDENT INLET 

 because " Mr. Fitzgerald had been seriously wounded in the ankle 

 by the discharge of a gun, which had gone off within a few yards of 

 it." He was, in fact, maimed for life. 



1 This country is now all occupied as pastoral holdings : the part reached by the 

 explorers is now Alice Vale No. 5 block on Bustard Plains run. 



