282 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



GRAHAM MACDONALD, who was already known in other districts 

 as an enthusiastic explorer. When Landsborough's report became 

 known, Macdonald started at once for the " Albert." He was 

 then resident at CARPENTARIA DOWNS station, as Managing Partner 

 of the firm of Towns and Black, of which Mr. (afterwards Sir) 

 John Robertson was a member. 1 This station had just been 

 taken up, and was supposed to be on LEICHHARDT'S LYND RIVER, 

 but shortly afterwards Jardine proved it to be a tributary of the 

 Gilbert and named it the EINASLEIGH. Macdonald's was the 

 " old " station, not the one which now appears on maps * and which 

 I saw in course of erection by the Brothers Barker in i886. J The 

 "old" station (which was Jardine's starting-point in 1864) is 

 about II miles to the north, down the Einasleigh. 



Macdonald gives the position of the old station, from informa- 

 tion supplied to him by A. J. Richardson, the surveyor attached 

 to Jardine's expedition, as 18 37' 10" S. and 144 3' 30" E., and 

 Richardson himself in his Journal * gives the same figures, with 

 the addition that the longitude was the mean of seven sets of 

 lunar observations, and the latitude the mean of several northern 

 and southern observations. The latitude is correct, according to 

 modern mapping, but the longitude is about 8 miles too far west. 

 (SEE MAP P.) 



From the " old " station, then, which was at the time the 

 "furthest north" of settlement, and which he left on $ist August, 

 1864, Macdonald struck south-west and saw the ROBERTSON RIVER 

 (which he named) at the apex of its V-shaped bend to NW. and 

 NE. Continuing to the south-west, he cut the GILBERT RIVER, 

 which he followed northward to the (future) Cumberland Gold- 

 field. (SEE MAPS Q AND L.) The names MACDONALD TOWN and 

 MACDONALD CREEK are reminiscent of this trip, although they were 

 bestowed by later comers. From the Cumberland, Macdonald 

 followed the river on its westward and north-westward course to 

 about opposite the modern STRATHMORE STATION, when, having 

 headed the CARRON (or Charron ?) RIVER, he turned to the west. 

 After crossing the Carron River, which falls into the NORMAN RIVER, 

 he crossed the latter at GLENORE, where the modernrailwayfrom Nor- 

 manton to the Croydon Goldfield now crosses it. (SEE MAP M.) After 

 crossing the FLINDERS RIVER, he turned more to the south (almost 

 to SW.) and, practically on the line now taken by the telegraph 

 poles, struck the LEICHHARDT RIVER in about 18 14' S. latitude. 

 Thence he went westward to the GREGORY RIVER, which under 

 the names of the Barkly and the Albert he followed down north- 



i G. Phillips, Queensland Geogr. Journ., Vol. XXIII. 



a See 6-mile Sketch Map of the Croydon and Etheridge Goldfields, 1911, Publica- 

 tion No. 230 of Geological Survey. 



8 Geol. Observations in the North of Queensland, 1886-7, by R. L. Jack, Govt. Geologist. 

 Brisbane, by Authority, 1887 (p. 3). 



* 30th February. 1864, Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc., London, Vol. XXXVI, p. 21. 



