CHAPTER LIX 



MULLIGAN'S FIRST PALMER EXPEDITION, 1873, AND THE 

 DISCOVERY OF PAYABLE GOLD 



PROSPECTORS ATTRACTED TO THE PALMER BT HANK'S REPORT. MULLIGAN'S PARTT 

 LEAVE GEORGETOWN. MOUNT SURPRISE. FOSSILBROOK. LYND RIVER. THE 

 ROCKY TATE. THE TATE. FISCHERTON. MULDIVA CREEK. WALSH RIVER. 

 CAMP 7. SITE OF WALSH TELEGRAPH STATION. MOUNT MULGRAVE. CAMP n. 

 Fox CREEK. THOMPSON'S RANGE. PALMER RIVER. SITE or PALMERVILLI. 

 CAMP 12. HOSTILITY OF NATIVES. PAYABLE GOLD. PROSPECTING AND WORKING 

 GOLD IN PALMER RIVER, NORTH PALMER, CRADLE CREEK AND SANDY CREEK. 

 MOUNTS TAYLOR AND DAINTREE. FROME. FIRST DISCOVERY OF GOLD BY HANN'S 

 PARTY. WARNER'S GULLY. SITE OF PALMERVILLE. MULLIGAN ON SCENERY. 

 LEAVE PALMER FOR ETHERIDGE. MITCHELL, WALSH AND TATE RIVERS. BLACK 

 GIN CREEK. ARRIVAL AT ETHERIDGE AND REPORTING OF PAYABLE GOLD ON THE 

 PALMER. THE FIRST RUSH FROM THE ETHERIDGE TO THE PALMER LED BY MULLIGAN. 



HANN'S FIRST REPORT was made by telegraph from Junction 

 Creek on I2th November, and a complete report, accom- 

 panied by a map and diary, was dispatched from his home 

 at Maryvale on 2oth December, 1872. These documents 

 were published in Brisbane as Parliamentary Papers early in 1873. 

 The reported occurrence of gold over a wide area on the 

 Palmer attracted the attention of miners, ever on the alert for 

 the first hint of a new discovery, and the conviction grew that 

 although mere " cattle men " like Hann and his companions 

 might not consider the gold to be payable, skilled prospectors 

 might follow it up to an EL DORADO. 



Several parties of prospectors set out without loss of time and 

 were soon distributed over the new field. Among these were 

 JAMES VENTURE MULLIGAN, and his companions, m'z., Albert Brandt, 

 James Dowdell, David Robinson, Peter Abelson, Alexander 

 Watson and Peter Brown, who left the Etheridge Goldfield on 

 5th June, 1873. l 



A prospector is an explorer in every sense of the word (one 

 is tempted to add " only more so "), but the circumstances surround- 

 ing his calling make for the concealment of the results of his 

 labour up to a certain point. Let him " drop on a good patch of 

 gold " and he naturally settles down to put the gold in his pocket 

 with the least possible delay. It is true that by giving early notice 



1 See Petition to Parliament. Queensland Votes and Proceedings, Session 1874. 

 Vol. II, p. 755, and Heaton's Australian Men of the Time, 1879. 



413 



