4i 6 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



with, and the party worked with dishes, and having " made a few 

 ounces," began to think of working on a bigger scale with a cradle 

 and selecting a prospecting claim. On i$tb July, they moved 

 camp to the infall of CRADLE CREEK, so named " because we got 

 timber here to make a cradle out of a Leichhardt tree, which we 

 chopped down and chopped into boards with a tomahawk, having 

 no other tool save a rasp and hammer." 



Up to 1 6th July, the camp being still at the mouth of CRADLE 

 CREEK, parties prospected the river up to the infall of the NORTH 

 PALMER, or " left-hand branch of the Palmer," as it is sometimes 

 called, finding PAYABLE GOLD all the way, as well as in a tributary 

 coming from the north, which they named SANDY CREEK. The 

 NORTH PALMER was also found to be highly auriferous. 



On i6th July, the party returned to their THIRD CAMP on the 

 Palmer, and while some settled down to work with the cradle, 

 others rode down the river past Hann's MOUNT TAYLOR. 



On 3otb July, the camp was shifted a little higher up the river, 

 and again (i mile) on 1st August, to points where GOLD was plentiful. 

 The majority of the party worked steadily on GOLD till Jth August, 

 while the Leader and others extended their operations in various 

 directions. 



On Jth August they camped on the site of PALMERVILLE, where 

 they had resolved to make their headquarters beside what they 

 were about to claim as a prospecting area. 



An extract may here be given from the diary in illustration of 

 Mulligan's singleness of purpose and his pre-Wordsworthian con- 

 tempt for mere scenery, which bored him almost to the point of 

 incoherence : 



" Due north," he says, " to the coast range close at hand, the range of sandstone- 

 capping is irregularly broken into by creeks and gorges, whilst, in a parallel line south, 

 at the back of Thompson's Range, is horrid to look at, and really I think looks worse 

 than it really is. On the whole, looking at the numerous bush fires and darkies' signal 

 fires, which show so well this calm morning, the scene is terribly grand, and considered 

 so far away in the wild bush, is a little shocking, though pleasing." 



On 8tb August, they got PAYABLE GOLD at MOUNT TAYLOR, 

 down the river below Palmerville. 



On loth August, the CAMP was moved down the river to a point 

 5 miles below MOUNT DAINTREE, i.e., to what is now FROME, and 

 was the site of Hann's Camp 20, near WARNER'S GULLY, the scene 

 of WARNER'S FIRST DISCOVERY OF GOLD. Here only " colours " 

 were obtained, but one of the party got half an ounce of GOLD in 

 a crevice in a granite bar in the river. 



From I2tb to 2^tb August, the prospectors were working 

 PAYABLE GOLD in the vicinity of PALMERVILLE. They then BURIED 

 THEIR TOOLS, surplus AMMUNITION, etc., resolving to build a hut 

 on their return, and left for the Etheridge on 2^tb August, carrying 



