MULLIGAN'S FIRST PALMER EXPEDITION 417 



1 02 ounces of GOLD. They struck south for MOUNT MULGRAVE, 

 which they passed on the west side, and followed Hann's track 

 across the MITCHELL, and to, and up, the WALSH, identifying on the 

 way Hann's I2th camp. Crossing to the left bank of the Walsh 

 near Hann's Camp II, on 28th August, they struck S. and SSE. 

 up the valley of BROWN CREEK and camped on BLACK GIN CREEK, 

 within a mile of where it falls into the Tate River. (SEE MAP K.) 



Next day (292/6 August) Mulligan ran up the TATE south-eastward 

 to what is now the TATE TELEGRAPH STATION (Hann's Camp 84), 

 where he left the river and followed Hann's homeward track (Camps 

 84-85) to MOUNT McDEViTT. Thence, practically by Hann's 

 track, he went south on $oth August, and camped at the junction 

 of FOSSIL BROOK with the LYND. " The Woolshed " (FOSSIL- 

 BROOK OLD STATION) was reached on ^ist August, MOUNT SURPRISE 

 STATION on 1st and GEORGETOWN (Etheridge) on ^rd September. 



Mulligan's first business at the Etheridge was to report payable 

 gold on the Palmer. The claim, supported as it was by the exhibi- 

 tion of the actual gold, admitted of no dispute. An unprecedented 

 " RUSH " to the new field soon followed the announcement. 



The first " RUSH " FROM THE ETHERIDGE to the Palmer was led 

 by Mulligan, and is briefly referred to in the following paragraph : 



" After recruiting their health for a few days, they [the prospectors] left the 

 ETHERIDGE on the iztb day of September [1873], accompanied by loo men and about 

 300 horses, for whom they had to make a new road, and reached the PALMER RIVER 

 for the second time, on the 26th day of September, remaining there until the l6th day 

 of February, 1874, enduring great hardships and privations, when they left for Cooktown, 

 Endeavour River, their horses completely worn out, after having prospected from 

 Mount Taylor for the distance of 60 miles, and found payable gold." 



The above paragraph is the only record of Mulligan's second 

 trip to the Palmer which I have ever seen, and is an excerpt from 

 a Petition to Parliament signed by 382 residents of Cooktown, 

 praying for a reward to the prospecting party. 1 



Mulligan appears to have written no account of it, and it is 

 not therefore numbered as an " expedition." It will be convenient 

 to refer to his next RECORDED trip, starting from Cooktown on 1st 

 May, 1874, as his " SECOND EXPEDITION." 



1 Parliamentary Votes and Proceedings, Queensland, Session 1874, Vol. II, p. 755. 



ii 5 



