420 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



and the first section of a railway towards the Palmer was opened on 3Oth November, 

 1885, a distance of 31 miles, and on the 8th October, 1888, to the Laura River, 67 

 miles from Cooktown." 1 



Unfortunately, alluvial gold, however rich, becomes exhausted 

 sooner or later, and the richer the sooner. As an alluvial field, the 

 Palmer was at its zenith in 1875, and had dwindled into insignifi- 

 cance by 1886. The field has, however, produced GOLD to the 

 value of about five and a half millions sterling, of which it is 

 estimated that 94 per cent, was alluvial. The reefs, principally 

 in the neighbourhood of Maytown, which have furnished the 

 remaining 6 per cent., have not attracted a large population. 

 The result is that the Palmer townships now present a very much 

 less imposing aspect than they did in the first decade of their 

 existence, and Cooktown is a quiet town, supplying the Palmer 

 Goldfield, such as it now is, some fair pastoral country, some rich 

 agricultural land and some tin-mining centres, and with an asset 

 of increasing importance in its good harbour, which is the entrepot 

 for Papua and other Pacific Islands. By the time the RAILWAY had 

 reached the LAURA, the decay of the Palmer arrested its further 

 progress, but I have a firm belief that the Palmer reefs will in time 

 receive the attention which they deserve. 



In spite of rich winnings, there were many diggers who 

 failed to clear their expenses on the Palmer. For a time the COST 

 OF PACKING was enormous. Instances are given of carriage charges 

 varying from zs. to 43. per pound avoirdupois. Flour was quoted 

 on the field for some time at a standard rate of is. per pint (approxi- 

 mately i lb.), and Mulligan mentions in 1874 that he paid .20 per 

 bag for flour in Palmerville. For a time horse-shoe nails were weighed 

 against gold. Under such conditions, the definition of " PAY- 

 ABLE GOLD " becomes very elastic. 



Among the " hardy miners " referred to by Dalrymple was a 

 young man named WILLIAM J. WEBB, from Brisbane, where he 

 had arrived from England, as a boy, in 1855. The portrait here- 

 with shows him as he was in 1915. His marriage was the first 

 celebrated in Cooktown, of which he is probably by this time the 

 oldest inhabitant. He has been good enough to write for my 

 information an account of the first journey from Cooktown to the 

 Palmer, from which I quote the following extracts : 



"The 'Leichhardt' dumped 96 of us diggers, New Zealanders, Victorians, New 

 South Welshmen, and Queenslanders, where No. 3 wharf, Cooktown, now is, in the 

 morning of Saturday, 2$th October, 1873. MR. MACMILLAN, who was to lead the 

 party to the Palmer, had picked up JERRY, the black boy who was with Mr. William 

 Hann, whose party had discovered gold, and whose services Mr. Hann, while Mr. 

 Macmillan was in Townsville, " lent " for the occasion. There were diggers already 

 on the field, but they had come from the Etheridge, led by Mulligan, who, following 

 Hann, had reported that the gold was payable. 



1 A. Meston, Geographic History of Queensland. Brisbane, by Authority, 1895, P- 61. 



