MULLIGAN'S FIFTH EXPEDITION 443 



admiration, and although mere scenery left him cold, he foresaw 

 its value for pastoral purposes. 



A few years later, I had occasion to become very familiar with 

 this district, and to my surprise I found that the HEAD OF THE 

 MITCHELL is actually in this " meadow " a stretch of ALLUVIAL 



PLAIN COMMON TO THE MlTCHELL AND THE BARRON RlVERS, the 



latter of which carries a great volume of water. An extra high 

 flood in the Barren would send the surplus water of that river 

 down the Mitchell. The conclusion was inevitable that THE 

 BARRON WAS ONCE actually THE HEAD OF THE MITCHELL. Geological 

 investigation showed that at no very remote date (probablyTertiary) 

 this portion of the Barron valley was raised by the accumulation 

 of thick coulees of basaltic lava to a level which enabled the river 

 to escape through a gap to the east, and this was followed by the 

 EROSION OF THE STUPENDOUS GORGE commencing at the famous 

 BARRON FALLS, and THE BARRON BECAME AN INDEPENDENT RIVER, 

 discharging into the Pacific at Trinity Bay instead of into the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria, as it had previously done. The RAILWAY 

 line from Cairns, Trinity Bay, to Chillagoe, Mount Mulligan, the 

 Etheridge and Herberton, now climbs up the southern side of this 

 gorge, and besides subserving the industrial purposes for which 

 it was designed, carries crowds of tourists to the Falls, the unrivalled 

 jungle scenery and the health resorts of the district. 



Mulligan struck the left bank of the BARRON on 2\ih May 

 (CAMP 13) near the point where the course of the river abruptly 

 changes from north to east. Without a suspicion that the river 

 was not the Mitchell, he was naturally amazed that it should still, 

 so far above where he had previously crossed that river, be a river 

 of so much importance and carry such a large body of water. 

 Believing it to be the Mitchell he emphatically declared the 

 Mitchell to be " the river of Queensland." 



Mulligan's mistake was strictly comparable with Hann's mistake 

 in following the Annan River to its head under the impression that 

 he was following the Endeavour. Both mistakes were not only 

 natural, but inevitable. 



Where the BARRON was first met with, Mulligan noted the 

 deep, RICH, fertile alluvial SOIL, densely covered with SCRUB, or 

 jungle ; but regretted that it was not " the kind of country in 

 which we expect gold." He named the flats " KING'S PLAINS," 

 after the then Minister for Works, the Hon. H. E. King, but the 

 name does not appear to have caught on, and the popular appellation 

 of the " BARRON SCRUB " seems likely to be perpetuated, although 

 the scrub itself has to some extent been cleared for agriculture, 

 and may in time disappear entirely. 



Rain had by this time set in, and the BARRON could not be 

 CROSSED until the 26th May, on which day Mulligan estimated 

 that he made 10 miles to the south-east, over slate country. It 



