446 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



Cairns to Atherton ........ 68 



Atherton to Herberton and Tumoulin . . . .31 



Boonmoo to Stannary Hills 20 



Stannary Hills to Irvinebank ...... 12 



Lappa to Mount Garnet ....... 35 



Mareeba to Chillagoe and Mungana ..... 103 



Almaden to Forsayth (Etheridge G.F.) .... 142 



Biboorah to Mount Molloy ...... 20 



Dimbulah to Hodgkinson G.F. and Mount Mulligan Coalfield 29 



Miles . 460 



The following brief account of the beginnings of the tin 

 Industry is taken from my first official report " On the 

 Wild River Tin Mines," dated zyth October, 1880 1 : 



" This neighbourhood was described by Mulligan as stanniferous as much as 

 six years ago, 2 but as there was then no nearer port than Cooktown, the expense of 

 land carriage would, of course, have rendered the working of tin unremunerative. 

 The harbours of Cairns and Port Douglas having, however, at length been opened, 

 and the basaltic regions in the valleys of the Herbert and Barren having been taken 

 up in squatting runs, attention was again directed to the tin deposits. Mr. ATHERTON, 

 of Emerald End, on the Barron, having found stream and surface tin in sufficient 

 quantities to warrant further prospecting, took up JOHN NEWELL, and seven others 

 from Tinaroo (about 39 miles off) to the heads of the Wild River in the latter end 

 of 1879. This party found stream tin in payable quantities in Prospectors' Gully, 

 on the left bank of the Wild River, near the present township of Herberton. Four 

 months later, WILLIAM JACK and party explored the neighbourhood of Prospectors' 

 Gully, and was rewarded by the discovery of the Great Northern lode. Other lodes 

 were quickly found and taken up by the miners, who shortly afterwards rushed the 

 ground." 



The discoverers of the Great Northern Mine were Jack, Newell, 

 Joss and Brandon. 



It may be added, before concluding this digression, that Messrs. 

 JACK AND NEWELL shortly afterwards opened a general store at 

 Herberton, with branches in the various townships which sprung 

 up in the district later on. In the course of a few years they came 

 to exercise many of the functions of a providence, and by judicious 

 assistance and credit bestowed on the men who were pioneering 

 the new field were potent factors in its development. Mr. 

 Newell represented the district in Parliament for many years. 

 Mr. Jack fell into ill-health, suffering from a peculiar form of asthma 

 which rendered life impossible for him except in such hot and humid 

 climates as are to be found in Cairns, Papua or the Celebes. Even 

 a short stay in the bracing upland atmosphere of Herberton was 

 at last forbidden to him. He died a few years ago. 



Shortly after the discovery of the Great Northern mine, JOHN 



1 " Geological Survey of Northern Queensland. Further Reports on the Progress 

 of the Gold-Prospecting Expedition in Cape York Peninsula." Parliamentary Paper. 

 Brisbane, by Authority, 1881. 



2 Five years would have been more nearly correct. 





