SIXTH EXPEDITION 465 



Mulligan's party and the other party were to merge their claims 

 and share the reward. 



In a list of prospecting parties assisted by the Government, 

 the Under-Secretary for Mines mentions (Ann. Rept. for 1880) 

 the return of Mulligan and party to Thornborough from the heads 

 of the JOHNSTON, HERBERT AND BURDEKIN in 1880. No record of 

 the tour has come under my notice. In the Annual Report of the 

 Department of Mines for 1881, Mulligan and party's return to 

 Thornborough in June from another trip is referred to, and they 

 are stated to have been unsuccessful as regards gold, but to have 

 found tin in several places. The district traversed is not even 

 indicated. 



"Mulligan was born in County Down, Ireland, on I3th February, 1837. He 

 arrived in Melbourne in 1859 and was anxious to join the exploring expedition of 

 Burke and Wills (1860), but was disappointed. He afterwards came to New South 

 Wales and spent some time on the Peel River goldfield ; thence went to New England, 

 and there spent about ten years in store-keeping, inn-keeping, butchering, 'seeking for 

 ijold, etc. He came to Queensland with the Gympie rush in 1867." * 



Since then, till his death at Mount Molloy on 24th August, 

 1907, his services were confined to Queensland. 



The portrait in this volume was taken a year or two prior to 

 his death. Unfortunately I have been unable to procure one 

 showing the man as he was in his prime, and when his name was 

 a household word in Queensland. I met him at intervals between 

 1880 and 1906. 



The loyalty and trust which Mulligan invariably inspired among 

 the men he led depended in great measure upon a personal charm 

 of character which made it a pleasure to be in his company. He 

 had a kindly heart, a gleam of humour and a quiet persistence 

 :apable of overcoming the most formidable obstacles. 



1 Heaton's Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time, 1879. 



