EAST COAST RIVERS 645 



North of the Rocky River Goldfield, Mr. Embley traversed the 

 NISBET RIVER * for 9 miles up from its mouth in lat. 13 33' S. 

 Kennedy must have struck this river in 1848 about where Embley 

 left off, and followed its valley up N. by W. North of what Mr. 

 Embley has mapped, the river has not been surveyed, except by 

 me when I sketched and named it on loth January, 1880. From 

 the head of the river to the highest point surveyed by Mr. Embley, 

 its valley separates the MC!LWRAITH and MACROSSAN RANGES. 



LOCKHART RIVER 



The river running northward into Lloyd Bay, whose valley 

 sharply divides the northern half of the Macrossan Range from the 

 Mcllwraith Range, was first seen and named by me in January, 1880. 

 Not long afterwards, the heads of the river, especially those drain- 

 ing the Mcllwraith Range, were invaded by PROSPECTORS who 

 found ALLUVIAL GOLD in tributary creeks and gullies which have 

 not yet been surveyed. The diggers named among others "Cheery," 

 " Surprise " and " Dr. Jack " Creeks, 2 but these are omitted 

 from the present map pending their accurate location. SANDAL- 

 WOOD GETTERS also worked for some years on the slopes of the 

 Mcllwraith Range, taking their spoils down the river from GIBLET'S 

 LANDING, 8 miles from the mouth, at the head of boat navigation. 

 (The wood was finally shipped from Thursday Island.) 



In 1880, I had seen from a distant height that a portion of the 

 Lockhart Valley consisted of open grassy plains. These were 

 visited in 1910 by Dickie, Dick and Sheffield, who considered them 

 good for sugar cane, and a demand arose for the opening of the 

 land for occupation. 



Mr. Embley, under instructions from the Department of Lands, 

 visited the valley in 1913, traversing the river up to GIBLET'S 

 landing (where he indicated a site for a reserve) and for about 

 12 miles beyond the landing, cutting up a portion of the frontage 

 into agricultural holdings. He was unfavourably impressed by the 

 quality of the land on the grassy plains, and said so in his report. 

 It was sour, and grew a rank, unpalatable grass and was a mass of 

 " devil-devil." When in March, 1914, the allotments were put 

 up for sale by auction they attracted no bidders. 



Just north of the allotments, Mr. Embley sketched the infall 

 and course of a branch, apparently almost as important as the 

 river itself, and coming down from the Mcllwraith Range. This 

 branch must have been known to prospectors and sandalwood 

 getters, who had erroneously identified it with my Greyhound 



1 Erroneously spelt " Nesbit " in the 4-mile map as well as in the Admiralty Chart 

 Iso. 2921. 



2 See sketch-map attached to James Dick's Report on a Journey across the 

 Mcllwraith Range by Dickie, Dick and Sheffield, in Queensland Government Mining 

 Journal of i5th December, 1910. 



