THE SOUTHERN GULF RIVERS 659 



or generally represented by water-holes, has a northward course, 

 past Lawn Hill Station (MAP R), till it eventually falls into the 

 Nicholson River (MAP N). On it, from 7 to 17 miles above (south 

 of) Lawn Hill Station, are many silver-lead mines. To FRANK 

 HANN, who in the " eighties " owned the station, is due the credit 

 of .his discovery. About 1882 he began to send me samples of 

 the ores of the district, and it was evident that he was on the track 

 of an important development. In 1881, on General Feilding's 

 Transcontinental Railway Expedition, 1 I had located copper and 

 manganese outcrops in the Gregory valley about 40 miles ESE. of 

 Lawn Hill (MAP R), and was guided by ERNEST HENRY, ALEXANDER 

 MACPHAIL and other pioneers, through the amazing COPPER BELT 

 extending south- south- eastward from Lawn Hill, via Mount Oxide, 

 Mount Cuthbert and Cloncurry, to Mount Elliott. It was not till 

 1908 that I had an opportunity of seeing the Lawn Hill Mines. A 

 RAILWAY now connects the port of Townsville with Cloncurry, 

 Mount Elliott and Mount Cuthbert, and but for the interruption 

 of industrial progress effected by the war of 1914-18, would probably 

 by this time have reached a port on the Gulf, serving the northern 

 part of the great metalliferous belt, which is at present hampered 

 by over 500 miles of railway freight, added, in many instances, to 

 a long camel-back transport. 



1 Six Reports on the Geological Features of Part of the District to be traversed by the 

 Proposed Transcontinental Railway, by Robert L. Jack, Government Geologist. 

 Brisbane, by Authority, 1885 (dated 1881-2). 



