CHAPTER LXXXVII 



J. T. EMBLEY'S EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS, continued 

 VI. THE CAPE YORK DISTRICT 



THORNBURY STATION. MEAT FOR REFRIGERATING WORKS AT THURSDAY ISLAND. 

 REEF GOLD ON HORN ISLAND. POSSESSION ISLAND. EMBLEY DISCOVERS AND 

 WORKS AURIFEROUS REEF WHERE CAPTAIN COOK PLANTED THE FLAG. SURVEYS 

 AROUND YORK DOWNS. 



TO facilitate the shipping of live bullocks to Thursday Island, 

 Mr. Embley, in 1891, took up Thornbury Occupation 

 Licence, near where the Telegraph line now crosses 

 Black Gin Creek (Sheet 2iB). (SEE MAP A.) The Licence 

 of 25 square miles included RED ISLAND POINT, on which yards were 

 built. The land is now held by the Torres Straits Fresh Food 

 and Ice Co., in which Mr. Embley has an interest. The bullocks 

 were killed and dressed at the Point, and taken by launch to refriger- 

 ating works on Thursday Island. 



The homestead at Thornbury was abandoned many years 

 ago and its building material was removed to Possession Island. 



In 1895, in the course of a trigonometrical survey designed to 

 connect Thursday Island with the mainland, Mr. Embley landed 

 on POSSESSION ISLAND, where he observed a quartz reef, containing 

 visible GOLD, standing out boldly from the coral. He traced the 

 reef to the highest point of the island, the point on which Captain 

 Cook had set up his flagstaff when he formally took possession of 

 " New South Wales " for Britain in 1770. Mr. Embley and others 

 worked the reef for some years. The first shaft was sunk where 

 Captain Cook's flagstaff had been planted. The discovery of gold 

 was made very shortly after the discovery (in 1894) of REEF GOLD 

 on HORN ISLAND.* From 1897 to 1901, inclusive, Mr. C. V. 

 Jackson gives the crushing returns from Possession Island as 

 3,365 tons for 2,480 ounces of gold. Up to 3oth April, 1896, the 

 crushings from Horn Island totalled 981 tons for 1,081 ounces 

 12 dwts. 



1 Report on the Horn Island Goldfield, by William H. Rands, Assistant Government 

 Geologist. Brisbane, by Authority, 1896. Report on a Visit to the West Coast of the Cape 

 York Peninsula and some Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria ; also Reports on the Horn 

 Island and Possession Island Goldfields, etc., by C. V. Jackson, Assistant Government 

 Geologist. Brisbane, by Authority, 1902. 



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