| Palmer River | |
|---|---|
Gold mining dredge |
|
| Origin | Sussex Range |
| Mouth | confluence with the Mitchell River |
| Basin countries | Australia |
The Palmer River is a river southwest of Cooktown in northeastern Australia. It was the site of a gold rush in the late 19th century which started in 1872. The Palmer River flows west across Cape York to the Gulf of Carpentaria, via the Mitchell River. Its headwaters are the Sussex Range, near the Palmer River Roudhouse, south of Lakeland.
Palmer River was one of Australia's major gold rush locations. William Hann and geologist Norman Taylor found gold in a sandy bed of the river in 1872.[1] Hann maned the river after Arthur Hunter Palmer the then Premier of Queensland.[2]
The main settlement of the gold field was Maytown. The settlement began as a camp in 1873, then grew into a town which served as the administration centre for the former Hann Local Government Area.[2]
The miners in the Palmer River included Chinese, mostly from the Guangdong Province in southern China. The Chinese miners would re-work the diggings of Europeans as they moved on to find richer diggings.[3] As gold reserves were extracted, anti-Chinese sentiment grew. There were several confrontations between the settlers and the Aborigines from the area, including one at Battle Camp (used as an ambush point). The conflict became known as the Tong Wars.[4]
Although most of the surface gold has long since been prospected, there remain a handful of deeper mine projects in the area.