CHAPTER LII
WILLIAM HANN'S EXPEDITION, 1872
FROM FOSSILBROOK, DOWN THE LYND RIVER AND ACROSS THE TATE AND WALSH TO LEICHHARDT'S MITCHELL RIVER
THE seven years which followed the return of the Jardine Brothers' Expedition in 1865 witnessed the steady march of settlement in Northern Queensland. In 1865, Mackay and Townsville were opened as ports. A hardy and adventurous population had been drawn to the interior by the discovery of Gold in widely separated localities, such as the Cape River (1868), the Gilbert and Percy Rivers (1869), Ravenswood (1870), Etheridge (1869-71) and Charters Towers (1872). With a view to the supply of the goldfields and ports with meat, and to the export of wool, numerous "squatters" spread out and occupied such tracts of country as were suitable, available and accessible.
In the usual course of events, the discovery and opening of the interior radiate inwards from the harbours of the coast. Townsville, however, formed an exception to this rule. Pastoral occupation, with Port Denison and the town of Bowen[1] as a base, had pushed out to the west of the Coast Range, and reached the Fanning and Burdekin valleys. The growing necessity for access to the coast at some point nearer than Bowen led to a lookout for a more convenient port. Early in 1864, J. M. Black (Managing
- ↑ In 1859, while the negotiations for the separation of Queensland from New South Wales were in progress, Captain H. D. Sinclair left Rockhampton in the "Santa Barbara" in search of a suitable harbour on the north-east coast. Port Denison was recommended by him. The township of Bowen, on the new port, was established in 1861.
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