CHAPTER LXI
MULLIGAN'S SECOND PALMER EXPEDITION, 1874
FROM THE PALMER TO THE JUNCTION OF THE ST. GEORGE AND MITCHELL RIVERS, AND BACK
OAKY AND SANDY CREEKS. OAKY CREEK OVERCROWDED. DIGGERS FROM UPPER PALMER PUSHING UP SANDY CREEK. PARTY ON GOLD AT PINE CREEK, 13 JUNE TO 9TH JULY. "PAYABLE GOLD" DEFINED. PROXIMITY OF CANNIBAL CREEK TIN MINES. START SOUTHWARD AND CROSS DIVIDE TO NEW RIVER (ST. GEORGE). GOLD, BUT NOT ENOUGH. UP AND DOWN THE ST. GEORGE. ITS JUNCTION WITH THE MITCHELL. DOGGED BY DIGGERS. CAMP ON MITCHELL NEAR LIMESTONE CREEK. HEADS NORTH-WESTWARD FOR PALMERVILLE. THE ANGLO-SAXON GOLD
MINE. GOLD ON MITCHELL SIDE OF DIVIDE BETWEEN MITCHELL AND PALMER. REACHES PALMERVILLE, 27 JULY.WITHIN nine months of the first " rush " the settlement of COOKTOWN and the new PALMER GOLDFIELD had made rapid strides. The record of Mulligan's " second " trip is chiefly valuable for the light it throws on the new activity, and only the concluding portion shows that he broke new ground.
There were soon two roads from Cooktown to the Palmer, the first, the DRAY ROAD, or COWARD'S TRACK, being practicable for wheel traffic to within 15 miles of the goldfield, and the second, or DOUGLAS'S TRACK, "a good bridle track in fine weather." (SEE MAPS E AND G.) Both roads made for the heads of the NORMANBY, the dray road, up the westmost branch, which afterwards came to be named LAKE CREEK (after Captain Lake, of the A.U.S.N. Co.) and Douglas's Track crossing Cox CREEK (now called the EAST NORMANBY) and the WEST NORMANBY. (SEE MAP G.)
Mulligan left the Four-Mile Camp, Cooktown, on 1st May,
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