Kingsborough and Thornborough, QLD: Brief Days of Gold

At the heart of the Hodgkinson goldfield, the now abandoned and mostly non-existent towns of Kingsborough and Thornborough briefly thrived in the Shire of Mareeba, Queensland, Australia.

Thornborough was named in 1876 after George Henry Thorn, the then Queensland Premier.

Kingsborough, on Caledonia Creek, was located to the north-east of Thornborough. The town was named for Henry King, the Secretary for Public Works and Mines.

The Djungan Aboriginal People

Ngarrabullgan, also known as Mount Mulligan, to the south of the Mitchell and Walsh Rivers, is an important spiritual site to the Djungan Aboriginal people of the goldfields area. This mountain is also one of the earliest radiocarbon-dated archaeological sites in Australia with evidence of human occupation (30,000 + years). The art found here is predominantly of abstract linear paintings.

Ngarrabullgan, also known as Mount Mulligan, QLD

This rock art is from Chillagoe, also in the Mareeba Shire, QLD

Aboriginal man from North QLD carrying Kangaroo, after hunting, Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 27 July 1935

Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 14 September 1938

Queensland Aboriginal people, Sunday Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1926 - 1954), Sunday 4 October 1931

The Djungan people believed that a spirit called Eekoo lived in Ngarrabullgan (Mount Mulligan). Eekoo  is a malicious spirit, who throws stones, or pieces of wood and causes sickness without leaving a mark on the body. This may be the reason why the Djungan people stopped living in the mountain 600 years ago. 

The mountain also features in many Dreamtime stories of the Djungan people. Such as the origin of the mountain beginning as a pile of stones built by wallabies on the advice of the eaglehawk. A Swamp pheasant then built a nest on top of the stones and when the eggs hatched, Eekoo killed the small birds. The pheasants were so angry that they started a fire, which melted the stones to form the mountain.

The two totemic ancestors of the Djungan people are Mirki, the mopoke and Raku -another night bird. Totems are inherited by members of the clan and define roles and responsibilities. Totems also regulated marriage. No persons could then marry into their own totem group.

Many other Aboriginal groups live in the region including, Muluridji, Yirrganydji, and Kuku Yalanji people.

Exploration

In 1848, the explorers led by Edmund Kennedy followed the Hodgkinson River downstream, where they came upon Djungan People who threw spears at the group. 20 miles from the tip of Cape York, Kennedy was speared several times and died.

Picture or drawing of early Australian explorer/surveyor, Edmund Kennedy, originally published in T.L.Mitchell (1838) "Three Expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia"

Between 1874 and 1876 prospector, J. V. Mulligan led five trips west and south of Maytown. Mulligan reported gold on the Hodgkinson River, which began the Hodgkinson gold rush.

As the Hodgkinson was mainly a reef field, many prospectors were disappointed, as the amount of alluvial gold was limited. Mulligan was blamed. 

By the end of 1876, hundreds of prospectors were working on the Hodgkinson. In 1877 the number grew to 1,400.

Towns Develop

Kingsborough and Thornborough developed, 80 km west of Cairns, in an isolated area. At the time, the nearest town was Cooktown.

However, Mulligan opened a store and hotel on the corner of Mulligan and McLeod Streets in Thornborough, And soon, there were many other hotels and stores of all kinds at Kingsborough, and Thornborough, four miles to the east.

In December 1874 Selheim wrote: "To this place there is a good dray road, and a Township is springing up rapidly, and there can be little doubt that it will be a place of some importance for sometime to come".

Thornborough's first mail came overland from Cooktown. The nearest telegraph office was seventy miles away, at Maytown.

The isolation of the Hodgkinson goldfield meant that carriers of stores and machinery charged very high prices and endured extremely difficult travel conditions. These carriers were described as "carrier princes of the North".

Many carriers were attacked by Aboriginal people, such as Carrier G. Kootoofa, known as George the Greek. He was speared at Middle Crossing (Kuranda). He made it to Groves’ shanty seven miles away with three spears in his legs, having lost his horses and stores required at Thornborough.

It was recognised that there was a great need for a port between Cardwell and Cooktown and a suitable track, as Kingsborough had grown larger than Maystown, as the booming stamper batteries worked day and night. 

Warden Dorsey and the Warden's Court had been transferred to Kingsborough. However, Warden Dorsey was removed in 1875, to Kingston on Frenchman's Gully, as Kingsborough began to lose its importance.

In about 1876, Kingston Post Office opened. It was renamed Kingsborough in 1877. The post office closed in 1924. 

Alexander Douglas arrived in July 1876 with a Native Mounted Police detachment and established a camp about four miles down the river from Thornborough.

A contingent of Queensland Police Trackers who were sent to hunt for the Kelly Gang in 1879, State of Queensland (Queensland Police Service) 

 During 1876 various people set out to find a track between the Hodgkin­son goldfields, across tropical rain-forested ranges, to Trinity Bay.

Blazing a Trail

Bill Smith's track climbed steeply at the base of Macalister Range, passing by the present location of Henry Ross Lookout, and coming out at Mountain Grove. The powerlines follow the original alignment.    A story is also told about Bill Smith, that he had his horse shod with gold horseshoes by Edwin Crossland, the blacksmith.

In September 1876, Alexander Douglas Douglas, an inspector of the Native Police, led a group from Thornborough to the coast at Trinity Bay, with another Native Police officer, Robert Arthur Johnstone, who blazed a trail from the other direction. The two groups met to complete the track at the top of the range. This trail was given the name Douglas "Track", also called the "Hellsgate Track", due to the rocks at the top of the spur. 

The Port Douglas – Hodgkinson Road became known as “the Bump”, traversed the steep rainforest terrain of the ranges, extended through north west of Mareeba, and eventually arrived at the Hodgkinson goldfield towns of Thornborough and Kingsborough.

Alexander Douglas Douglas was also known as Black Douglas, for his cruelty to the Aboriginal troopers under his command. 

Chief inspector Alexander Douglas-Douglas

A better road was found by Christie Palmerston, from Thornborough to Port Douglas in 1877, known as "The Bump". This road is described as following an "ancient aboriginal highway"" here. It is famous for its steepness. When travelling by horse-drawn coach, the passengers would have to get out and walk at certain sections of the track. During WWII the Australian Army laid land mines along sections of the track, in case of Japanese invasion, to seal the inland from coastal areas.

Portrait of Christie Palmerston. He was born in Melbourne to Casino Jerome Carandini, the 10th Marquis of Sarzano and Marie Burgess, an English-born opera singer.

Emanuel Borghero operated a coach service to the Hodgkinson River about 1876, but his horses were often speared and the money he earned was not sufficient for the arduous task. See here

It wasn't until the early 1940s that a proper road was built up to Kuranda.

By mid-1877 the mine warden reported that the two towns of Kingsborough and Thornborough had 20 hotels between them: 13 general stores and four butchers. Thornborough had two banks and two jewellers. And Kingsborough and Thornborough each had populations of 1000 people. A few hundred Chinese came to the Hodgkinson area, many as market gardeners and tradespeople (butchers, cooks and bakers).

A telegraph line opened to Thornborough, November 10th 1877.

Aboriginal people, not only experienced distress from the appearance of miners digging up their hunting lands, but, famine due to drought from 1877 to 1879.

1880s

Mining town Thornborough, Queensland, ca. 1880, National Library of Australia

Kingsborough had a population of 272 people in 1881

Kingsborough State School opened circa 1882 and closed in 1924.

THORNBOROUGH.
[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]
January 1.
"The town has been very lively this last week
on account of the races and other attractions
during the carnival. Speaking of the races,
they were the quietest that have ever been held
in Thornborough; about one hundred people
present, and a large number of aboriginals, who
seemed to evince a great interest in the horses
as they were racing....."

THORNBOROUGH. (1883, January 13). The Week (Brisbane, Qld. : 1876 - 1934)

Northern District Judge, Henry Lindsay Hely was the circuit court judge for Thornborough. But by 1880, he failed to travel the track over the steep rainforest ranges to Thornborough. He succumbed to loneliness, alcohol and died on the job in 1882.

The combined European and Chinese population of the the entire Hodgkinson field was about 351 in 1888. 

Chong Ah Tie (Toy) of Thornborough, QLD

In April 1888 James Comes and William Hugh Nicholls of Thornborough appeared in Court in Townsville charged with offences against Aboriginal women. Both were convicted and sentenced to gaol.

James Comes shot an Aboriginal woman after his horses were speared and some had gone missing. The woman was treated by Dr Edward Fitzgerald and survived. Nicholls was arrested after violently beating a domestic servant, named Maggie, who died from her injuries.

The Boomerang mine was taken up by Michael Byrnes at Thornborough on 17 July 1888. It was soon transferred to Melbourne mining investors, 

According research by Ellwood Galiina (Kal), in 1888, the Government medical officer based at Thornborough, on the Hodgkinson goldfield, recorded an old Aboriginal gold miner.

Queensland National Bank, Thornborough, ca. 1888, SLQLD

1890s

Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931), Tuesday 9 December 1890

The Cairns-Mareeba rail line arrived in 1893.

Pugh's Queensland almanac, directory and law calendar. 1862-1866 (1897)

Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser (Qld. : 1861 - 1908), Thursday 14 April 1898

Reconstruction Mill, Kingsborough QLD, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 13 May 1899

Cyaninde works Kingsborough showing part of the town of Kingsborough, QLD,  Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 13 May 1899

1900s

Frank Grainer's store, Thornborough, ca. 1900, SLQLD

At Kingsborough, QLD, owned by Cecil Syndicate, North Queensland Register (Townsville, Qld. : 1892 - 1905), Monday 17 September 1900

Kingsborough, Hodgkinson Goldfield owned by Cecil Syndicate, Queensland Country Life (Qld. : 1900 - 1954), Sunday 1 September 1901

Morning Post (Cairns, Qld. : 1897 - 1907), Monday 21 June 1897

Kingsborough had a population of 305 in 1901

Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Friday 8 March 1901

Thornborough Police Station and residence, QLD1910

Thornborough in Far North Qld, 1912

A black tracker, his wife and possible the daughter of Constable George Ainsbury; Constable James Kirkwood or Constable James Osborne (all stationed here at some point across 1914) standing in front of the Thornborough Police Station, 1914. (Qld Police Museum) Vintage Queensland

WW1

GUNNER W. H. ROBERTS, Of Kingsborough ; awarded the Dis-tinguished Service Medal.Week (Brisbane, Qld. : 1876 - 1934), Friday 10 May 1918

In 1915 a rail line from the coal mines at Mount Mulligan was connected to Cairns-Chillagoe line at Dimbulah, which went through Thornborough. By this time, however, the area had little population. 

By 1924 only one hotel remained at Thornborough, the Canton.

The Bump, Mossman District, c.1920s-1930s, Queensland State Archives. Gold miners from the Palmer River and Thornborough were asking for a faster way to the coast for their wagons rather than having to go to Cooktown, and Christy Palmerston found this route, probably an old aboriginal trail, in 1877.

Two men look on as a car and its passengers are hauled up the Bump Track by three horses, Port Douglas Region, Queensland, ca. 1928, National Library of Australia

Tyrconnell gold mine battery, Hodgkinson goldfield, 1936, Tyrconnell is located between the former towns of Thornborough and Kingsborough. It is privately owned and is currently being preserved. State Library of Queensland

The Thornborough Hotel, Far North QLD

General Grant Mine at Kingsborough on the Hodgkinson goldfield, Queensland, 1937

Die Brucke = The Bridge (Sydney, NSW : 1934 - 1939), Saturday 4 June 1938

Interestingly, the Police Station, Court House and School at Dimbulah were originally built at Thornborough and transported after being purchased in 1932 by the Eureka Tobacco Syndicate.

Around Thornborough

Thornborough Cemetery is located north west of Dimbulah Qld

Kingsborough Cemetery, Far North QLD

Thornborough, QLD, no longer a town

Thornborough, QLD

The weir at Kingsborough, QLD. Camping at Ike's Kingsborough campground. Swiss man named Ike made the weir with hand operated cement mixer and a spirit level

Maytown, QLD: Goldtown and Ghost Town

Maytown in Far North Queensland would become the centre of the Palmer River Goldfields. Today, nothing much remains of the former “capital”, other than an old baker’s oven, stone kerbing and the cemetery. 

The rusting shells of the 19th Century mining machinery, scattered about, are also, a reminder of the town's gold rush past. Crumbling boilers, steam engines, stamp mills and pumps lay scattered around the old mining reefs. 

Near Maytown, there are the remains of many mining camps and batteries, including the Queen of the North Mine and Battery, the Ida Mine and the Mabel Louise and Comet Batteries. At one time, there were 12 hotels, various Chinese stores, three bakers, a butcher, lemonade factory, chemist and doctor. The remains of a Flagged Floor of a Store owned by Sun Yee Lee can also be seen.

Kuku Yalanji People

The Kuku Yalanji people (Kubirri-Warral) who belong to the Bama Rainforest Peoples, lived in the Maytown area before European settlement; living as hunting and gatherers. Many Aboriginal people still speak the native language of their ancestors and share Dreamtime stories from a time that they call Ngujakura. 

The Kuku Yalanji language, which is spoken in the area between Mossman and Cooktown in North Queensland, is a living language. Dyirbal-speakers to the south were mostly regarded as enemies. However, there were at least 60 clans in the rainforest tropics of the region and much diversity. 

The Bama Rainforest People are notable for their rich material culture. They made large wooden shields and swords, the cross boomerang, giant stone axes and bark blankets.

Interestingly, the Kuku Yalanji people would detoxify cycad seeds for eating. These seeds are a source of carbohydrates, but they contain a toxic substance called cycasin which can cause nausea and vomiting and also damage to the nervous system. One method of detoxification they used was to cut open the seed and leach out the toxins in water.

During the wet season, some of the Bama people would mummify their dead. And sometimes, relatives would carry the body around as they moved about until the body was cremated.

The reminiscences of Norman Mitchell, a Kuku- Yalanji man with direct experience of the Aboriginal-Chinese interactions after the Palmer River gold rush, are very interesting and provide a unique perspective, especially as Mitchell spent his early life at Maytown. Such interesting, uncurated  words are rare today and sometimes shocking. Read here

Burial: wrapping the body in bark, Northern Australia. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 1 August 1917

Making a dilly-bag, Cape York, QLD, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 27 May 1931

Carrying water, Cape York, QLD, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 27 May 1931

TROPICAL  AUSTRALIA. (1917, July 4). Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 4 July 1917

The Goldfield

The Palmer goldfield was discovered in 1872 by explorer William Hann and soon after, European and Chinese diggers rushed to the region with hopes of making their fortune.

Following gold being discovered on the Palmer River in 1873, Cooktown was founded as a port and service centre. Within 4 months, Cooktown and the Palmer River goldfields had a population of about 3,000 people. 

Originally Called Edwardstown

Mining communities developed at Palmerville, Maytown and Byerstown. Maytown, however, was the administrative centre of the area.

Maytown was originally called Edwardstown after the local butcher, John (Jack). Edwards, one of Hann’s stockmen, who became the Maytown butcher.

Maytown Post Office opened on 7 June 1874 (closed 1945).

Maytown was formally surveyed in 1875 by A.C. MacMillan and named Maytown in honour of his daughter (this is disputed).

By 1876 there were twelve hotels, six stores, three bakers, three tobacconists as well as banks and a post office. In 1877 a newspaper, the Golden Age was established, later to be replaced by the Palmer Chronicle in 1883. Read here

The first issue of the Golden Age made the following claim:

"We can boast of having three banks, a lawyer, telegraph and Post-Office, a new Court-House, and Warden's and C.P .S.'s office, three medical men, two chemists, twelve hotels, eight large stores, and a number of Chinese and European small stores, three first-class bakery establishments, the largest butchering establishment in the north, one wholesale wine and spirit merchant, two first-class billiard salons, two circulating libraries, two first-class hairdressing establishments; and though last not least, our noble selves."

The first crushing mill was established in 1876, after the alluvial gold ran out, on the Wardens Reserve, and deep reef mining began.

The population of Maytown in May 1877 was estimated at 19,500. The town was booming. Gold field administrator, Philip Frederic Sellheim, was instrumental in the establishment of a Government Savings Bank, a state school, courthouse, school of arts, hospital, police barracks as well as a miners’ institute.

At the peak of the rush there were 6,000 Europeans and up to 18,000 Chinese in the area.

A Typical miner's hut of the 1870s, North Queensland Register (Townsville, Qld. : 1892 - 1905), Monday 18 December 1905

Frontier Violence

North Queensland was also a place of significant frontier violence. According to one newspaper report, "The natives murdered every white they captured; the whites shot natives on sight." "River Of Gold Ran Red With Men's Blood" Truth (Brisbane, Qld. : 1900 - 1954) 22 August 1954

The response by the Aboriginal people to Europeans and Chinese goldminers on the Palmer had been described as "... that of fierce resistance and virtual guerilla warfare."

The Palmer goldfield has been described as "the most remote and harshest field worked by early Australian diggers". It was also violent.

Chinese man in traditional dress seated with opium pipe, Palmer Goldfields, Qld. c1870 (Queensland State Archives)

Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Thursday 3 December 1885

Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), Wednesday 2 April 1879

 Maytown Men - Palmer River Goldfields, Nth Qld - 1876, Kaye

Maytown Bank of NSW 1876, Nt QLD, Queensland State Archives

The Maytown General Store in the 1880s on the Palmer River, Far North Queensland, Australia 

Getting There

Originally a hand-cut track, the Laura to Maytown Coach Road, was built from 1877 to 1895. Building the road was difficult and the hauling of machinery hazardous and slow. The Engineer for Public Roads  was Archibald Campbell Macmillan (Airdmillan near Ayr).

Andrew Binnie, a Scottish engineer, also constructed a road below Lone Star Gap, which was used to transport a 5 head stamper machine and mill for Lone Star Mine.

There was even a plan to build a railway line "from Cooktown to Maytown" in the 1880s.

The old Ita mine near Maytown, QLD, Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 10 February 1912

QLD, Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 10 February 1912

Maytown Post Office, QLD, showing the first light vehicle which has travelled over the Laura Maytown road for several years, driven byMr H.H Hamley, chief engineer under the Public Estates improvement fund Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 10 February 1912

Maytown Palmer Goldfield, QLD, Queensland State Archives

Laura to Maytown Coach on the Palmer River Goldfields , Nt QLD

On the palmer River, Nt QLD, Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 30 December 1911

Mining Methods

Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 13 May 1899

Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 13 May 1899

More Scenes and Stories

Lone Star Gap, Conglomerate Range, near Wild Irish Girl, c. 1930 on Cape York Qld

Breakdown on the Laura to Maytown Road,  Far North Qld during 1930. Sam Elliot owned this mine after WW2 until he died in 1985.

Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 - 1954), Tuesday 3 July 1934

"ROTTED JOSS-HOUSES
THE Maytown field, where several big companies are now carrying out investigation work, was noted in the early days for its Chinese population. tapestries with which the joss-houses were elaborately decorated. Outside some of the temples are to be seen more gruesome relics— huge porcelain jars containing the crumbling skeletons of Chinese, who had been packed thus to be sent back to their native land for burial. For some unknown reason many of the dead men were never sent home; their coffin-jars lie scattered about, neglected .and forgotten, slowly but surely being smothered by the jungle."

1937 'GHOST TOWN of the FAR NORTH', The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947)

Decline

By 1882 there were about 19,000 people in the area  with six hotels, 10 Chinese stores, two European Stores, two banks, two butchers, baker, blacksmith, saddler, chemist, lemonade factory and printer.

In 1886 the population was 154 Europeans and 450 Chinese. And the only place of worship was a Chinese temple. Interestingly, Chinese miners packed rocks into retaining walls, as they cleared various areas, and some of these can be seen today. 

By 1900 Maytown was down to about 500 residents, and by 1945, the town was largely abandoned.

The last family to live at Maytown was that of the postmistress Mrs Parsons, who left deserted Maytown in the mid-1940s.

Places to visit in the area are the Chinese cemetery, Louisa mine, Comet mine and Queen of the north mine.

The Wild Irish Girl Mine (Emily Battery) and Battery were built from 1894 to 1980s, situated on the edge of the Conglomerate Range escarpment. Today, the remains of mine workings, battery shed and quarters, earlier hut and campsite, alluvial workings and water races, and a Chinese grave, can be seen.

Palmer Goldfield Resources Reserve is closed throughout the wet season every year from 1 December, re-opening on Good Friday—roads into and on the park become impassable for extended periods and are closed to public access.

Around Maytown

On the Laura to Maytown Coach Road, QLD

Mabel Louise battery (formerly known as the Ida), located near Maytown in the Palmer River Goldfields in Far North QLD. - Features at the site include a ship’s water tank, sections of the pump arm and piping, an incomplete Robey twin cylinder portable engine, two battery cam shafts marked ‘Langlands FC’ one with ring gear attached, one mortar box lying on the ground with stamp rods inside, plus a scatter of stamp rods and numerous other metal artefacts.

Remains of the Queen of the North Mine, near Maytown, QLD. Walkers stationary boilers manufactured by John Walker & Co. Ltd

Remains of mining equipment near Maytown, QLD

Remains of mining equipment near Maytown, QLD

Steam boilers at the Queen of the North gold mine near Maytown at the Palmer River Goldfields, QLD

Miner's hut, Maytown, QLD

Comet Mill near Maytown, QLD

Stone kerbing, main st, Maytown, QLD

Grave of young William Knightly in the Maytown cemetery, QLD, who died at only 5 months of age

Unmarked Chinese grave, Maytown Cemetery, QLD

Rock art site near Laura, Cape York Peninsula, 15,000 to 30,000 years old. Quinkan rock art. Representations of "Quinkans" (an Aboriginal mythological being). A sandstone escarpment divides Maytown from the Laura valley

Things To Do and Place To Go

About Palmer Goldfield

Reminiscences of Harry Harbord

Maytown: Getting There