In the process of saving his ship, Cook had, however, found a rather handy anchorage that was subsequently visited by Philip Parker King and Allan Cunningham on HMS Mermaid in 1819 and 1820 and Captain Blackwood (HMS Fly) and Lieutenant Yule on the Bramble in 1843.
The anchorage came in handy again after James Venture Mulligan found gold in the Palmer River in 1873.
Gold had actually been found in the river by William Hann's expedition in 1872, but that seems to have been a Government sponsored general purpose get out and see what’s out there trip around the back locks rather than a serious quest for gold, which had already been found on the Etheridge, at Gilberton and at various other sites around the north.
The key issue here was whether it was payable gold, in sufficient quantities to allow the miner to make rations or pay for his tucker. If you could make rations, the field might work. if you couldn't it wouldn't.
Making rations, of course, applied to European miners. The sums were different where the Chinese were concerned.
In any case, Hann reported gold, though not in payable quantities, and various experienced miners, including Mr Mulligan reckoned he was a grazier who probably wouldn't know payable gold if it came up and bit him in the leg, and set out to take a look for themselves. More...