July 6th.. DAY 20

This main Peninsular road was an excellent change to bitumen from the very rough gravel roads we have been on.
Soon we turned west to head for Maytown and the Palmer River Goldfields area. This was a very rich mining area between the late 1873 and 1890 producing 15,500 kg of gold in that time.

The wide gravel road was good to travel on but it was extremely hilly with many creek crossings. We are on
the western side of the Great Dividing Range. John has wanted to explore this mighty Australian Range for
some years. We know the range area through Victoria and other small sections. This trip has given us the
opportunity to see a lot more of it. It is rugged and steep in this section of it.

We drove a little way off the road and up a small hill to have lunch. No sooner we had stopped than a guy
on a motor bike came and told us we were on PRIVATE PROPERTY and couldn't park there..he did allow us to eat our lunch first before moving.

We are camped on the Palmer River for this evening and are actually in the Palmer Goldfields Resources Reserve.
The Palmer River flows west into the Mitchell River which eventually flows into the Gulf Of Carpentaria.
The day is hot, this can be expected as we go further north.

View of Palmer River from our camp

Found treasures from the Palmer River mining days

An outback dunny tied to a tree for security!

July 5th... DAY 19

Is this Monet's garden we camped in ?

Later last night we did further study of the death report of Charles Edwin Desailly. It was written by  

Police Officer T.M. McCarthy Senior Constable stationed at Thornborough, 15th March 1883 and addressed to Edwin & Christina Desailly parents of Charles. We now think the 'lower' end of Mt Mulligan was the northern end instead of the southern end. Thinking along these lines allows the distances and place names to fall into place.
John has checked the contours on his map and found that there is a lengthy gully at the northern end, a little
to the west. This certainly fits the description of the rescue of the body which had to be brought back to
Thornborough a distance of about 50 kms (or 30 miles in the 1800s).
The day was clear so we were able to enjoy this huge sand stone mountain in the morning light. It was quite a
 slow trip because of so many creek crossings. As we were going by the northern bluff of Mt Mulligan there was a track to the left travelling west...Did this track lead to the site of the spearing incident? We will never know. There was a sign..TRESPASSERS PROSECUTED. We did not enter but I did feel sad that we could not have explored the area further.
We lunched by the crossing of the Mitchell River. There were a lot of campers there so we travelled on to meet the Peninsular Developmental Road. A speedy new road! We drove east for a couple of kilometers to cross Desailly Creek and then turned west to a lookout which gave us a fine view of Mt Desailly. The creek of the same name appears to run off the mountain and into the Hodgkinson River.

Mt Desailly

Bridge over Desailly Creek

The bird of the day was the sighting of two bustards camouflaged in the grass beside the road.

Luckily we have found a tiny picturesque camp on a lagoon with waterlillies. John has discovered a nearby
gold mine. Mullock heaps are very common in this country.

July 4th DAY 18

We had to leave the tropical paradise where we have spent the last 2 nights. Today is much warmer after a hot night.
The Thornborough cemetery is clean and easy to walk through. It is cared for by members of the Cairns 4WD Club. It has been burnt from time to time and this, no doubt, has contributed to the destruction of graves. From here we headed off to find Mt Mulligan and the cattle station.
Firstly Mt Mulligan appeared, over 30 km long with quite a flat top and sheer sand stone cliff faces. Gold Mines are in evidence everywhere we drive. There were about 10,000 people in the Hodgskinson area around 1880 when the young Desailly brothers arrived. They were in their early 20s and surely enjoyed the fun and games of a mining settlement despite the fact they were cattle men. I imagine the station owner supplied meat to the miners.
We inspected the historic ruins of Mt Mulligan which is an area known for coal mining in the early 1900s

There are lovely campsites on the station. The owner does not live there but care-taker, Stan, alots camp sites and keeps the 'donkey' burning for hot showers. He knew very little of the history of the station. John
asked about the lower end of Mt Mulligan where Charles was tailing cattle. Stan suggested that we go in along a station track and camp at the southern end of Mt Mulligan which he thought was the lower end. What an opportunity!
The track was very rough and after 4 kms we camped on Branch Creek which does actually run into the Hodgkinson River. We are camped right under Mt Mulligan and surely must be close to the area where Charles was working with cattle on that fateful day March 8th 1883. The bush is extremely rough with under growth, trees and rocks. It would not have been an easy job to 'keep an eye' on a mob of cattle.

Thornborough Cemetery where Charles Desailly is buried

Southern end of Mt Mulligan

July 3rd DAY 17

I wont write any more about this very hilly country which has been the hub of many mining pursuits
and part of the Hodgkinson Gold Fields.
Instead I plan to record some of the information about the Desailly brothers who came up here
during early 1880s. James Venture Mulligan is credited with finding gold in the area and proclaiming it
a Gold Field in 1876. Mt Mulligan was named after this man. It is a spectacular range of over 30 kms in length.It has very steep rocky sheer faces and was known as a sacred place for aboriginies.

A cattle station was settled by Mr Middlemiss. This is the Station on which Charles and Lewis worked with cattle.
 In March 1883 Charles was in charge of a mob of cattle at the lower end of Mt Mulligan when he was fatally speared by an Aborigine. He was just 24 years of age. It is believed that he took the cattle too close to a sacred Aboriginal site causing this tragic event. Police and a tracker found his body with a spear through the right kidney
 At the time the Police had an amnesty with the Mt Mulligan Aboriginals and consequently the perpetrator
of the crime was killed by his tribal mates.It was generally thought by Police that Charles, himself,
brought about his own demise. At this time there were two tribes of 'blacks' as they were referred to in
the 1880s, one tribe was calm and placid whereas the other tribe was much more confrontational.

Lewis Desailly buried his brother at the Thornborough cemetery..the very place we walked through yesterday.
A tree seedling was planted on the grave, but no definite memorial.This is well over 130 years ago so
 tracing the spot of an unmarked grave seems impossible. The passage of time has damaged many grave
 memorials and records have been lost.

I feel my decision to include photos of both Charles and Lewis is important for this record. Charles was
the eldest, Lewis a couple of years younger, and my grandfather, Ormond was the third son. 'Ormie' as he
was referred to wrote an occasional letter to his brothers.

Who really knows the exact circumstance of this incident. I have made a very brief precis which I have
gathered from a number of sources. It is an interesting Desailly family story. My connection with this
family is through my mother who was Lurline Desailly and daughter of Ormond and Rosa Desailly.

Stories of this event have been recorded in the book 'The Desailly Family in Australia' by Jan Parker.
Norman Desailly wrote an article on the topic in 1986 and this was printed in the Cairns Historical
Society Bulletin. Death notices in the Hobart Mercury and the Melbourne Argus told a more formal record
in March and April 1883. Heritage records from Mareeba Shire gave me interesting reports.
 My very earliest knowledge of this event came from my Auntie Lal when I was about 12 years old and doing a Family History project while at Benalla High School. All records of the event run with a similar story
buy all have slight variations.

Charles Francis Desailly 1858 - 1883

Lewis James 1860 - 1922

Ormond Edwin Desailly (My grandfather)
!862 - 1940

2nd  July...  DAY 16

 NB I have not been able to post a blog for 5 nights. A lot has happened since then.

What a great day we have had. A little shopping in Mareeba to stock up with food for 2 weeks.
 I was lucky to be able to speak to both ladies who had helped me with research about Charles
Desailly. Shelline is the Heritage Officer for Mareeba Council and Elwyn is a very knowledgable
local Historian who had grown up in the area. I called to thank both of these ladies for their help.

 Travelling west of Mareeba took us through Sugar cane plantations some of which were being harvested.

Sugar cane west of Mareeba

Interestingly we passed over the top of the Great Dividing range at 576 metres. Turning north at Dimbulah we came over very rough gravel roads to Thornborough, looked at the cemetery then came through Kinsborough to 'Ike's Place' ..a veritable paradise. Ike is a fine hard working Swedish chap who has built a home and beautiful tropical garden for himself. He allows visitors to camp amongst the trees beside Caledonia Creek which he has dammed into a water storage. He charges $5 per person, per night. We paid him a few more dollars because it will make such a 'paradise' to stay in for a tomorrow's 'day of rest'.

Our garden campsite for 2 nights


Two flocks of birds have been interesting...firstly we disturbed four red winged parrots which are bright 

green with vivid red wings. Secondly quite a large flock of red tailed black cockatoos were feeding in a tree near the ornborough cemetery.

Charles and Lewis Desailly worked on a station near Mt Mulligan

1st July DAY 15

Our coldest morning with a temperature below zero. I did not expect to experience this in Far North Queensland!
The very rough gravel road out to the Kennedy Highway was enhanced by over hanging Grevillias with their beautiful
golden orange blooms.

We found both Herberton and Atherton to be very well cared for towns. The IGA we visited in Atherton was the
largest Super Market I have ever been to. The variety and quantity of goods amazed us both.
Sugar cane in flower, avocado, mango and paw paw trees  were growing along the road. A banana stall has wetted
our appetites for fresh tropical fruit. we are on the look out for more pineapples as well.

After booking into a Caravan Park at Mareeba I spent most of the afternoon washing and drying clothes.
(NB no ironing)

This evening we walked around the town for awhile enjoying the garden flowers of a tropical climate.

Poinsettias

Overhanging Mareeba garden

June 30th DAY 14

Blencoe Falls

Surprise! Surprise!  The first view out of our window this morning was of a tree with lemons on it..I thought
I was at home in Milawa. We now have a good supply of lemons ready for whatever fish we cook. How the lemon tree came to grown near Blencoe Creek is a mystery to us, of course.
Again it was a chilly 4 deg. The day has not been so hot but a very pleasant temperature at over 20deg.
We had a long walk through bushland in search of Blencoe Falls. The track did not lead us where we expected but we enjoyed 1.25 hours of exercise. We did find the Falls by road though. They are magnificent Falls, water dropping  320 metres after which the Blencoe Creek very soon flows into the Herbert River. After driving about 30 kms we lunched at a crossing of the Herbert River where there is a lot of water flowing over the spillway and under the bridge. We met a young family who were camping near the bridge.

Herbert River Crossing

The noxiuos Lantana is becoming more prevelant..a pretty flower but a very invasive plant..like the
blackberries in the NE Victorian Mountains.
I do love the sad faced cows and calves that we have seen on most properties. The type of animal is unknown to me, but appear to be healthy and fat with most feeding on green grass.

The road deteriorated into severe corrugations. It was so rough John let the tyres down to soften the ride.

Sad Faced Cow

The last few kilometers of the day we drove through a forest of orange-golden Grevellias, gently swaying as we passed.

We have camped tonight in a vacant area near the road about 15 km north of Innot Hot Springs off the Kennedy Highway and south of Irvine Bank.

In 1882 my 2 Great Uncles Charles and Lewis Desailly, who were older brothers of my Grandfather Ormond Desailly, came north from Bairnsdale, in Victoria to work on the Mt Mulligan Station. In one letter written by Lewis, to his family, he mentioned various towns..George Town, Thornborough and Herberton. I cannot help thinking of these young men so long ago, thinking that they may have passed this way.