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The Palmer River is a river in Far North Queensland, Australia. The area surrounding the river was the site of a gold rush in the late 19th century which started in 1873.
In 1873, access to the goldfields was established by Archibald Campbell MacMillan who led an expedition of 110 diggers, police and officials which blazed a trail from the port of Cooktown to the Palmer River. They "shot a lot" and "hunted" Aboriginal people along the way at the Normanby River, Kennedy River, Kavanaugh Creek, St George River and at Battle Camp. At Battle Camp, a large group of Aboriginal men approached MacMillan's camp yelling a war cry, but were forced back by gunfire, some of whom fell. The expedition members then pursued them to a lagoon where many more were shot. Two Aboriginal women and three children were brought back to the camp by the diggers after one of the shootings, where they had in their possession a number of items from a digger who had supposedly been killed. A later government enquiry into the events found that the diggers acted in self defence and were justified in their actions. The main settlement of the gold mining was Maytown replacing Palmerville after some months. The settlement began as a camp in 1873, then grew into a town which served as the administration centre for the former Hann Division. The settlements of Byerstown and Idatown were also established along the river.
Palmerville Post Office opened on 11 May 1874 (closed 1965); Maytown Post Office opened on 7 June 1874 (closed 1945); Byerstown Post Office opened on 1 April 1876 (closed around 1884).
There were many other confrontations between the Anglo-Australian diggers, Chinese miners and the Aborigines from the area after Battle Camp.
From 1874 until 1877 more than 20,000 Chinese immigrants arrived at the river. The miners in the Palmer River included China, mostly from the Guangdong Province in southern China. The Chinese miners would re-work the diggings of Europeans as they moved on to find richer diggings. In 1876, with the rush to the Hodgkinson River, Chinese miners occupied most of the Palmer Gold Field. As gold reserves were extracted, anti-Chinese sentiment grew.
The Queensland government eventually responded to the influx with a poll tax of £10 according to the Chinese Immigration Regulation Act 1877.
Although most of the surface gold has long since been prospected, there remain a handful of deeper mine projects in the area.
Tours to Palmer River and surroundings can be arranged as a day trip from Cooktown.
It may still be possible to prospect for gold in some areas.
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