The Palmer River is a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 southwest of Cooktown

Cooktown, Queensland

Cooktown is a small town located at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs in 1770. At the 2006 census, Cooktown had a population of 1,336...

 in northeastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It was the site of a gold rush

Gold rush

A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...

 in the late 19th century which started in 1872. The Palmer River flows west across Cape York

Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...

 to the Gulf of Carpentaria

Gulf of Carpentaria

The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...

, via the Mitchell River

Mitchell River (Queensland)

The Mitchell River is a river in the Far North Queensland region of Australia. The river begins on the Atherton Tableland about northwest of Cairns, and flows about northwest across Cape York Peninsula from Mareeba to the Gulf of Carpentaria....

. Its headwaters are the Sussex Range, near the Palmer River Roudhouse, south of Lakeland

Lakeland, Queensland

Lakeland, Queensland - also known as Lakeland Downs - is a small farming centre in Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia.It is at the junction of the main Peninsula Development Road , and the Mulligan Highway. It is located in the Shire of Cook.It contains a hotel, a cafe, and roadhouse and a...

.

Palmer Goldfields

Palmer River was one of Australia's major gold rush

Australian gold rushes

The Australian gold rush started in 1851 when prospector Edward Hammond Hargraves claimed the discovery of payable gold near Bathurst, New South Wales, at a site Edward Hargraves called Ophir.Eight months later, gold was found in Victoria...

 locations. William Hann

William Hann

William Hann was a pastoralist and explorer in northern Queensland, Australia. His expedition in 1872 found the first indications of the Palmer River goldfield.He was born in Wiltshire, England, on 26 February 1837...

 and geologist Norman Taylor found gold in a sandy bed of the river in 1872. Hann maned the river after Arthur Hunter Palmer

Arthur Hunter Palmer

Sir Arthur Hunter Palmer KCMG was an Irish-Australian politician and a Premier of Queensland.Palmer was born in Armagh, Ireland, the son of Lieutenant Arthur Palmer, R.N., and his wife, Emily née Hunter. Palmer was educated at Youghal Grammar School and a private tutor in Dublin...

 the then Premier of Queensland.

The main settlement of the gold field

Gold mining

Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...

 was Maytown

Maytown, Queensland

Maytown was the main settlement on the Palmer River goldfields in Far North Queensland. It is now a ghost town. Originally named Edwardstown, the town was settled in the early 1870s. In 1900, the town had a population of 674, nearly two thirds of whom were Chinese gold miners. The town was largely...

. The settlement began as a camp in 1873, then grew into a town which served as the administration centre for the former Hann Local Government Area.

The miners in the Palmer River included Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, 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. As gold reserves were extracted, anti-Chinese sentiment grew. There were several confrontations between the settlers and the Aborigines from the area, including one at Battle Camp (used as an ambush point). The conflict became known as the Tong Wars.

Although most of the surface gold has long since been prospected, there remain a handful of deeper mine projects in the area.