Page 13 - Port Douglas Magazine 43

history.

And what became of the prospectors? As with most gold
rushes, a few people made a lot of money and a lot of people
made next to nothing. After a generally disappointing result at
Hodgkinson, they packed up and moved on to try their luck at
the next promising new FNQ gold rushes, at the Starcke River
and Coen goldfields north of Cooktown and Alice River inland
from Townsville. There was a brief peak of renewed interest in the
Hodgkinson fields during the depression of the 1890s, but soon
after, the mining came to an end. Craiglie was deserted, and the
population of the once bustling town of Port Douglas gradually
dwindled until it became a quiet fishing village, population 250.
Is there still gold in them thar riverbeds? There are a few old
gold-mining areas around the Palmer River and Hodgkinson
goldfields where you can fossick on private land. You’ll just need
a fossicking licence, the landowner’s written permission to fossick
on their property, and a whole heap of good luck.

IMAGES
TOP
A sketch showing Chinese arriving at Cooktown
and heading west to the Palmer River.
CENTRE
Relics of days gone by. 19th Century mining
machinery at Palmer Goldfield.
PHOTO CREDIT
Nick Smith. QLD Government
BOTTOM
The Laura to Maytown mail coach in 1895

RACE WARS

The goldfields were generally lawless places. Armed
robberies, physical violence, protests and even murder
were commonplace, and ongoing racial intolerance was
a key part of prospecting life.
The gold rush attracted many Chinese people to
Australia in search of fortune. Between 1874 and 1877,
more than 20,000 Chinese immigrants arrived at the
Palmer River, the majority from Guangdong Province.
The Chinese miners would typically re-work the
diggings of Europeans as they became impatient and
moved on. They often worked in organised groups of
up to 100 men, which yielded good results. Conflict
often arose out of the European miners’ resentment of
Chinese success.
In 1876, with the rush to the Hodgkinson River site,
many Chinese miners travelled south. According to the
1886 census, almost two-thirds of the Douglas Shire’s
population was of Chinese heritage.
“In 1878, Willnetts North Queensland Almanac European miners were angered by the increasing
Chinese presence in the fields and often used verbal
lists the population of Port Douglas as 400. By the and physical abuse in a bid to drive them away. An
early 1880s, it had swelled to 12,000” ineffective police presence could/would do little to
address the situation and racism and hate crimes against
Chinese people often went unpunished.