Palmer River
With headwaters in the Sussex Range, southwest of Cooktown, the Palmer River is formed by the confluence of Prospect Creek and Campbell Creek near Palmer River Roadhouse, south of Lakeland. From there, the Palmer flows west across the Cape York Peninsula towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, running into the Mitchell River northeast of Staaten River National Park. The most significant of twenty-nine tributaries that join the Palmer along its 327-kilometre course are the South Palmer, Little Palmer and North Palmer. The river has a catchment area of 8,335 square kilometres. Most of its course lies in Kuku-Yalanji country.
The area surrounding the river was the site of a gold rush that started in 1873 when James Venture Mulligan found payable alluvial gold in the river bed and continued into the late 19th century. A year before Mulligan, William Hann's expedition passed through the area, naming the river after Queensland Premier Arthur Hunter Palmer and finding traces of gold, though Hann reported the find was not payable.
Sources:
Aussie Towns: https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/palmer-river-qld
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_River
