Malbon Thompson Range
Located in Mandingalbay Yidinji Country, approximately 13 kilometres east-southeast of Gordonvale, 25 kilometres south-southeast of Cairns, and 45 kilometres north-northwest of Innisfail, the Malbon Thompson Range takes its name from the solicitor and politician John Malbon Thompson (1830-1908), MLA for Ipswich and Bremer 1868-1881, who served as Secretary for Public Lands (1870-73), Secretary for Public Works (1873-74) and Secretary for Justice (1879).
George Elphinstone Dalrymple named the range on 14 October 1873 as the 1873 North-East Coast expedition moved north towards the Endeavour River. Dalrymple noted that the range's lower spurs offered a great number of beautiful sites of varied altitude, exposure, and scenery of sea and land, suitable for cool suburban homes for future residents, and easy of access overlooking between 40,000 and 50,000 acres of fertile agricultural lands along the Mulgrave and Russell Rivers with an excellent harbour — the Mulgrave/Russell estuary — for ocean commerce; and the more than probability of discovery of good auriferous country behind it in the interior.
The range, which consists of late Permian and early Triassic granite and granodiorite, with areas of alluvial and colluvial deposits along its base, presents a rugged, forested backdrop to travellers on the Bruce Highway as they pass through Aloomba, Fishery Falls, and Deeral.
