Palmer (Qld)

About Palmer (Qld)

Palmer is a rural locality in the Shire of Cook in far north Queensland, on the western side of the Great Dividing Range in the dry tropical savanna of the Gulf of Carpentaria basin, now a grazing district. It takes its name from the Palmer River, where James Venture Mulligan's 1873 gold discovery drew an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people to the diggings within a few years. The former gold-rush townships of Maytown and Palmerville, now largely abandoned, survive as heritage-listed sites within the locality, and the Palmer River Goldfields Resource Reserve preserves the old workings.