Christie Palmerston
| Christie Palmerston | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1850 or 1851 Australia |
| Died | January 15, 1897 Kuala Pilah, Malaysia |
| Occupation | Prospector and explorer of North Queensland |
| Spouse(s) | Teresa Rooney |
| Children | 1 daughter |
Christie Palmerston (1850/51 to 15 January 1897) was an Australian explorer and prospector in North Queensland. He led several expeditions during the last quarter of the nineteenth century including the discovery of a route along the Mowbray River, which eventually led to the founding of Port Douglas.
Palmerston was born in Melbourne during 1850 or 1851 to Jerome Carandini, the Marquis of Sarzano and Marie Carandini, an Australian opera singer. Palmerston claims to have been baptised Cristofero Palmerston Carandini.
Palmerston came to Queensland as a young man to work on a station in the Broad Sound area and then worked in the Palmer River gold rush of 1872-1874. However, it was not until around 1876 during the Hodgkinson River gold Rush that Palmerston began to be known as a pathfinder.
During the 1880s, large parts of far North Queensland were still covered in dense rainforest. Palmerston boasted of shooting a large number of aborigines in Mamu territory.
As trade increased from Hodgkinson, Cooktown merchants began to worry that a new port at Cairns would take over the majority of the trade. As a result, in 1877 the merchants backed Palmerston to cut a track from the goldfields to a new port at Island Point. As Palmerston became more well known as a path cutter, he embarked on more explorations, including his notable discovery of a route along the Mowbray River, which contributed to the founding of Port Douglas.
Palmerston settled down in Townsville and married Teresa Rooney at St Joseph's Church on 6 December 1886, they had one daughter. Palmerston moved to Borneo and then Malaya where he contracted fever in the jungle and died at Kuala Pilah on 15 January 1897.
For another view of Christie Palmerston: https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231640/http://www.bulwaicollective.org/p/christie-palmerston-pioneer-triumphalism.html
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