Mt Molloy

Description

Time to explore Mt Molloy. An interesting historical character is James Venture Mulligan, an explorer and prospector who is buried here. From an Irish Protestant family, he arrived in Melbourne at 23 and spent 13 years working his way north via Glen Innes, Armidale, the Gympie gold fields, on to Ravenswood and then Georgetown on the Etheridge goldfield.

He left Georgetown in June 1873 and returned three months later with 100 ounces of gold. Nine days later he returned to the Palmer River - with 100 enthusiastic miners. It became the largest and richest gold rush in Queensland history leading to the establishment of port, Cooktown. Mulligan later shared the 1000-pound reward with the discovery of the Hodgkinson goldfield in 1875. He used some of the monies to establish a hotel and store at Thornborough, which failed three years later.