Frank Jardine was for some period Government Resident at Thursday Island, whither the settlement has been removed; but of late he has resided at his own station at Somerset, and engaged in pearl-shelling.  Alec entered the Queensland civil service, as Roads Engineer, and in that capacity did much important work in the construction of the roads of that State.  In 1871 and 1872, he designed and constructed the road and railway-bridge over the Dawson River, and in 1890 he became Engineer-in-Chief for Harbours and Rivers.

But the scrubby and hilly nature of the country on Cape York militated against its speedy settlement, and it needed the lure of gold to induce men to risk their lives in a land with such hostile inhabitants.  In 1872 the Queensland Government decided upon another exploration of the neck of land that forms the northern-most point of Australia.  More than eight years had elapsed since the Jardines had made their dashing journey; but their report, coupled with Kennedy’s fate, did not offer much temptation to follow up their footsteps.  There was, however, a tract of country near the base of the Peninsula still comparatively unknown; and a party was organised and placed under the leadership of William Hann.  Hann was a native of Wiltshire, who had come out to the south of Victoria with his parents at an early age.  He was afterwards one of the pioneer squatters of the Burdekin, in which river his father was drowned.  The object of the trip was to examine the country as far as the 14th parallel South, with a special view to its mineral resources.  The discovery of gold having extended so far north in Queensland had raised a hope that its existence would be traced along the promontory.  Hann had with him Taylor as geologist, and Dr. Tate as botanist, the latter being a survivor of the melancholy Maria expedition to New Guinea.  Apparently his ardour for exploration had not been cooled by the narrow escape he had then experienced.

The party left Fossilbrook station on the creek of the same name, a tributary of the Lynd, north of the initial point of the Jardine expedition.  Crossing much rugged and broken country, they found two rivers running into the Mitchell, and named them the Tate and the Walsh.

From the Walsh, the party proceeded to the upper course of the Mitchell, and crossing it, struck a creek, marked on Kennedy’s map as “creek ninety yards wide.”  This was named the Palmer, and here Warner, the surveyor found traces of gold.  A further examination of the river resulted in likely-looking results being obtained; and the discovery is now a matter of history, the world-wide Palmer rush to north Queensland being the result in 1874.

On the 1st of September, Hann reached his northern limit, and the next day commenced the ascent of the range dividing the eastern and western waters.  A few days afterwards, he sighted the Pacific at Princess Charlotte Bay.  From this point the party returned south, and came to a large river which he called the Normanby, where a slight skirmish with the natives occurred, the blacks having hitherto been on friendly terms.  While the men were collecting the horses in the morning, the natives attempted to cut them off, each native having a bundle of spears.  A few shots at a long distance were sufficient to disperse them, and the affair ended without bloodshed.