In 1858, a small find was located at the Fitzroy River in North Queensland. The field was short-lived and many diggers returned south with little or no reward.
Gympie on the Mary River was the first major goldfield in Queensland. James Nash discovered gold there in 1867. Within a very short time, approximately 16 000 men were working in Gympie to find their fortune. The gold soon ran out and larger mining companies moved in with heavy machinery to mine the deeper reefs.
The most famous of all was the rush to Palmer River after Mulligan found gold in 1873. Being closer to Hong Kong, it attracted many Chinese prospectors. By the end of the 1880s, all the gold was mined and the town became a ghost town.
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