 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2014) |
William Lakeland (c. 1847-1921) was an Australian explorer and prospector in the late 19th and early 20th century.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2014) |
William Lakeland (c. 1847-1921) was an Australian explorer and prospector in the late 19th and early 20th century.
William Lakeland was born in May 1847 in Sydney, and christened there at Saint James Parish on 13 May 1847. [1] Some sources indicate that he was born at Rose Bay, Sydney, in 1844.
Like John Dickie (1848–1924), William Robert Sefton (1849–1920), James Mulligan (1836-191 ), Jonas "Billy"Webb (18 -19 ) etc., Lakeland was one of the earliest prospectors, miners and explorers of the Cape York Peninsula. He, together with Joseph Smith Oddy (1834–1889) established Cooktown's first substantial brewery in 1885-6. [1] Lakeland also took up cattle grazing lands on Cape York Peninsula, dabbled in goldfield butchery, and, although never a publican, owned a Cooktown hotel.
In 1873, Lakeland travelled to prospect the Palmer River together with an associate, Christopher "Christie" Palmerston (circa 1851-189 ) who had been at the Etheridge Goldfield. In the early 1880s Lakeland was a member of another party led by Sefton. The other explorers were Patrick Fox, Edward Cox, Henry Charles Goodenough, George Brown, Hugh Lockhart, James Watson Henry Miller and two sailors, absconders from their ship berthed at Cooktown. They had 70 head of horses and provisions for three months. The aim of the venture was to explore and prospect that terrain around the head of the Pascoe River, then over the coastal ranges dividing the Pascoe basin from the watershed of Lloyd Bay. They would also traverse the country to the east of the Tozer Range. Good pastoral and timber lands were also sought, especially by Sefton, Cox, Fox and Lakeland. To date the party found nothing but the merest traces of gold and tin together with hostile natives. By 1 April 1881 Coen was three weeks in their wake. Payable gold was finally located in the Lockhart basin by Hughie Lockhart. Some five weeks were spent working alluvial gold. In the course of the expedition which took them from the Lockhart country to the Pascoe River and Lloyd Bay and on to the Batavia River, which was renamed the Wenlock, they saw and worked gold, experienced spear attacks, and all but made their fortunes. They discovered a wolfram load. Unfortunately they were too early. It would come to be a most valuable commodity, but at that time it was of very little value. Traces of gold were found at the Batavia but in 1992 Romeo, a native, and Louis Duval and French Canadian, both members of William Thomson Baird's party found rich alluvial gold which caused a rush from Cooktown and Coen. Lakeland was one of the first on the scene with his friends John Dickie (1848–1924) and William Bowden (18 -1909. [2]
In August 1876, Lakeland was a member of the Sefton-led party of fifteen well-provisioned and armed prospectors bound for the Coen River. This band included Samuel Graves Irwin Verge (18 -1, James Dick (1849–1916), Richard Melville Goodfellow (1839–1913) Henry Stuckey, and other. Other than for Brady's party that fell on hard times, this was the first venture on which gold in payable quantities was discovered in that region. Stuart and McDonald while of that party were speared to death, while Lakeland was speared in the neck and arm. Several parties, soon after, won further gold and a rush to the Coen set in 1878. [3]
Primary source records show that in 18 years up until 1892 William Lakeland undertook 10 major prospecting and exploration ventures.
Lakeland's most notable achievement was the discovery, together with J R Evans and N Nichols, of the Rocky River (alluvial) Goldfield which lay about 16 km. from the mouth of the Chester River, and about 30 km. east-north-east of Coen. When the Cooktown Courier of 22 September 1893 reported that news received from the Warden's Court advised that Warden Chester had received a telegram from Lakeland, Nichols and Evans applying for a prospecting area on Rocky Creek then a rush set in. When the alluvial gold started to wane Lakeland and party discovered reef gold in the area of Leo Creek, so named for William's son Leo Percy Bruno 1897–1966. Lakeland and party applied for a reward claim in June 1896. The field was officially gazetted on 25 August 1897. [4]
Lakeland discovered the Hamilton River and the Claudie River rising in the Janet Range and flowing south-easterly into Lloyd Bay. [3] [5] The Claudie was named for his daughter Claudie Ethel May Lakeland, later Mrs Hodges (1889–1963). He assisted the Victorian-born Surveyor John Thomas Embley in his work on Cape York Peninsula in the period 1884–1885. When the Hodgkinson goldfield broke out in 1876 it was not long before it was realised that an alternative wagon haul route was required to link the coast. The one from Smithfield was totally impracticable due to its steepness and distance. With Christie Palmerston, Lakeland marked a track from the Hodgkinson Goldfield to what is now Port Douglas. [6]
In 1892 he, in company with William Bowden and John Dickie, located wolfram between the Pascoe River and Canoe Creek, later called Bowden Field. (In 1887 John Dickie had previously located wolfram there.) The Lakeland, Dickie, Bowden find expanded the deposit and when wolfram soared in value George Brown and party, using a sketch map drawn by Bowden, went to the region and found further deposits. They brought Bill Bowden in on things and he became the principal exporter. The field was named the Bowden Mineral Field. [3]
Lakeland died in the winter of 1921. He was returning from a previously located gold deposit, which would be named, in 1934, the Iron Range. [7] Its rediscovery by John "Jack" Gordon, Lawrence Clarence Millar and Robert Woolstancraft would ignite a rush and make some men very rich. Lakeland had not been well, experiencing stomach troubles for sometime. In September, on the first branch of the Pascoe River he met Willie Fox, a sandalwood cutter. He told Fox he was going to collect stones (gold specimens) about the head of the Pascoe River before going back to Coen. He said he was feeling sick and had a soreness in his stomach for which he was taking salts. Fox was the last person to see Lakeland alive.
On 24 January 1922, while grazier and Coen publican Herbert James Thompson and his native stockmen were mustering cattle on the Hull River, three horses were spotted about half a mile below the junction of Attack Creek and the Hull River. They were recognised as belonging to William Lakeland. At a point about a mile down the Hull on the north bank Thompson located a pack cover and a blanket lying on the ground. Up river, where the horses were first spotted, a riding saddle and halter were found on the low bank of the river. The next day, Thursday 26 January 1922, Tommy Shephard found Lakeland's skull on the north bank of the Hull River about a mile below the junction of attack Creek. Other body parts were also located. When the police, who had been advised of the find, arrived, the remains were buried on the spot. A saddle, other articles and human remains were found in 1923.
It was not until almost thirty years following his death that he was commemorated. A granite headstone was brought up from Brisbane. Newspaperman John McDonald Hardcastle considered that Lakeland deserved more than a blaze on a remote bloodwood tree as a memorial. The stone was shipped from Brisbane to Cooktown and then railed to Coen. From Coen it was loaded onto a Thornycroft truck and carried as far as the vehicle could travel. It now had to be transported over some of the roughest country in the state. Police Sergeant Leslie Chelmsford Kahler, with the help of others, manoeuvred the granite slab many miles by means of a horse-drawn bush-sled made from the forked limb of a tree. On 5 January 1950 the headstone was cemented into place, a rail put around it, a small ceremony was held and photos were taken by the police.
His widow, Esther Margaret, née Culton, born at Toowoomba, died at Cooktown in 1949. [8]
The town of Lakeland, Queensland is named after him. [8]
Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia. The land is mostly flat and about half of the area is used for grazing cattle. The relatively undisturbed eucalyptus-wooded savannahs, tropical rainforests and other types of habitat are now recognised and preserved for their global environmental significance. Although much of the peninsula remains pristine, with a diverse repertoire of endemic flora and fauna, some of its wildlife may be threatened by industry and overgrazing as well as introduced species and weeds.
The Otago Gold Rush was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area – many of them veterans of other hunts for the precious metal in California and Victoria, Australia.
Lakeland is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, the locality of Lakeland had a population of 299 people.
Coen is a rural town and coastal locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. The town of Coen is inland on the Peninsula Developmental Road, the main road on the Cape York Peninsula in far northern Queensland. In the 2021 census, the locality of Coen had a population of 320 people.
Charleston is a village in the South Island of New Zealand located 30 km south of Westport. It was founded as a goldmining town after a major goldrush in 1867, and is now an adventure tourist village noted for its extensive limestone caves and caving experiences. Guided tours of the nearby Metro Cave / Te Ananui Cave are operated out of Charleston and travel up the Waitakere / Nile River valley.
Wujal Wujal, sometimes spelt Wudjil Wudjil, is a rural town and locality in the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire, Queensland, Australia. It is an Aboriginal community. In the 2021 census, the locality of Wujal Wujal had a population of 276 people.
Lockhart River is a town in the Aboriginal Shire of Lockhart River and a coastal locality split between the Aboriginal Shire of Lockhart River and the Shire of Cook, on the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia. The town is an Aboriginal community. In the 2016 census, Lockhart River had a population of 724 people.
The Palmer River is a river in Far North Queensland, Australia. The area surrounding the river was the site of a gold rush in the late 19th century which started in 1873.
The Big Bend Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Big Bend Country of the Colony of British Columbia in the mid-1860s.
The Omineca Gold Rush was a gold rush in British Columbia, Canada in the Omineca region of the Northern Interior of the province. Gold was first discovered there in 1861, but the rush didn't begin until late in 1869 with the discovery at Vital Creek. There were several routes to the goldfields: two were from Fort St. James, one of which was a water route through the Stuart and Tachie Rivers to Trembleur Lake to Takla Lake and the other was overland, called the Baldy Mountain route. A third route came in overland from Hazelton on the Skeena River and a fourth route used the Fraser River and crossed over the Giscome Portage to Summit Lake, through McLeod Lake, and up the Finlay River to the Omineca River.
Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs in 1770. Both the town and Mount Cook which rises up behind the town were named after James Cook.
During the Australian gold rushes, starting in 1851, significant numbers of workers moved from elsewhere in Australia and overseas to where gold had been discovered. Gold had been found several times before, but the colonial government of New South Wales had suppressed the news out of the fear that it would reduce the workforce and destabilise the economy.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, discoveries of gold at a number of locations in Western Australia caused large influxes of prospectors from overseas and interstate, and classic gold rushes. Significant finds included:
Millwood in South Africa was the site of a short-lived gold rush in the 1880s. Millwood Mining Village was located in the foothills of the Outeniqua Mountains near Knysna and had a population of a few hundred at the height of its small-scale mining activity which lasted only five years, largely due to the difficulty of following the vein in much-folded formations.
Coen Carrier Station is a heritage-listed telegraph station at Coleman Close, Coen, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was designed and built in 1942 by the Postmaster-General's Department. It is also known as Coen Telegraph Station and Coen Carrier Repeater Station. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 May 1997.
Wenlock Goldfield is a heritage-listed mine in Archer River, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1892 to 1950s. It is also known as Batavia Goldfield and Lower Camp (Wenlock). It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 March 2006.
Ebagoola Township and Battery is a heritage-listed mining camp at Yarraden, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1900 to 1913. It is also known as Ada Stewart Battery and Ebagoolah Township. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 15 May 2006.
Nuggety Gully Water Race and Chinese Camp is a heritage-listed mining camp at Mareeba Mining District, Lakeland, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was built from c. 1878 to c. 1886. It is also known as Greasy Bill Creek water race, Prospect Creek Stone Walls, and Star of Normanby Mine. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
James Venture Mulligan's Grave is a heritage-listed grave at Bakers Road, Mount Molloy, Shire of Mareeba, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1907. It is also known as Mount Molloy Cemetery. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
Michael O'Leary (1858–1930) was one of north-east Queensland's pioneers who explored, prospected, and lived most of his life in the wet tropics. He was once known for his newspaper writings, sharing his locally acquired knowledge using the pen-name "Coyyan".