Event

Northern Exploring Party (1872)

Colony of Queensland

From
26 June 1872
To
12 November 1872
Functions
Australian inland exploration

Summary

The Northern Exploring Party was equipped by the Queensland Government for the purpose of investigating country in the northeast of Cape York Peninsula as far north as the 14th parallel. Primary goals were to seek gold, minerals, and pastoral land, and to determine the potential for settlement. The leader was William Hann, recommended for the post by Richard Daintree. Setting out in June 1872, the Party travelled over 1,500 miles, much of this through dense tropical rainforest. Progress was hampered by the rough terrain over which the Party travelled, and marred by disputes between Hann and geologist Norman Taylor and surveyor Frederick Warner. Significant geographical discoveries included the Normanby, Palmer, and Stewart Rivers. Hann reported that gold had been found on the Palmer River: later in the decade there was a gold rush to the region. Geological specimens collected by Taylor later proved important evidence in understanding the age of Australia's desert sandstones, while other fossils collected by members of the Party included cephalopods, ammonites and other marine animals. Plant specimens collected by both Tate and Taylor were ultimately sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

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Details

Members of the Party were:
William Hann, Leader
Jerry (1852 - 1942), indigenous guide and translator
Norman Taylor, geologist
Thomas Tate, naturalist and botanist
Frederick Horatio Warner, surveyor
William Nation, pastoralist and bushman
William Robert Stewart, pastoralist and bushman

Chronology

26 June 1872
Event - The Party set out from Fossilbrook Creek, Queensland
12 November 1872
Education - The Party returned to its starting point

Related People

Published resources

Journal Articles

  • Clarke, W. R., 'Recent explorations in northern Australia and Queensland', Transactions of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 7 (1873), 6-20. Details
  • Dowe, John Leslie and Taylor, Peter Illingworth, 'The botanical collections of William Hann's Northern Expedition of 1872 to Cape York Peninsula, Queensland', Austrobaileya, 10 (3) (2019), 506-38. Details
  • Hann, W., 'Hann's expedition in northern Queensland', Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 18 (1) (1874), 87-107. Details
  • Ross, Margaret, 'The Hann Expedition to explore Cape York Peninsula 1872', Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, 18 (2003), 273-86. Details
  • Taylor, Peter Illingworth; and Huxley, Nicole, 'A re-examination of William Hann's northern expedition of 1872 to Cape York Peninsula, Queensland', Historical Records of Australian Science, 32 (1) (2021), 67-82. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR2001. Details

See also

  • Feeken, Erwin H. J.; Feeken, Gerda E. E.; and Spate, O. H. K., The discovery and exploration of Australia (Melbourne: Thomas Nelson (Australia), 1970), 318 pp. Details

Helen Cohn

Created: 13 March 2025

EOAS ID: biogs/P007644b.htm

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