The early death of the bushranger George Palmer

George Charles Frederick Palmer (c. 1846 – 24 November 1869) was born and brought up  in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. He was named after both his father and grandfather who were both named George Thomas Palmer.  His father was George Thomas PALMER (1809 - 1889) and his mother was Selina Augusta ROWES (1820 - 1902). He was their third son. His grandfather, George Thomas Palmer, (1784-1854) was a landowner and magistrate who acquired extensive lands and stock in Australia including Ginninderra Station. 

Australian life in Queensland in the bushrangers time

The bushrangers roamed Australia during the 1800's. The term bushranger was first used in a newspaper in 1805. Here is are some images of what life was like in the northern state of Queensland during that time.


Mounted Police station in Cooktown.
Barracks and police station in the country above Cooktown 1878

Hopetoun selection in southern Queensland.

Edward McDermott's grocery store
in Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, ca 1884

 Family having tea in the garden of Richmond Hill homestead,
Mackay, Queensland, ca. 1890

Group of women having a tea party in Queensland, ca. 1887

Reading the paper in a Gympie garden, ca. 1871

Blacksmith shop, Oxley Road, Oxley, Brisbane 1888.
 

 Gold miners outside a bark hut, Queensland, ca. 1870
Two gold miners dressed in working clothes outside a slab bark hut
with mining tools nearby

You might like to find out more about:

• gold mining in Australia in the bushranger days.
• bush homes in the 1800's.
• what bushrangers ate.
• From the bookstore: Blacks and Bushrangers. Adventures in Queensland ... With Illustrations By Edward B. Kennedy.

The call of the Australian Bush 1880




1880 Northern Queensland Australia
Travelling through the bush in the Cooktown District

The road is rough - but to my feet
Softer than is the city street;
And then the trees! - how beautiful
She-oak and gum - how fresh and cool!

From The Call of the Bush by Dora Wilcox,

born Mary Theodora Joyce Wilcox (1873-1953) poet and playwright.

Family group in front of rough bush dwelling

1870's

This is a slab hut construction with a bark roof. A slab hut is made from slabs of split or sawn timber, often, in Australia, in a vertical construction. Timber was split along the grain and used green not seasoned.

Learn about the construction of other buildings in the 1800's.

Linked to Oh My Heartsie Reviews, Twinkle in the Eye, Today in History...on your site

Goldmining @ 1869

Queensland, Australia.

This photograph was taken by Richard Daintree, geologist and photographer, who was born in 1832 in  England. In 1852 he joined the gold rush to Victoria, Australia.  Unsuccessful as a prospector he became assistant geologist in the Victorian Geological Survey until 1856. He rejoined the Geological Survey in 1859  pioneering the use of photography in field-work. In 1864 he became a resident partner with William Hann in pastoral properties in the Burdekin country of North Queensland. There he was able to indulge his passions for both photography and prospecting. When the pastoral boom collapsed he used his knowledge to open up goldfields at Cape River (1867), Gilbert (1869) and Etheridge in 1869-70. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.


GOLD TIMELINE IN AUSTRALIA

1851 - Edward Hargraves discovers gold in Bathurst, NSW and the 'Gold Rush' begins.1851 - Gold was discovered in Bendigo, Victoria. 

1859 - Queensland made a colony.

1865 - Cape River goldfield in North Queensland discovered by Richard Daintree.
1867 - Cape River Gold Mine opened.

1869 - Convicts no longer sent to Australia.
1869 - Gilbert gold mining.
1869 - Etheridge gold mining.
1872 - Palmer River Gold Rush, Palmer River, Queensland

1893 - Gold discovered in Western Australia at Kalgoorlie.
1896: Coolgardie, Western Australia gold discovered.

The discovery of gold in Australia saw a rise in bushranging activity. This was because gold was being transported from the gold fields to the cities leaving the transportation open to highway robbery and gold nuggets were small for their worth and relatively easy to sell once stolen and unlike jewellery or money could not easily be identified.

 

The early streets of Rocklea, Brisbane

Horses and riders outside the Crown Hotel, Rocklea, Queensland in 1899.
John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland

 The town of Rocklea is nine klms south of central Brisbane. It was named after a watercourse - the Rocky Water Holes - where there was good farming land. The Crown Hotel was licensed in 1862 to Edward Barnacle, the name above the entrance.
This way of placing the licensees name prominently can also be seen in the 1880 photo of The Glenrowan Inn, site of the Kelly Gang shoot out in that year.

Bush School 1872

Logan/Beenleigh area, Queensland

This is believed to be the Logan non-vested (non-Government funded) school, established in 1870, in what school inspectors described, at the time, as a 'new, well-ventilated, and roomy building'.
The structure also was used as a place of worship.
One teacher was employed to teach 58 children. He was reported to be 'painstaking and conscientious', but the level of attainment was regarded as very low, caused by the irregular attendance. Among the subjects offered, geography, writing and spelling were regarded as 'especially imperfect'.

Lunch in the bush

Lunch in the bush, near Warwick, Queensland, ca.1893.

A man and woman stopping for a meal and a billy of tea. The horses have been unhitched from the double buggy. The double buggy was advertised as 'a must for squatters' as it was admirably adapted to travelling over huge logs and rutted ground. Travel in Australia during the late 1800s would have been very difficult.

RESOURCE: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.