Battle Camp to Boralga: a local study of colonial war on Cape York Peninsula, 1873-1894 Noelene Cole The history of the Cook district in north-eastern Australia illustrates the Queensland government's difficulties in maintaining colonial settlement in the remote north and the determination of Aboriginal people to resist the gold, transport and pastoral frontiers. Expeditions of Kennedy (1848) and the Jardines (1864) foreshadowed disastrous pat- terns of colonisation on Cape York Peninsula.1 In each case the resolve of the intruders, if not their rifle power, was matched by tenacious Aboriginal resistance. William Hann's journey into southern Cape York Peninsula in 1873 was of less epic proportions, but the pattern of conflict with Aborigines was sustained,2 and the consequences of the expedition unprecedented. Hann's report of mining potential led to JV Mulligan's dis- covery of 'payable' quantities of alluvial gold on the Palmer River.3 In spite of Mulligan's warnings of 'the great distance, the mighty rivers to cross ... the approach- ing wet season', and the need for constant vigilance to protect 'the horses and ourselves from the blacks',4 the news drew thousands of prospectors from the south and over- seas.5 In economically depressed Queensland the Palmer gold rush was welcomed as 'salvation'.6 As predicted, the forces of nature and Aboriginal resistance wreaked havoc on the miners. Edward Palmer of Gamboola station later reflected: 'The golden news from the far northern diggings was of a most glittering nature, but there was a reverse side ... in the hardships and privations endured.'78A major reverse side was the disaster of race relations. Following well-entrenched patterns in Queensland, the process of colonisa - tion became a cross-cultural struggle with the features of a 'situation of war'.s In analysing the nature of the conflict in the Cooktown-Palmer region, historians have identified as key issues: 1 Carron 1849; Jardine 1867. 2 Hann's diary quoted by Jack 1922 vol I: 406. 3- Jack 1922 vol II: 412-13, 387. 4 Mulligan's autobiography quoted by Pike 1998: 13. 3 The Palmer goldfield had an estimated population of 19,500 in 1877: see Kirkman 1980. 6- Palmer 1983:170. 7- Palmer 1983:154. 8 Evans et al. 1988: 28; see also Cilento and Lack 1959: 203; Fitzgerald 1982: 207; Reynolds 1998: 123 who describe the conflict in this region as 'war'.