River of Gold by Hector Holthouse
the Wild Days of the Palmer River Gold Rush
"What with cannibal blacks, pig-tailed Chinamen in thousands, lynch-law hangings, gambling dens, shanty towns, murders, grog-shops and Italian opera singers, the Palmer River Goldfields - properly spun out - should provide enough television material for general exhibition for the next ten years. this one book, River of Gold, could easily be used as the jumping-off ground for the lot. Read it with Hector Holthouse; he will be your guide; he has loved every minute of it, and so will you!"
-Canberra times
"the gold rush at Plamer River, on Cape York, lasted about seven years in the 1870s, but with 35,000 diggers it was this country's wildest while it lasted. Holthouse has researched the story of those days well to make a lively and very readable book."
-the Bulletin
