NORTHERN RUSH

OLD GOLD MINING TOWNS LIKE MAYTOWN IN CAPE YORK SHOW JUST HOW HARD IT WAS FOR PROSPECTORS TO MAKE A QUID BACK IN THE MID-1800S

WORDS AND PHOTOS KEV SMITH

IMAGINE the harsh reality for those gold prospectors who left their lives behind to head to CapeYork after the discovery of the precious metal there in the mid-1800s; walking for weeks into inhospitable country where there was no food and little water, but reports of cannibal inhabitants, all with no guarantee of finding the gold they had come looking for, and after having spent months aboard a boat to get to Australia in the first place. Curiosity got the better of me after reading a book titled The Rivers of Gold that portrayed the riches and hardships of thousands of prospectors who made their way to the Cape seeking fortune. I decided to head across to CapeYork myself on a recent trip to try to get a feeling for the hardship…

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4x4 Magazine Australia (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2024

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