George Augustus Frederick Elphinstone Dalrymple (6 May 1826 – 22 January 1876)[1] was a colonist, explorer, public servant and politician, member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.

[4] Dalrymple was a prominent plantation owner during this period and publicly defended the Governor of Ceylon, Lord Torrington, who was recalled due to the harsh methods he used to suppress the rebellion.

[5][6] He arrived in Australia in 1857 and travelled to the Darling Downs where his deceased brother, Ernest Elphinstone Dalrymple, had been a pioneer of British colonisation establishing the Talgai pastoral run in 1840.

[10] This group included Ernest Henry, Philip Frederic Sellheim, Robert Phippen Stone, James Hood and Richard Haughton which left Rockhampton with two Aboriginal guides.

The party travelled west through the region and then north to the Valley of Lagoons, making surveys on the Burdekin and Suttor Rivers and marking out promising runs for sheep.

Ernest Henry and James Hood made their way back early to present their land claims, shooting at various local Aboriginal people and setting a dog upon them along the way.

The area Dalrymple explored was known as the Kennedy district which was in New South Wales when the expedition started but on returning it had become part of Queensland which had been declared a separate colony.

They landed again near to Cape Pallarenda to obtain surveys from the hilltops but decided to descend to their awaiting dinghies as they noticed residents of three Aboriginal camps below were moving in their direction.

Dalrymple planned this two pronged entry into the area because "a sudden cooperation of land and sea forces..would either strike terror, which would result in immediate flight, or enable a blow to be struck" against the local Aboriginal people of which many had been seen camped around the harbour.

Dalrymple wrote that it was "deeply gratifying to me to see the British flag flying over the spot where..a few days ago, the wild aboriginal held undisputed sway" and that the settlement marked "the advance of another great wave of Anglo-Australian energy.

These actions culminated in the whole available force in the town being utilised in an engagement where a large group of Aboriginal people were "speedily put to rout with a loss sufficient to teach them a severe and it is hoped, useful lesson."

The Aboriginal people were viewed by a correspondent of the Rockhampton Bulletin and Central Queensland Advertiser as "wretched caricatures of the human race...faithless stewards of the fine property on which they horde," and that it was "the duty of civilisation to occupy the soil which they disregard and disgrace," and that "force and even severity may be necessary to restrain their brutal disposition."

"[16] In 1862, Dalrymple made another journey to the lower Burdekin River region concluding that the "richly grassed open forest country" would become "a most valuable addition to the pastoral and agricultural resources of the colony.

[18] Dalrymple's group consisting of twenty men, including Captain Walter Powell, Lieutenant John Marlow of the Native Police, Philip Frederic Sellheim and James Morrill, set out from Bowen on board the Policeman.

This was despite having a recent falling out with prominent member of the Queensland Public Service in Augustus Gregory, and assaulting John Jardine, the police magistrate of Rockhampton, with a riding whip.

In 1873, the Queensland government appointed Dalrymple to lead an exploring expedition to visit and report upon the uncolonised coastal lands north of Cardwell and assess them for their potential as areas for sugar production.

[24] On 29 September 1873, he departed from an anchorage near Cardwell accompanied by Walter Hill, Curator of the Botanic Gardens, as well as Sub-inspectors Robert Arthur Johnstone, Ferdinand Macquarie Tompson and 13 troopers of the Native Police.

Dalrymple trekked up the nearby Basilisk Range and observed that the whole Johnstone River region was a vast expanse of dense tropical jungle of large wild banana, cedar and palm trees interspersed with numerous other plants.

[25] The expedition then proceeded north to Trinity Bay where again they found a numerous Aboriginal population who were notable for the large outrigger canoes with decorative prows they constructed.

On the mainland opposite, immediately after landing at a place later known as Palm Cove, a large number of Aboriginal people came out of their camps, and attempted to prevent the groups passage to the lagoon.

After discovering the "unmistakable evidences of wholesale habitual cannibalism", such as "roasted and partially eaten bodies" in the camps of the Aboriginal people, all of the group "heartily rejoiced at the severe lesson which their unwarrantable hostility had brought upon them".

The next day, they were surprised by the approach of the vessel Leichhardt, on board of which was Archibald Campbell MacMillan and 70 gold-miners, who had arrived to establish a port for the Palmer River Goldfields.

[25] The expedition was judged to be complete and the group then sailed back to Cardwell, returning via Coquette Point where they a had skirmish with some Aboriginal people who had dug up the body of shipwrecked sailor.

[25] Having partially recovered, he was sent to Somerset as Government Resident, but became dangerously ill after two months, and would have died at that time had not the Torres Straits mail steamer taken him away and given him the benefit of medical attention.

His illness, however, was of a protracted nature, and the Government gave him a year's leave of absence, on full pay, to enable him to visit England, in the hope of the trip restoring him again to health; but it failed to produce in him any permanent benefit, and he was never well enough to return to the colony.