James Earl (1835–1907) was a merchant in Far North Queensland of cartage and started cattle breeding.

The Lakeland road stop is situated en-route to Cooktown from Cairns / Port Douglas / other southern locations.

After landing in Melbourne he spent time prospecting for gold in Ballarat, Bendigo, Sandhurst, Victoria.

They arrived at Bowen in 1860s, a recently established settlement described at that time as “a few tents and bark huts on the shore of Port Denison”.

[2] The brothers sought refuge from the floodwaters in nearby trees while the floods carried off their entire stock.

The brothers started their lucrative cartage business which included routes beteeen Cooktown and Palmer as well as other areas in the Cook district.

Earl diversified into selling meat to the public via butcheries locally in the goldfields area (supplying Lakeland and Palmer River) and Cooktown.