James Venture Mulligan

Mulligan reported his find on 24 August to the Warden of the Etheridge Gold Field at Georgetown and the information was widely published in the press shortly after.

[4] By early 1874, Mulligan returned to the Palmer to find 3000 diggers there beset with problems like potential starvation, large biting flies and "the darkies" defending their territories.

This mission was largely unsuccessful but Mulligan was able to describe an event where Palmerston raided an Aboriginal settlement, killing men and kidnapping a boy for use as a personal servant.

[14] In the mid 1880s, Mulligan travelled west to investigate the mineral areas around Cloncurry and worked in the town of Croydon for a number of years as a mines manager.

From the early 1890s until his death in 1907, he was back in the Tablelands Region of Queensland, involving himself in various mining enterprises including tin, antimony, copper and tungsten extraction.

He died on 24 August 1907 from pneumonia after breaking some ribs falling from a balcony while attempting to punch a man during a fight at Mount Carbine.