William Hann and geologist Norman Taylor found gold in a sandy bed of the river in 1872.

[1] In 1873, access to the goldfields was established by Archibald Campbell MacMillan who led an expedition of 110 diggers, police and officials which blazed a trail from the port of Cooktown to the Palmer River.

The settlement began as a camp in 1873, then grew into a town which served as the administration centre for the former Hann Local Government Area.

[9] The miners in the Palmer River included Chinese, mostly from the Guangdong Province in southern China.

The Queensland government eventually responded to the influx with a poll tax of £10 according to the Chinese Immigration Regulation Act 1877.

[9] Although most of the surface gold has long since been prospected, there remain a handful of deeper mine projects in the area.