The People

The explorations by the German naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt of the inland parts of the Fitzroy Region and his passing on – through his friendship with them – information regarding this to the Archer brothers, led to their settling at Gracemere in 1855 on what was Darambal tribal land. A river port (later Rockhampton) was chosen for supplies and export of wool and other pastoralists began arriving.

Rockhampton, however, grew only slowly until 1858 when there was news of a gold discovery just north of the township at Canoona. Although the discovery was to prove rather a ‘dud’, enough of the 20,000 or so people who had rushed to the area remained, to provide a labour supply for the area and to give Rockhampton a start as a town.