Nomads of the Goldfields

Lennie Wallace

From Gympie in the south, through Mount Morgan and Canoona on the central coast, to Palmer River and Hodgkinson in the tropical north, the 19th century Queensland goldfields were a magnet for tumultuous swarms of nomadic fossickers. They were also a breeding ground for true leaders of men. ‘Dr Jack’ Hamilton he was one of those natural leaders. He healed the sick and the wounded he was a prodigious bare-knuckle puglist and he fearlessly defended the underdog. Subsequently in 1878 he became a Queensland politician and for the miners rights.