William Hann and George Elphinstone Dalrymple: Visions of Progress in the North Queensland Rainforest

Abstract

William Hann in 1872, and George Elphinstone Dalrymple in 1873, both undertook official expeditions into the North Queensland rainforests. Dalrymple sought views from short incursions up rivers and mountains, and was prepared by his experience in Indian tropical agriculture to envision a landscape of plantations and small Christian settlements. In contrast, when vision ultimately came it was experienced not as triumph but as defeat. This paper considers the significance of the physical resistance of the rainforest, the explorers’ use of Aboriginal trails, clearings and guides, beliefs about the soil, and the meanings attributed to views of the rainforest-landscape, as elements not only of the geographical, but also of the historical imagination.

Keywords

• north queenland, rainforest, exploration, australia