Back O' Cairns by Ion L Idriess
Adventures in the Far North

Ion L Idriess went to North Queensland prospecting at a time when the fabulous country "Back O' Cairns" was being opened up; when the great jungle scrubs were falling to the settler's axe, and when new towns were springing up as mineral wealth was discovered and the new railway pushed inland. It was a time when the talk around the campfires was full of the exciting exploits of the great pathfinders - men like Mulligan, Doyle, Atherton and Palmerston - and of the search for a route from the coast to the hinterland, bound up with the rivalry of the three ports of Cardwell, Port Douglas and Cairns.