With Queensland separated from New South Wales, the settlement of The North begins.
After Captain Henry Sinclair finds the port to service the proposed Kennedy pastoral district, the new Queensland government despatches Lieutenant J.W. Smith in the Spitfire to investigate the harbour and George Dalrymple to investigate the hinterland.
Settlement of the new district follows after Dalrymple established Bowen in 1861. Toewnsville and Cardwell follow in quick succession before the gold rushes bring thousands of miners into The North.
Charters Towers becomes “The World”; Ravenswood rises and fades. Other centres rise and disappear over the next thirty years as cattle replace sheep in the northeast and the canefields bring in large numbers of south Sea Islanders.
THe North becomes a multi-racial, but not necessarily a multicultural society as White Australia heads towards Federation, and beyond.