Normanton
Normanton, a rural town, is 40 km south-east of the mouth of the Norman River on the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is the administrative centre of the Carpentaria Shire.
The coastline in the vicinity of the mouth of the Norman River was explored by Abel Tasman (1644), Matthew Flinders (1802) and Commander John Stokes (1841), but it was the failure of the Burke and Wills expedition in 1861 which concentrated exploratory activity in the area. Prior to then the only land exploration had been by Ludwig Leichhardt who reached the Norman River in 1844.
Further Reading:
Normanton centenary 1868-1968, Normanton, Normanton Centenary Committee, 1968
J.W. Knowles, Lonely rails in the Gulf Country: the story of the Normanton-Croydon railway, North Quay, J.W. Knowles, 1983
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