The next morning we continued northwards, over the low wooden bridge that spanned the Herbert River. Seaview Range comes down close to the coast here, and it was slow work pulling the caravan up the steep, winding road. We were driving through the fringes of tropical rainforest – ferns and creepers covered and joined the trees. Then, at the top of the range, we came to a lookout over to Hinchinbrook Island, which was separated by a jagged blue channel from the mangrove swamps of the mainland coast. The island was completely uninhabited at that time, a swathe of brown vegetation rising uninterrupted to meet the clouds that shrouded its mountain peaks.

The road descended and then ran straight for thirty miles through the marshes, crossing and recrossing the single-track railway to Cardwell. The town had been founded in 1864 as a major port. But, as so often in Queensland, the site selected by the government proved impracticable, for the high mountains behind Cardwell had made it impossible to establish a path to the interior. Now only about five hundred people lived there, not many more than in 1870.

Cardwell has just one long street, running parallel to a shady, sandy beach. A few hundred yards across the sea to the east is Missionary Bay, at the end of Hinchinbrook Island. A Reverend Mr. Fuller had gone over there in 1870 to establish a mission for the Biyaygiri tribe.