Lifestyle.

The first know sighting of the Norman River was made by Abel Janzoo Tasman in 1644 when he named it the Gulf of Carpentaria and sailed to the mouth of the Norman River which he named Van Diemen’s River.

In 1845 the first land explorer, Ludwig Leichhardt, made his epic journey from the Darling Downs to Port Essington in the Northern Territory. 1860-61 saw the next Europeans through the area; Burke and Wills who made their final dash to the Gulf (or more correctly, a dash to the mangrove swamps somewhere near the edge of the Gulf) some 30kms west of present day Normanton. The location of Burke and Wills’ last northern camp, camp 119 (CXIX), is signposted on the Normanton-Burketown Road which is only a 30 km drive from Normanton and from there, a 1.5-km drive into the bush.

Frederick Walker, one of the many explorers who went looking for Burke and Wills, was the man who named the Norman River after the Commander of H.M.C.S. Victoria, Captain W.H. Norman. But it wasn’t until 1867, when William Landsborough sailed up the Norman River, that the site for the present day settlement of Normanton was chosen.

Over the next decade Normanton became an important port. The large Burns Philp building, located on the corner of Caroline and Landsborough Streets (Normanton’s main street), is evidence of its importance at this time. There were suggestions that Normanton would become a port to rival Darwin as the main centre on the north coast of Australia.

A boiling-down works was established on the river in 1892 and shortly afterwards a meatworks was opened.

The town of Normanton experienced a major boom with the discovery of gold at Croydon, some 150kms east of the town, and in 1888 the first rail on the Normanton-Croydon railway was laid. By 1891 the population had reached 1250. However, the gold rush was short-lived and although the Normanton-Croydon railway line was opened in 1891, by 1907 the whole area was on the decline. Even the cattle which had been the town's mainstay started heading south as the railway line was extended out towards Mount Isa. By 1947 the population had dropped to 234. It has since picked up, with the development of prawn fishing at Karumba and the increasing interest in tourism in the shire and now boasts a population of approximately 1600.