Burketown

Carpentaria Township
Now known as Burketown named after Robert Burke; near the Gulph of Carpentaria.

Reader's Digest, Illustrated Guide to Australian Places, Sydney, 1993, p.471.

Cape Van Diemen
Tasman's name for what was in fact an island, named by Flinders Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Jack, Robert, Logan, Northmost Australia, 2 vols., London, 1921, p.143.

Carnarvon
Named after the 4th Earl of Carnarvon, this forgotten township on Sweer's Island was surveyed in 1866 at 17°07', 139°36', about 70km north of Burketown.

Hooper, Colin, Angor to Zillmanton stories of North Queensland's deserted towns, Townsville, 1998, p.271.


Chandos
Though never settled, this township was surveyed in 1867 at 18°13', 139°53', about 60km south east of Burketown.

Hooper, Colin, Angor to Zillmanton stories of North Queensland's deserted towns, Townsville, 1998, p.273.


Land of Lyons
Now called the Alexandra River, a tributary of the Leichhardt in north western Queensland.

Hooper, Colin, Angor to Zillmanton stories of North Queensland's deserted towns, Townsville, 1998, p.273.


Maatsuyker River
This river never existed. It was the Dutch name erroneously given to the passage between Sweers Island and the mainland in the southern gulf of Carpentaria. Maatsuyker was one of the counsellors at the Batavia who signed Tasman's instructions in 1644.

Flinders, Matthew, A Voyage to Terra Australis: undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in, London, 1814, vol.2, p.135.


Plains of Promise
Captain John Lort Stokes's name for the grass lands south of Burketown.

Reader's Digest, Illustrated Guide to Australian Places, 1993, p.471.