An Unusual Carandini Story: The Wild Bushman of North Queensland
Christofero Palmerston Carandini
When I started to research my 4x great grandfather George Lowe’s step daughter, Maria Carandini, I was very quickly distracted, and found myself going down one rabbit hole after another.
I have previously written Marie and Jerome Carandini and four of their children. Following are links to their stories, if you would like to catch up.
Christofero Palmerston Carandini
Christofero Palmerston Carandini is the fifth child of Marie and Jerome Carandini. When I began to research his life, I was very quickly stunned at the life he chose to live. I found that he lived a life that was about as far removed from a life in music and opera, that could ever be expected.
The many Carandini rabbit holes that I have found myself stuck inside over the past few weeks, have had me well and truly in their grip. The story of Christofero Carandini, the fifth child of this quite amazing family, has added to my distraction.
My first thought, when I saw the birth date of Christofero, was that he and his sister, Isabella, were twins, as they were both born in 1851. Further research has shown that Isabella was born in January 1851, in Sydney and Christofero, also in Sydney, but in late 1851. No date was given, but newspaper reports noted that his mother, Marie, wasn’t performing at the end of 1851 as she was ‘confined’.
A Different Life
Christofero Palmerston Carandini, became one of the most daring and controversial bushmen and explorers of North Queensland. Despite his noble and artistic heritage, he turned his back on city life, music and culture. He left his family at age 15, and headed for Queensland to start a different life of his own choosing
Instead of a life in the entertainment industry with his parents and siblings, Christie developed a reputation as one of the greatest bushmen and most daring prospectors of North Queensland. When he left his family and struck out to live the life of his choosing, he dropped ‘Carandini’ from his name and became known as Christie Palmerston.
Christie Palmerston
This is the story of Christie Palmerston, who lived hard, explored undiscovered areas of Australia, and walked a very fine line between legend and lawlessness. He was known throughout Australia for his exploits. Searching the newspapers of the day, brought up a huge amount of articles from his teenage years to his death. It seems that he began to make a name for himself from a very young age.
Image: Christie Palmerston - Wikipedia
Explorer and Skilled Bushman
Christie Palmerston came to prominence during the Palmer River, Queensland gold rush of 1873, earning a reputation for courage, bravery, and incredible bushcraft skills. He rarely stayed in one place, abandoning gold diggings once they became crowded. Instead, he became a much sought after trail blazer, cutting paths through dense scrub from Mourilyan Harbour, and later from the Johnstone River to the Russell River goldfield. These discoveries and his skills, cemented his reputation as North Queensland’s greatest bushman.
“Among all the crack bushmen of the olden time it is safe to say that none came up to Christie Palmerston, who could fight his way as well as mark his way when travelling for a given point.”1
The Story of Pompo
One of the many unusual chapters in Christie’s life was his friendship with his young Aboriginal companion, Pompo, and much has been written about them. While prospecting in the Daintree area of Queensland, Christie accidentally blinded himself by rubbing his eyes after handling poisoned spears. Helpless, he relied on Pompo to lead him for days, through dense scrub until they reached Herberton, where treatment eventually restored his sight.
Tragically, Pompo died shortly afterward from fever. Palmerston paid for his burial and a large monument in Herberton Cemetery, commemorating the boy’s loyalty.
Following are the two plaque inscriptions:
Plaque No. 1:
Palmerston in 1882 was the first European to find and mark a feasible track through 90km of continuous rainforest between Herberton and what is now Innisfail. The present Palmerston Highway named in his honour, closely follows his original track.
He was the first European to scale Mount Bartle Frere and with others to find payable gold on the Upper Russell River in 1886. He did several earlier exploratory trips through virgin rainforest country in Nth Qld, including marking of a track from the Hodginkinson Goldfields, to the coast near Port, searching the mountains behind Cairns,for a possible rail route to the Tableland.
He was accompanied as a close companion for over five years, by an Aboriginal boy in his teens whom he called Pompo. Palmerston had an exceptional ability not only to find his way through rainforest but also to work with the rainforest Aborigines. His writings on this subject have proved to be as valuable to future anthropologists as his explorations were at the time.
Plaque No. 2:
In 1882, a prospector-bushman, Christie Palmerston with Pompo and four other Aboriginals walked 100 kilometres from Mourilyan Harbour, Innisfail (then named Geraldton) to the mining town of Herberton in 12 days. Pompo accompanied Palmerston for most of his exploration. When Pompo died at Herberton in 1882, Palmerston was deeply grieved.
His Theatrical Heritage Stayed With Him
Christie Palmerston loved drama. It would have been a sight to see him, after arduous trips, riding into Herberton, bootless and clothing torn, with cartridges glinting in his belt. He was always followed by his usually large group of Aboriginal companions.
Stocky and strong, with thick curly black hair and a matching beard, he rarely wore a hat. His usual outfit included a cotton shirt, broad cartridge belt, Colt revolver, and rifle, making him instantly recognisable.
……Probably because of his theatrical background, Palmerston loved display and mystery-mongering. Yarns about his mysterious origins, hairbreadth escapes from death and hidden finds of gold proliferated around his name.2
Marriage
On 6 December 1886, Christie married Teresa Rooney, a talented violinist, from a wealthy family. They were married at St. Joseph’s Church, Townsville.3 They had one child, but family life did not keep him still. It wasn’t long before he headed overseas alone, lured by the prospect of gold in Malaya and North Borneo. Here he faced head hunters, instead of the dangers of the Queensland bush.
Christie Palmerston, played an important part in the development of Cape York. He assured the safety of the white prospectors, explored routes across the mountains to the coast, and saved the native population from plague. As each area was settled, Palmerston would move on, opening up new goldfields and country for farming.
A Journalist wrote the following:
I found him to be about middle height, wiry, lean, very dark, and Intensely self-conscious.….Christy Palmerston spoke no language but that of the blacks, and his own English, and the latter rather indifferently. In my opinion, Christy Palmerston was an Australian, a Victorian probably, of respectable parentage, but who had drifted. His lonely and rather risky life on the Palmer, was temperamental.
……The real explanation seems to come from three considerations. He was an individualist, lonely figure operating in the rain-forest which was to most people impenetrable, and therefore mysterious. He was able to make tracks for other people, through the mysterious jungles, and open up new opportunities for their employment. In his explorations he was accompanied only by Aborigines whose customs at that time were little known or understood. That Palmerston could converse with them in some of their own languages,was considered little short of miraculous. Finally, Far North of Queensland was a remote, difficult frontier with very poor communications. Most news or rumour was transmitted by word of mouth, with the result that actualities were soon exaggerated and embellished into legend.4
Death
By the time he died aged just forty five, ,Christie Palmerston’s life had become legendary. He was known across Australia as a wild bushman, with excellent survival skills, and became larger than life. The mixture of danger, bush skills, lawlessness and theatrics, made him unforgettable in North Queensland.
He contracted a fever in the Malayan jungle and was carried out on a stretcher to a nearby hospital. He died on the 15th of January at Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, and was buried at the Negeri Sembilan Cemetery, Malaysia. 5
The following notice appeared in the newspaper to announce Christie Palmerston’s death. This is just one of the many death notices that appeared.
from: The North Queensland Register (Townsville Qld: 1892-1905), Wednesday 24 February 1897, page 15
DEATH OF CHRISTIE PALMERSTON
By the Changsba (says the Townsville Star,) news was brought from Singapore of the death of Mr. Christie Palmerston, the well known North Queensland prospector. Under date January 22, 1897, Mr. E. B. Wilkinson, Chairman of Directors of the Straits Development Company, wrote to Mrs. Palmerston as follows:
Dear Madam,
It is with the utmost regret that I have to inform you of the death of Mr. Christie Palmerston, who died on the 15th inst., at a place called Kuala Pilah, in the MaIay Peninsula.Mr. Palmerston had been in the employ of this company and also of the Gherabang G.M. CO. for some years, his duties necessitating the spending of the greater part of his time in exploring and prospecting for gold in the jungle.
I last saw Mir. Palmerston on Christmas Day, and seeing that he was very ill, endeavored to persuade him to return here with me and go in to the hospital, but he preferred to remain at work. He gradually became so ill that he had to be carried from his camp to Kuala PiLah, the nearest town, 35 miles distant.
He arrived there on the 13th inst. Medical assistance was immediately telegraphed for. A doctor traveled a distance of 24 miles during the night, and arriving at Kuala Pilah at 3 a.m., remained in attendance on Mr. Palmerston until has death, being unable to do anything for him.
There was a radio play in 1947 called the Legend of Christie Palmerston Edward F. Gay’s story of an adventurer in Cooktown, North Queensland, in the eighteen seventies. This played all around the country.
This is a very brief overview of Christie Palmerston’s life. It’s not possible to provide a complete outline of his life here. Much has been written about him, and it is not all good. I try not to put today’s values on events of the past, however there are articles written about him that are difficult to read. I include links to just a few articles below if you would like further information.
To ensure this post is not too long, I will include quite detailed death notices and obituary of Christofero Palmerston in a separate post. There is quite a long story about him on his Find a Grave page. The source is at the bottom of this post.
image: Christie Palmerston in 1887 - Wikipedia
Further Reading:
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Queenslander Adventurer
WikiTree - Christofero Palmertston Carandini
Christie Palmerston and Pompo
1897 ‘DEATH OF CHRISTIE PALMERSTON.’, Coolgardie Pioneer (WA : 1895 - 1901), 20 March, p. 36. , viewed 05 Oct 2025, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article251486528
G. C. Bolton, ‘Palmerston, Christie (1850–1897)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/palmerston-christie-4361/text7089, published first in hardcopy 1974, accessed online 3 October 2025.
Qld BMD Marriage registration: Name: Teresa Rooney; Marriage date: 06/12/1886; Spouse’s name: Christofero Palmerston Carandni; Registration details:1886/C/1807.
Quoted in F.P. Woolston and F.S. Colliver, “Christie Palmerston.A North Queensland Pioneer, Prospector and Explorer”, Queensland Heritage, Vol. 1, No. 7, November 1967, pp.30-34; Vol. 1, No. 8,
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/231490696/cristofero_palmerston-carandini: accessed October 5, 2025), memorial page for Cristofero Palmerston “Christie” Carandini (1851–15 Jan 1897), Find a Grave Memorial ID 231490696; Maintained by misces63 (contributor 48378779).
Incredible… if I were to hear of someone with these characteristics, we would have described him as neuro-divergent with incredible skills for language, tracking, and… well, the bush. Incredibly compelling. I love revealing stories like this across the oceans.
My goodness, what a life he led!