Cairns was established in 1876 to serve the mining industry. Trinity Inlet was chosen as the Hodgkinson Goldfield's first port because the inlet was already known to beche-de-mer fisherman, William Smith, a packer on the goldfield, who organised the first expedition in search of a dray road to the coast.

The rush to the Hodgkinson had commenced in mid March 1876 when Mulligan announced in Cooktown that he had discovered payable gold on the Hodgkinson River. The Cooktown announcement stimulated an impetuous rush to the field during the heavy wet season and virtually abandoned the Palmer Goldfield, delivering it to the Chinese. From the beginning Mulligan insisted it was only a reefing field. On 18 March 1876 in the Cooktown Herald he warned that the "alluvial is patchy, consequently, in the event of a rush, many must be disappointed. The reefs are innumerable and gold plainly visible in them." His caution went unheeded by both the miners and the Government administration. In mid April 1876 with 800 miners on the field unable to find gold, another 800 stranded between Byerstown and the flooded Mitchell River, a thousand more between Cooktown and Byerstown, and destitution imminent, Palmer Wardens, WRO Hill and P Sellheim, understandably declared the Hodgkinson a fizzer and convinced the Government to issue warnings in the south for miners not to consider going to the new goldfield.