From Normanton a number of carriers are employed to carry goods to Cloncurry and the many stations trading therewith. Many teams are found carrying loading by the side of the railway line to Georgetown and the Etheridge past Croydon, ignoring the services of the railway. A punt service connects the town with the carrier's camp on the opposite side of the river, where loading starts for the Etheridge. The carrier's waggon is loaded fully up to its carrying capacity of from six to seven tons, and is drawn on to the punt by the team; on its arrival on the opposite side, the team draws the load on to the bank ready to depart on its journey. The country to Georgetown is generally of an inferior description. Towards the Cloncurry (southwards) for the first twenty miles, the road passes through timbered country, bloodwood and messmate of a poor class, then it opens out after passing Reaphook Range into open treeless plains and black soil, with excellent pasturage, and this extends for hundreds of miles to the interior, the whole of which is occupied by cattle and sheep stations that draw their supplies from Normanton up to a certain point, when the trade is induced by special arrangements of rebates on traffic rates, to diverge to Townsville, at the expense of the Gulf ports. * * * * * About the same time that Townsville was opened as a port in order to meet the requirements of the new movements in stock on the country surrounding the Gulf, Burketown commenced its rather chequered career as a commercial port in 1865.