Michael O'Leary

Michael O'Leary (1858–1930) was one of north-east Queensland's pioneers who explored, prospected, and lived most of his life in the wet tropics. He was once known for his newspaper writings, sharing his locally acquired knowledge using the pen-name "Coyyan".

Biography His father, Thomas O'Leary, arrived on the third boat into Moreton Bay as second mate to the vessel, marrying Mary Mangan, one of the passengers, taking up a farming block on the Logan River trying to grow arrowroot, then becoming a teamster taking many trips to the Gympie goldfields, before moving to Brisbane where, in 1858, second son Michael O'Leary was born in Springhill.

In March 1881, Michael O'Leary left Brisbane on the ship Katoomba for the Palmer Goldfields in the far north of Queensland which he later published as widely read extracts in local newspapers, under the name Coyyan (a local Aboriginal word for white quartz), with his writings being printed in all of North Queensland's leading newspapers, also appearing in the southern newspapers.

As a writer, O'Leary included writings about the wet tropical ranges and the Aboriginal peoples for whom these ranges and forests were home, including notably learning from Aboriginal peoples and writing about Aboriginal bush living and own names for water falls, bodies of water, mountain peaks, and landscape features previously unknown and unnamed by the Queensland state.