Elphinstone Dalrymple, with Messrs Hill and Johnstone, finishing in December 1873, effected a valuable survey of the inlets and navigable rivers in the Cape York Peninsula.
It used to be a popular resort for fish dinners, and it plays a prominent part in Charles Reade's novel of Christie Johnstone.
In the same year his coolness and courage in a duel with Captain George Johnstone, M.P., assisted to rehabilitate him, and in 1775, having meantime taken an active part in politics, he became secretary of state for the colonies in the North cabinet.
In 1764 he was made secretary to General Johnstone at Pensacola, West Florida, and when he returned, two years later, to England, after a quarrel with Johnstone, he was allowed to retain his salary as a pension.
Among the public buildings are the academy, Johnstone public school, the county buildings, town-hall, museum, Mackenzie hall and market cross, the lastnamed standing in front of the old court-house, which is now used as a drill hall and fire-station.
