M. E. Tranter states that Christie Palmerston - explorer and prospector - was not, as legend suggests, the natural son of Lord Palmerston, but was the son of Casino Jerome, the 10th Marquis de Carandini of Sarzone, Italy, and his wife Mary Burgess, the daughter of a London coachman who had migrated to Van Dieman's Land. Palmerston's mother was a noted opera singer, known as Madame Carandini, who toured in the U.S.A., India and New Zealand. During his youth, Palmerston spent time working on Milanjie Station in the Broad Sound district of Queensland. He seems to have been first heard of in North Queensland c.1873 at the Palmer River area. On 6th December, 1886, he married Theresa Rooney in Townsville, with whom he had one daughter, Rosina, born on 13th June, 1889. Family responsibilities saw him temporarily forgo his prospecting and exploring in favour of hotel-keeping for some years, though he later went prospecting in Borneo and then Malaya, where he became ill and died, aged forty-six.
