The Captain Cook statue in the park beside the river at Cooktown

Cooktown (including Lizard Island)
The first true European settlement on Australian soil. Today it is an exotic and distant township with a lazy tropical feel.
Located 326 km (by the inland road) and 235 km (by the coast road) from Cairns, Cooktown is notable for the number of 4WD vehicles which exist in the town. They are monuments to the awfulness of both roads which bring travellers to the town. The inland route is corrugated and bumpy. The coastal track, particularly the section from the Bloomfield River crossing to Cape Tribulation, may well have the honour of being the worst road in Australia: unbelievable gradients, narrowness, bulldust, cavernous holes in the dry season and quagmires of mud in the wet. It is a road which leaves the inhabitants of Cooktown little option but to buy a good 4WD vehicle - or a boat.

The road from Cooktown to Cape Tribulation

Cooktown wears its name with pride. It was the site of the first white 'settlement' in Australia when Captain James Cook, having accidentally struck the Great Barrier Reef off the coast north of Cape Tribulation, struggled up the coast and beached the H.M. Barque Endeavour on the shores of the Endeavour River. Cook and his crew were to stay on the river's edge from 17 June to 4 August, 1770: the greatest amount of time they were to spend at any one location in Australia.

There are no fewer than six monuments to Captain Cook in the town. However, his journals of the voyage do not return the compliment:

'18 June 1770. I climbed one of the highest hills among those that overlooked the harbour, which afforded by no means a comfortable prospect; the lowland near the river is wholly overrun with mangroves, among which the saltwater flows every tide; and the high land appeared everywhere stony and barren. In the mean time, Mr Banks had also taken a walk up the country and met with the frames of several old Indian houses, and places where they had dressed shellfish.

'30 June 1770. And went myself upon a hill which lies over the south point, to take a view of the sea. At this time it was low water and I saw, with great concern, innumerable sand banks and shoals lying all along the coast in every direction. The innermost lay about three or four miles from the shore, the outermost extended as far as I could see with my glass, and many of them did but just rise above water. There was some appearance of a passage to the northward and I had no hope of getting clear but in that direction; for as the wind blows constantly from S.E., it would be difficult, if not impossible, to return back to the southward.' Hardly a glowing recommendation.

After Cook came the coastal explorers Phillip Parker King and Allan Cunningham who explored the area in 1819 and climbed and named Mount Cook.

It wasn't until the discovery of gold on the Palmer River that any serious settlement was contemplated. The government, deciding the area needed a port, sent George Dalrymple to find a suitable location for one. However, events overtook both Dalrymple and the government when the Leichhardt arrived at Endeavour River with supplies and 96 people. Overnight the settlement of Cook's Town (as it was first called) grew up. This was a boom town. Within a few months there were over 500 tents and, by 1875, there were an incredible 65 hotels, a school, a fire brigade and two churches. The main street meandered on for nearly 3 km.

Some indication of the optimism which existed in the town at the time can be seen in the quality of the architecture invested in the James Cook Historical Museum building (1886) and the Westpac Bank building (1889).

The museum building was originally St Mary's Convent. A magnificent two-storey structure it was constructed in the belief that the town would become one of the great centres of Australia. At the time it was the second-largest city in Queensland. The elaborate cast-iron columns and balustrades reflect a sense of certainty which seems strange when observed from the Cooktown of a century later.

Similarly the Westpac Bank, with its superb cedar joinery and heavy masonry columns, suggests that the Queensland National Bank (which no longer exist) also believed in the future prosperity of the port. In many ways their belief was justified. At the time it was one of the busiest ports in Queensland.

The decline of the goldfields meant the decline of Cooktown. However, it had a sustained recovery when tin was found in the area and it maintained its status for some years when vessels would stop on their way from South-East Asia to the ports further down the coast.

Fortunes turned again in 1907 when a cyclone nearly destroyed the town. It had a brief recovery during World War II but it wasn't until the current North Queensland tourist boom that it began to achieve a level of success comparable with the 1870s and 1880s.

Things to see:  

Grassy Hill provides excellent views of the Endeavour River and Cooktown

Cook Worship - Memorials and Lighthouse
Captain Cook is not only important in the town's history but he is also somebody whom the civic fathers feel compelled to honour at every opportunity. There are no fewer than six Cook monuments in the town.There is a cairn at the place where he beached the Endeavour, another smaller monument a few metres away, a Bicentennial statue of the good Captain in a nearby park, and a huge civic monument further down the road.

Even the town's lighthouse is dedicated to Captain Cook. A steep winding road leads to Grassy Hill which provides excellent views of the coast, the Endeavour River and Cooktown. At the top of the hill is another monument to Cook as well as the lighthouse. A nearby placard reprints a section from the Cooktown Courier of 5 August 1885 declaring: 'We understand that our lighthouse is on board the New Guinea which left Batavia on 27 July for Queensland ports. We have here another proof of the government's desire to deal fairly with us. Before long the bright rays of our lighthouse will be gleaming over the waste of waters, carrying comfort and an assurance of safety to mariners who have to thread the intricate navigation of our coast...no better monument could be erected to the memory of Captain Cook. It is the one he himself would have chosen, as it will recall the gallant navigator and explorer everytime its bright tower of white light is seen.'

As if all of these public declarations of admiration were not sufficient there is also the excellent James Cook Museum.

Other Memorials
Cook is not the only person to be memorialised. Next to the large Cook statue in the park there is a tribute to Edmund Kennedy, honouring his journey from Rockingham Bay to Escape River. There's also a monument to Dan Seymour who established the National Riding Track from Melbourne to Cooktown in 1977. There's even a cannon which was brought to the town in 1889 to prevent an unlikely attack from the Russians. Further along the main street is a memorial to Mary Beatrice Watson who, in 1882, with her baby and a Chinese servant, died from lack of water after escaping from Lizard Island where they had been attacked by Aborigines. Mary Watson's monument, a perfect example of Victorian Gothic design, was funded by public subscription and erected in 1888.

The James Cook Museum
The museum building was originally St Mary's Convent. A magnificent two-storey structure it was constructed in the belief that the town would become one of the great centres of Australia. The elaborate cast-iron columns and balustrades reflect a sense of certainty which seems strange when observed from the Cooktown of a century later.

The museum recommends that each visitor spend at least an hour looking at the exhibits, which include a Chinese joss house (originally brought out from Canton), a shell collection, interesting material on Cooktown's early history, and artefacts from the Endeavour, including one of the cannons jettisoned from the vessel when it ran aground on Endeavour Reef, and one of the ship's anchors which was also recovered from the reef. The museum is open from 10.00am - 4.00pm each day, tel: (07) 4069 5386.

The Westpac Building
The Westpac Bank, with its superb cedar joinery and heavy masonry columns, suggests that the Queensland National Bank (which no longer exist) believed in the future prosperity of the port. In many ways their belief was justified. At the time it was one of the busiest ports in Queensland.

The Jacky Jacky Building
Located in Charlotte Street this is one of the town's oldest buildings. The front windows contain an interesting collection of photographs which offer an insight into the town during its boom period.

Cooktown Cemetery
The cemetery at the western end of town may well be the best presented graveyard in Australia. At the entrance is a large map indicating the location of tombstones and other sites of interest. These include the sepulchres of William Hovell, the hapless Mrs. Watson, the mysterious Normanby woman (a white woman who was found living with Aborigines in unexplained circumstances), the victims of at least two shipwrecks, and a special section for non-believers and Aborigines.

There is also a Chinese Shrine. Over 20 000 Chinese passed through the town on their way to the goldfields and, at one time, Cooktown had a separate Chinatown with a permanent population of nearly 3000 people. Interestingly there is only one Chinese gravestone in the cemetery.

The Cooktown Sea Museum
Apart from the many interesting objects inside the building there are, in the grounds, a number of anchors, a gold skip from the Palmer River, a lakatoi from Papua New Guinea and a bark canoe.

Black Mountains National Park
28 km to the south of the town these strange mountains feature huge granite boulders blackened by surface lichen. They are of special significance to the local Aborigines due to their connection with the legend of Kalcajagga, which recounts a feud between two brothers for the love of a girl.

Lizard Island
93 km north-east of Cooktown Lizard Island was first explored by Captain Cook, who anchored in one of the island's bays and climbed to the top of the hill now known as Cook's Look. There he surveyed a suitable passage away from the island.

It was not until a century later that Captain Robert Watson with his wife, a servant and baby daughter, built a cottage on the island. The ruins are still visible. Captain Watson, was a beche-de-mer (sea cucumber) fisherman and during one of his absences Aborigines from the mainland attacked the cottage. Mrs. Watson, accompanied by her child and a Chinese servant, attempted to flee to the mainland in a barrel used for boiling beche-de-mer. The vessel floated away from the coast and all three died of thirst.

In 1939 the island was declared a national park. Currently there is a resort catering for 60 guests and a research station. Regular flights to the island allow visitors an opportunity to wander the shores or to go bushwalking. Lizard Island is popular with deep-sea fishermen who use it as a base.

Camping is allowed here as long as a permit has been issued (ring the Cairns office of the National Parks and Wildlife Service on (07) 4052 3096. The research station conducts tours every Monday and Friday, tel: (07) 4060 3977.

	Tourist Information
	Cooktown Tourism Association Shop 6 Charlotte St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 6100
	Motels
	Cooktown Motor Inn 12 Charlotte St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5357 Rating: *
	River of Gold Motel Resort Cnr Hope & Walker Sts Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5222, 1800 800 993 Rating: **
	Seaview Motel Charlotte St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5377 Rating: **
	Tropical Breeze Motel Charlotte St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5417
	Hotels
	Cooktown Hotel Cnr Charlotte & Walker Sts Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5308 Facsimile: (07) 4069 5338
	The Sovereign Resort Hotel Cnr Charlotte & Green Sts Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5400 Facsimile: (07) 4069 5582 Rating: ****
	The West Coast Hotel 19 Charlotte St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5350
	Resorts
	Lizard Island Resort Anchor Bay Lizard Island Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4060 3999 Facsimile: (07) 4060 3991 Rating: *****
	Bed & Breakfast/Guesthouses
	Hillcrest Guesthouse Hope St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5305
	Lodges & Chalets
	Cooktown Alamanda Inn Lodge Hope St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5203
	Home Rule Rainforest Lodge Rossville via Cooktown Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4060 3925
	Mungumby Wilderness Lodge Helenvale via Cooktown Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4060 3158 Facsimile: (07) 4050 3159 Email: relax@mungumby.com
	Caravan Parks
	Cooktown Caravan Park 14-16 Hope St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5562
	Cooktown Holiday Park Charlotte St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5417 Facsimile: (07) 4069 5740 Rating: ****
	Cooktown Orchid Travellers Park cnr Charlotte St & Walker Sts Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 6400 Facsimile: (07) 4069 6400 Rating: **1/2
	Endeavour Falls Tourist Park McIvor Rd Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5431 Rating: **
	Peninsular Caravan Park Howard St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5107
	Restaurants
	River of Gold Restaurant Hope St Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5222
	The Sovereign Resort Hotel Restaurant Cnr Charlotte & Green Sts Cooktown QLD 4871 Telephone: (07) 4069 5400