Cooktown is a small coastal town in tropical north Queensland. In 1770 Captain James Cook landed on the banks of the Endeavour River repairing his ship Endeavour, after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. A century later, in 1873, it became the port for the Palmer River Goldfields. Today it is billed as the gateway to the wilderness. It offers Mountains, Outback terrain, as well as some of the top scuba diving around. Although it still has well developed facilities, the town has more of a frontier feel, as is vastly different to the resort towns further south along the coast.
The first European to visit Cooktown was in 1770 when Captain Cook holed his ship on a reef just south of Cooktown and had to beach his ship at the mouth of the Endeavour River to undertake repairs. He spent 48 days here. Over 100 years later, Cooktown became one of the main gateways into Australia with the gold rush to the Palmer River. Grand permanent buildings were established, and the population boomed. A railway was even constructed from Cooktown to the goldfields.
With the passing of the goldrush days, and a decline in shipping, Cooktown went into decline. The town was frequently cut off by flooding in the wet, and the gravel road to Cooktown was washed out frequently. Cooktown became a victim of its isolation.
The visit of the Queen Elizabeth II to Cooktown in 1970 still rates highly in the history of the town.
The sealed road made it to Cooktown in the 1990s, bringing with it a small resurgence in the fortunes of the town, with the arrival of tourism. The town's population has never recovered to the level of the goldrush days, but today is slowly increasing.
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Cooktown, Far North Queensland, Australia - YouTube | |
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| Travel & Events | Upload TimePublished on 30 Jul 2014 |
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