Cooktown

Cooktown is where the first explorers arrived and were forced to stay for 48 days, in order to repair the boat Endeavour. The captain of the boat, as all the historic books tell, was James Cook. He was steering the boat through the Coral Sea and the boat accidentally ran afoul of the Great Barrier Reef, so Cook decided to take it in the Endavour River (the only river named by Captain Cook in Australia), the name was given to it just because it was the location were the boat was successfully repaired.

The first years of Cooktown were characterised by explorations and studies, with explorers discovering trees and tropical species of flowers and fauna. At the visitor information centre it is possible to have a look at the remarkable exhibition of local wildlife recorded by Charles Tanner.

Following Captain Cook adventures you'll discover the lighthouse.

In fact, Cook had to study a way to leave the bay and keep sailing for his adventure, so he used to hike the hill, where there was a lookout that showed the Great Barrier Reef and the surrounding area, such as Finch Bay and Cherry Tree Bay. Today there's a walk track that goes from the Botanic Garden of Cooktown, where the Visitor Information Centre is, to Finch Bay, Cherry Tree Bay and then to the hill where Cook could look around from - today named Grassy Hill and home of the lighthouse built in England and shipped to Cooktown in 1885.


As the years went on, in the '70s and '80s Cooktown became a pioneering town, with a pub on every corner and a population of 3000 - 4000 residents. The town started to grow when the discovery of gold on the Palmer River happened, in the 1872 and 1873. After the Palmer River Gold Rush began, the Endeavour River was chosen for the movement of supplies and the establishment of a port, all around the firs tents were settle and pre-fabricated buildings appeared.