Cooktown, Queensland

Cooktown in Queensland, on the Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost city on Australia's east coast. The city 6 m above sea level lying was founded in 1873. At the time of the census in 2011, lived there a total of 1,617 inhabitants in the catchment area of ​​approximately another 4,000 people. Average temperatures range from 24.3 ° C to 31.5 ° C with an annual precipitation of 1,810 mm.

The English explorer James Cook landed here in 1770 at the mouth of after his ship - the Endeavour - named Endeavour River River. Cook and his crew spent here, during his first South Seas voyage from 1768 to 1771, two months to repair the Great Barrier Reef, Cape Tribulation on the amount of leak- stricken ship.

Some 110 years later it was discovered in the area at the Palmer River gold deposits, which turned out to be the biggest in Queensland. Due to the Andrangs the Digger ( gold prospectors ) a tent city from which quickly developed a real city was built. She was given first name Cook 's Town (later Cooktown ). At that time there were in Cooktown about 30,000 inhabitants. With the gold rush many Chinese came to the village, who were not only gold, but also as a dealer and worked in other areas.

On Discovery Festival landing Cook is still in Cookstown annually commemorated with a big festival. Among other things, the landing is replayed in period costumes, this is not necessarily striving to historical correctness because of the multi-day celebrations, in which of course also take the acting protagonist ..

Infrastructure

Long Cookstown could be reached from Cairns only by boat, plane or on the dirt Cooktown Developmental Road by jeep with four wheel drive. Since 2006 exists with the Mulligan Highway one of the old development road following fixed connection to the Kennedy Highway, making the drive from Cairns to Cooktown only 3.5 instead of the previous 4.5 - takes 5 hours.