Endeavour River

Endeavour River at Cooktown in Marton

The Endeavour River is a river of the Cape York Peninsula in the extreme north of the Australian state of Queensland.

History

The Endeavour River got its now valid name of James Cook after he was forced to put in winter 1770 here his ship Endeavour on the beach on its shallow keel and repair. The ship had run the night before at Cape Tribulation on the Endeavour Reef, a coral reef in the Great Barrier Reef, and has been doing considerable damage.

Captain James Cook and his crew stayed for nearly seven weeks in this region and had this contact with the Aborigines. The naturalist Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander made ​​intensive excursions and collected numerous copies. Sydney Parkinson drew much of the fauna and flora of this region. He painted, among others, the female of Banks Raven cockatoos and thus the first known illustration of an Australian parrot.

Today Cooktown lies at the mouth of the Endeavour River. It is the northernmost town on the east coast of Australia and was founded in 1873 near the Cook's landing site.