Cooktown

Cooktown is best experienced during the dry season between May and November when the climate is less hot and humid. The winter and spring months provide a pleasant temperature to explore the area.

June is the ideal time to holiday in Cooktown. The Discovery Festival is held on the June long-weekend to commemorate Captain Cook’s historic arrival to the area. Every year, the town comes together to reenact the ship’s landing and celebrate the region’s rich history.

History buffs can enjoy Cooktown’s history all year round with a visit to the James Cook Museum. Housed in a former convent school, the museum gives a fascinating insight into the region’s past. The museum not only exhibits documents about Cook’s voyage, but also features exhibitions about Aboriginal history, the area’s natural geography and the town’s gold mining past.

With its rich history, Cooktown is a great place to experience Aboriginal culture. Local residents take visitors on guided tours of the rock art sites in surrounding hills and provide information about the arts and cultural centre in the Indigenous community. Grassy Hill on the Endeavour River is the site of the first recorded sighting of kangaroos by Europeans. Cooktown is the perfect place to learn how Aboriginal and European history first came together.

Similarly, Chinese culture is a prominent feature of Cooktown’s history due to the gold rush in the 1870s. Explore the region’s multicultural past with a visit to the local cemetery. Featuring several historic graves, the cemetery is another insight to the town’s remarkable past.

Today, Cooktown is known as the gateway to the wilderness. With a variety of mountainous, outback and coastal terrain, it is not hard to see why. To experience the region’s wilderness, take a cruise down the Endeavour River and keep an eye out for crocodiles in the water and birds and snakes in the mangroves.

Where is Cooktown ?

Situated at the mouth of the Endeavour River on the Cape York Peninsular in Far North Queensland, Cooktown is eastern Australia’s northernmost town. Over 2,000km from the state’s capital, Brisbane, the town’s geographic al isolation adds to its character. Steeped in history, the region is the ideal destination for holiday makers looking to immerse themselves in Australia’s iconic past. The town is named after Captain James Cook who beached his ship, the Endeavour, at the river mouth in 1770 for repairs. The area has a variety of accommodation options that showcase the region’s rich colonial, aboriginal and gold mining history.