The Top of Eastern Australia - Cooktown

 January 23

Cooktown's claim to fame is that in 1770 Captain James Cook, on his first voyage around Australia, damaged his ship on a nearby reef and limped in to the mouth of what he named the Endeavour River to repair her. He and his crew stayed for a total of 48 days before continuing along the coast.

Aboriginal tribespeople had already been in residence here for many years when Captain Cook arrived in June of 1770, and there were a few skirmishes between the two groups. After one of these, when a tribesman was injured by a musket shot, Cook followed him and his friends who had been damaging his encampment to a spot now known as 'Reconciliation Rocks', communicated with an elder of the tribe and apologized, thereby immortalizing the first reconciliation between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians that ever occurred.

Cook named the river after his ship, and while they were repairing the ship Joseph Banks, the botanist who accompanied him on this as well as other voyages of discovery, found and classified more than 200 species of plants that had never been seen before. He also spent time with the Aboriginals, even learning some words, including names for animals no European had ever seen before. One of these was 'kangaroo'. Captain Cook made the first European sighting of one on Grassy Hill, which overlooks the town at the head of the river.

We have been here before, and on our previous visit we took at very long and rainy bus ride to a quirky bar in the middle of nowhere. This time we stayed closer to home and had a boat ride on the Endeavour River. It was already quite hot and humid when we left the tender at the pier. We took a walk along the main street of town while waiting for the excursion and found the Bicentennial Park. This park was officially dedicated by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Cooktown was not established as a European settlement until 1873, when it was a supply outpost for the gold rush in the Palmer River. There is a statue of a gold miner in the part, representing the thousands who came through Cooktown to find their fortune panning for gold in the river.

Off behind the statue of the miner is a set of steps leading nowhere. These are known as the Queen Elizabeth Steps and were built for Her Majesty, who came on a visit in April of 1970 to commemorate the bicentennial of Cook's landing. It was easier for her to come by sea, apparently, so the Britannia was anchored about where our ship was, and she took a small boat to town. She was supposed to arrive at the spot where Cook first set foot on land, according to descriptions left in his notes, where the steps were built. She was to be helped from the boat to the steps and walk down them to meet the dignitaries. Great plan, except that timing for the visit changed and the tide was out, so the steps were totally unusable. She came ashore in a different spot and was driven (in a Rolls Royce sent to Cooktown specifically for the occasion) to the park instead. According to our boat captain who told us this story, she spent a grand total of about 47 minutes on land in Cooktown.

 

One of the highlights of the park is the 'Milbi Wall' or
story wall that tells the story of the first encounters
between Cook and his men and the local Aboriginals

The Monument to Cook's stay
in Cooktown. It was only named Cooktown
a long time after Cook himself had been here.

Flowers of a Plumeria tree in the park

Captain Cook

Other tile mosaics set into the walkway commemorate other aspects of Cook's stay. The first one here is of a kangaroo, giving the spelling that Cook and Banks used as well as the Aboriginal name. The second shows the months of the year and what fish and animals the local tribespeople used for food in each season.

The best thing about our boat cruise was that the moving vessel provided some natural air conditioning. Otherwise, it was very informative, but we spent the whole time in the mouth of the river and sailing by the mangrove forests on the shoreline. I had imagined going a little further up the river to see more of the inland scenery. After all, our tender ride of 25 minutes already brought us through the mouth of the river to get to town.

'Grassy Hill' where Cook climbed to work out his
plan for leaving with his repaired ship. This is where
he saw his first kangaroo.

A small part of the mangrove forests that line the
river and the bay

One of our fellow passengers is this young lady
who was allowed to drive the boat for a few minutes.
When we were boarding the tender to return to the ship,
she wondered if she could ask the tender driver
to let her take the helm. Her mother's answer
was a shocked 'NO!'

The Barrier Range mountains in the
distance. It was obviously low tide while
we cruised around the bay.

When our cruise around was over, it was so humid that we only walked from the boat dock to the pier and waited for the next tender back to the ship. If we are back again, we'll probably just stick to the historical museum, which is supposed to be very good, and similar places in town, properly prepared for a walk in the heat.

As we were leaving the sun began to set. It has been quite cloudy the whole time we've been on the ship, so the sunsets have not been spectacular, but sometimes the cloud formations made some really great effects. Those white blobs in the distance are silica sand, which is mined extensively in this area. It is a very fine white sand which is used in production of computer and cell phone screens and similar products.