November-December 2008
Cooktown
Dear Reader, You’ll be lucky to find a vacancy at the Orchid Caravan Park in Charlotte Street, Cooktown, especially during the winter months. Grey nomads flock here for three months at a stretch when the weather is chilly down south. They come to fish, crab, bird-watch, spot crocodiles and kickback. Since the last 80Ks of road connecting Cooktown to Cairns were sealed three years ago, increasing numbers of tourists are making the journey north to the iconic frontier town. In the past, many would make it as far as Lakeland then turn back; or they’d be cut off by floods during the wet months (December-May). Now, the trip takes 3 ½ hours, instead of six, and you no longer need a 4WD to get there. “The sealed road has made it easier, though the dirt road never stopped the adventurous,” says Stephen Lucas, owner of The Sovereign Resort, an up-market resort hotel at the port end of Charlotte Street. “It means more people are moving here to live and more tourists are visiting in conventional cars.”
Word of Cooktown’s potential spread quickly. A quick glance in the real estate windows reveals staggering prices of $750,000 for a former butcher’s shop in Charlotte Street (the main street), $2 million for a renovated cottage with river views (and potential for a tourist resort) and $2.75million for the Peninsula Caravan Park in Howard Street. At Grassy Hill, a 1.7 hectare property is up for sale for $2.75 million. Marketed as “a unique opportunity to own one of Far North Queensland's iconic properties”, it boasts breathtaking views of the Endeavour River and the Coral Sea and includes two dwellings, one of which is an original 1913 Wireless Station, lovingly restored, and an Artist’s Studio. “I doubt they’ll sell,” says Lucas. “People leave their For Sale signs up forever.” According to greengrocer Raelz Tucker of Q-Cumbers, everything in Cooktown is expensive. “Real estate went through the roof a few years ago when the tin mine opened,” she says. “Now that it has closed, many families have left and there are a lot of empty houses either for sale or rent, though the prices haven’t gone down.” Talk of a marina to service the game fishing and cruise industry and a new foreshore development has helped fuel speculation.
Discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770 after The Endeavour accidentally struck the Great Barrier Reef off the coast north of Cape Tribulation, the town was the site of the first white “settlement” in Australia. Cook and his crew stayed on the river’s edge for seven weeks while the ship was repaired, the longest amount of time they were to spend in any one place in Australia. It wasn’t, however, until the early 1870s when gold was discovered nearby on the Palmer River that any serious settlement took place. Almost overnight, Cook’s Town (as it was then known) became boom town. By 1874 there were 4000 permanent residents, 47 licensed pubs, a large number of hotels and guest houses, illegal grog shops, brothels, bakeries, a brewery and a soft drinks factory, dressmakers and milliners, a brickworks, a cabinetmaker, and two newspapers. During the goldrush years, a strong Chinese community also grew up in both the fields and in the town itself. Sadly, the town was struck by two major fires – one in 1875, and another in 1919 – when whole blocks of buildings along the main street (which was almost 3Ks long) were burned to the ground. A major cyclone in 1907 added to the destruction. Today, it’s hard to imagine that this sleepy half-forgotten village of 2000 residents was once the “Queen of the North”. Less than a handful of pubs now line the main street, though the early optimisim which existed during the late 19th century can still be seen in the impressive architecture of The Old Bank building and further up the hill at the James Cook Historical Museum building.
The town is full of museums and memorials dedicated to Cook. He’s everywhere and it’s hard to escape him. Even the town’s lighthouse, up on Grassy Hill, is dedicated to him. It was this hill he climbed to find a passage out through the reefs, and it was here he first spotted a kangaroo. “We have a very similar word in our language – ‘gangaroo’,” says Willie Gordon,
Gordon’s rock art and bushfood tours to the hills above Hope Vale, outside Cooktown, offer a good counter-balance to the town’s infatuation with Cook, revealing how the Aboriginal people lived before he arrived. Gordon is a superb storyteller and his engaging tales about his “special place” (Guurrbi) are a real eye-opener.
www.guurrbitours.com |
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