Cooktown – a different type of zoo
With the strong dollar, inbound tourism into Cairns is pretty grim. You have to feel sorry for the shopkeepers and restaurant owners.
Anyway, I’d never been to Cooktown, and have a long-lost cousin there, so last month I did the 4 hour drive from Cairns. The Mulligan Highway was unsealed up until five years ago. Now it’s a beautiful drive with the majestic Great Dividing Range on your right, and wildlife everywhere. Brahman cattle as big as houses, and I nearly cleaned up a herd of brumbies and a pair of plain turkeys (aka bustards).
Cooktown’s population is only 2,000 and has retained its frontier character. There are some great Queenslander-type pubs with timber floors. On the first morning I wandered down the main street past the spot where Captain Cook repaired the Endeavour. At the main jetty, the ferry from Cairns was just docking with a sprinkle of tourists. I got to talking to a veteran fisherman casting a line.
‘Get many crocs here?’ I asked innocently.
‘Put it this way, mate, don’t wash your bloody hands down there’ came the reply in typical FNQ understatement. ‘See that rock wall behind us? A couple of months back a croc went flying up there after a white-tailed rat!’ I later googled the said rat – it is a rodent native to north Queensland and can weigh up to 2 kilograms!
My new best friend then gave me a 10 minute overview of fish he’d caught with his two sons in their 20 foot runabout, and some jibes about the ‘grey shoe shufflers’ wandering off the ferry. Then he launched into a stinging critique of the crocodile conservation policy. I’d gotten the drift the previous night from a photo of a croc launching itself at a youth in a tinny. A priceless photo – see for yourself in the local pizza restaurant.
The point of this article is that Cooktown is just the beginning of Cape York, a vastly different region waiting for jaded domestic and international tourists. The southern nodes of Mareeba and Cooktown give way to Coen, Lockhart River, Weipa and the communities of Seisa, Barmaga and Thursday Island. Travel north of Cooktown has its challenges – unsealed roads, expensive airfares (unless you book ahead), insufficient accommodation and variable food. Cape York Sustainable Futures (Cockatoo member) is addressing these issues.
If you want conventional tourism, it’s best to stick to Port Douglas, Cairns, Noosa and the like. But if you want sweeping scenery, abundant wildlife, friendly people in a remote setting, then put this place on your Bucket List.
Article by Rod Brown
CEO, Cockatoo Network
Canberra A.C.T. Australia
July 04 2011
