Australia 2004, part 4: Cooktown

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Endeavour River from Grassy Hill, Cooktown

Cooktown marks the point where Captain Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, in June 1770, thus becoming Australia’s first non-indigenous, though temporary, settlement. The town itself was founded in 1873 as a supply port for the goldfields along the Palmer River, and at its peak it had a population of over 30,000. The guidebook we used in 2004 gave the population as 1410: interestingly, according to Wikipedia, the 2016 census puts it at 2631. It’s not very big anyway!

After our drive along the Bloomfield Track, we arrived in Cooktown for a three night stay in Milkwood Lodge Cabins. This was one of the places John had phoned in advance to check accessibility for a person in plaster to the knee, and the owners had kindly moved our booking to a cabin with no steps to the entrance. They couldn’t have been more helpful, and I see they are still in business getting good reviews on Trip Advisor, so I feel confident recommending them. The only downside is that a bushturkey seemed to think he had visiting rights, and when not pushing his way inside could be heard scrabbling about on the roof! But we were quite fond of him.

Brushturkey
Milkwood Lodge

On our first day we explored the town, first of all driving to the lookout on Grassy Hill, with its 19th century iron lighthouse, from where we got a good overview.

Cooktown from Grassy Hill
Grassy Hill lighthouse

Cooktown’s main street is Charlotte Street which has many historic buildings along it. We drove up and down so that I could look at it, then John returned on foot to take photographs while I sat on this bench resting my leg. I look quite happy, but I do remember shedding a small tear at this point because wandering round historic buildings is what I love doing.

Endeavour River bench
Charlotte Street
Ferrari Estates Building
Cooktown Hotel (1875)
Bank (1886)
Cooktown Post Office
Jackey Jackey
West Coast Hotel (1874)
Seagren’s Inn (1880)

There is, of course, a statue to the eponymous Captain Cook, and a graveyard where the most interesting memorial was to Mrs Watson “heroine of Lizard Island tragedy of 1881” and her infant son, Ferrier.

Captain Cook’s statue
Captain Cook’s statue
Mrs Watson’s grave
Mrs Watson’s grave
Mary Watson's Monument (2010)
Heritage branch staff, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Mrs Watson also has a memorial in town, on which she is given a name – Mary. For some reason, we don’t have a photograph of it, so above is the Wikimedia image (clicking on the image takes you to the attribution page). We do have a picture of one of the plaques, which you can see below – “last entry” refers to a journal she kept of her ordeal.

It’s a tragic story: the monument was erected in 1886 to honour this young woman, who died, along with her infant son and her Chinese employee Ah Sam, from thirst and exposure after a conflict with a group of indigenous people in October 1881. I can’t do the story justice in this short post: it’s well worth reading the Wikipedia entry if you are interested. Important points I took away from the article are that this is the only known public monument to an individual woman (other than a head of state) in Queensland; and the way it illustrates the injustices which accompanied early European settlement, and the lack of communication and understanding between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. That the memorial does not mention Ah Sam is another illustration of the racist attitudes of the time.

On our second day we explored the area around the town, visiting Isabella Falls, Endeavour River Falls, Barretts Lagoon, and Archer Point.

Ford at Isabella Falls
Ford at Isabella Falls
Isabella Falls
Near Endeavour River Falls
Endeavour River Falls
Barretts Lagoon
Barretts Lagoon
Archer Point
Archer Point
Archer Point
Archer Point

I wasn’t able to do very much at any of these places except look, but at least we weren’t inhibited from enjoying nice cafes during our stay – often with a view and a good beer.

Cook’s Landing Kiosk
Sovereign Resort Cafe

It was now a week since my accident and I hadn’t yet told anyone at home, so on our last night in Cooktown I made the dreaded phone calls to my parents and my closest colleague. All were sympathetic, of course, so having got that out of the way, we packed up to head back to Cairns and (hopefully) to enjoy the last few days of our Australian adventure.

Australia, Queensland , ,

54 Comments »

  1. Poor Mrs Watson. History is full of stories, too many of which aren’t told…especially when they involve women and children! Looks like you made the best of things despite the injury.

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  3. A bush turkey looks less scary than a regular turkey (which scare the crap out of me), but I still wouldn’t particularly want one in my room! I think all those old mining towns in Australia are just adorable, and I wish we’d had time to explore some. It sounds as though it has quite a depressing history though!

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  4. Hi Anabel – it sounds so interesting … and I know you, like me, appreciate the lack of thought about the indigenous populations … I learnt so much when I was in Canada – picked up on my own account – but read up and understand more. I’m older now and definitely should have understood more when I was in South Africa. Thanks for letting us know about Cookstown – pity you couldn’t do as much exploring as you’d have like.

    Love the turkey – rather have him … than the wretched seagulls! take care – Hilary

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  5. I’m catching up after being away for a week without reception so I’m wondering what happened to you. I’ll need to go back a couple of posts. We are yet to visit as far north as Cooktown but it’s on our list. I’m not sure that the monument to Mary is the only one to a woman in Queensland. I can think of a couple nearby to us.

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    • Oh right, I got my info from that count of all knowledge Wikipedia! It does specify “individual” women, so maybe it has a very narrow definition. We are very careful on our guided walks when we say we have 4 statues of “named” women because there are lots of generic female figures. Or maybe Wiki is just wrong …

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      • Who knows what criteria they’ve used. One here that comes immediately to mind is for Sister Elizabeth Kenny. She was a nurse who, in the early 1900s, developed a new method for treating polio. Her methods became the foundations of what we know now as Physiotherapy. Anyway, as long as the remarkable women of our past are recognised, it doesn’t really matter how.

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          • Well worth amending the Wiki entries – I went on a course a year ago on how to do it, being run by an organisation working hard to ensure that women and persons of colour are more accurately represented on Wiki. Amending and adding entries much easier than I thought

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            • Yes, I’ve been to a couple of workshops to add entries about women, so I’ve written a grand total of two articles and have never done any more! It’s a nice idea in theory but not something I’ve made time for since. I’ve done a few small updates but I don’t think I know enough about this topic to tackle it. One thing the workshops did give me was a respect for Wikipedia which is often dismissed as unreliable, but is actually much more rigorously controlled than I had thought. It’s a great starting point for anything, as long as you don’t use it as the only source.

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  7. I’ve not long come back from my first trip up to far north Queensland (I’m on the Sunshine Coast so can travel within the state but not outside it) and your posts over the past few weeks have brought back memories. We didn’t get up to Cooktown or over the mountain, but are planning a road trip to do exactly that. Interestingly, I just finished reading a novel set in Cooktown and googled the Lizard Island tragedy…different times, hey…

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  8. Fascinating post and some amazing photos. It’s a completely different world down there isn’t it? Everything seems new and so different. Cooktown looks interesting as it has a lot more history than most Aussie towns.

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  9. Hi, Anabel – What a timely post. Since a chunk of time has been taken out of everyone’s travels plans, Richard and I have just been updating our travel bucket list. Australia was definitely on our list but your post helped push it higher and to flesh out more details for us.
    Thanks for the vicarious tour!

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  11. This looks like such a great trip and I love the photos especially that Turkey. I am glad that the place accommodated you. The waterfall looks like it was right in the middle of the road. It is just lush and green

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  12. That looks a really nice area and town. Very lush and green. I loved the city parks over there as practically every day you saw spectacular birds, insects, reptiles, and furry creatures you’d never seen before. It was amazing. I’ve been watching Aussie Gold Hunters on TV here last few months
    if you want go back to the bush vicariously. One of the few countries where riches still lie on the surface of the earth, waiting to be picked up.

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  14. So good to read this post. My nephew and his family are up there at the moment on a three-year teaching stint and, not having been there myself, it gives me an idea of what the place is like.

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  16. I like the Pickled Gecko sign. I hope the gecko was pickled in a pleasant stupor, not to be eaten.

    Mary’s tale is quite sad, and also the Chinese gentlemen. So much unpleasantness arises from cultural clashes.

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  18. Yes, I can see the strain in your face in some of those photos.

    I have a feeling that when the Coast programme decided to do Australia, they included a visit to Cookstown, as the story of that lady was vaguely familiar. Coast Australia was one of their best series. Wonder if it’s hiding in the BBC iPlayer somewhere?

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  20. I was with you in spirit as I read this as we made a brief visit to Cooktown on our big trip to Oz in 2003 (I think). Our bookings were all made in advance by the parents of an Australian ex-pat and they were all pretty good, except the one in Cairns which was a bit of a disaster as they only had self-service food which left a lot to be desired. I love tales about people, they make a place come to life and your story of Mary Watson is a perfect example. I can forget about the area, the photos and the terrain and just think of that poor woman dying of thirst. Maybe it’s my nationality – the Irish love a good death!!

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  21. The inscription on Mary Watson’s memorial brought a lump to my throat before I read the Wikipedia entry. Such a sad story but a beautiful monument to remember Mary and her baby 😦 The ford at Isabelle Falls looks interesting and I like the Ferrari estates building and the Grassy Hill lighthouse. You look much happier in the bottom shot than you do in the one on the bench 🙂

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