Important: The license upgrade to CC by-sa 3.0 has been approved.
Please consider all contributions from this point forward to be made under that license.

From Wikitravel

Cooktown is in Cook Shire in tropical north Queensland. In 1770, Captain James Cook spent 48 days here on the banks of the Endeavour River repairing his ship Endeavour, after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef. A century later, in 1873, it became the port for the Palmer River Goldfields. Today it is billed as the gateway to the wilderness. It offers Mountains, Outback terrain, as well as some of the top scuba diving around.

[edit] Get in

• Is 2,047 km on North Coastal Road or 2,137 km via Peninsula Road north of Brisbane, the State Capital.

• Is just over 300 km north, by road, from Cairns. The drive to Cooktown from Cairns is easy, and on sealed roads. The driving challenges begin north of here.

[edit] Get around

[edit][add listing] See

• Discovery Festival, Every June, where Cooktown celebrates Cook's landing with a re-enactment.

• James Cook Museum, documents Cook's voyages, Aboriginal and natural history, the gold rush and the legacy of the Chinese miners. The museum is housed in a former convent school that was built in 1888 and run by Irish nuns.

• Grassy Hill, Close to town, provides a view that Captain Cook could have seen.

• Remains of blacksmith shop and chinese well (Turn off Bichtuman onto Oacky Creek Rd about 20km along) at the oldest mango trees in oz.

[edit][add listing] Do

• Explore the beaches, bush and mountains on the 'Walking tracks

[edit][add listing] Buy

[edit][add listing] Eat

[edit][add listing] Drink

[edit][add listing] Sleep

[edit] Get out

Take Cackey Creek Rd and follow the road to the oldest mango trees in Australia, planted between Cackey Creek and Lions Creek. Over 30 tree in a line along the road about 20km off bitumen. amazing!!!

To continue further north requires planning. Its possible to go into the Cape Melville National Park along tracks, with a 4wd, or return to the Peninsula Developmental Road at Lakefield, to continue north to Weipa. The road is sealed and unsealed, but should be accessible to 2wd vehicles. Its essential to check road conditions, and to accept that roads can be closed quickly be rising water at creek crossings.

This article is an outline and needs more content. It has a template, but there is not enough information present. Please plunge forward and help it grow!