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Cooktown - A glimpse into Australia's early history


At the height of its glory, buildings like this - and the gold mined in the hinterland behind Cooktown -- made this now-sleepy backwater a major Queensland centre.
When Captain Cook first discovered Australia, he made an involuntary landfall when his ship was badly damaged, giving the place his name. Then gold was discovered in the hinterland. Miners flooded in from Europe and from the area around Canton, harassed by tribes of cannibal aborigines, but determined to get the gold at all costs. Cooktown grew into a major town to rival Brisbane - and then faded as the gold ran out, and the population dropped accordingly. During WWII Cooktown became important again - as the United States Airforce forward base and flying field against the Japanese. But with the river silted up and the gold gone, and with the road access difficult because of the national park that forbids bitumen, Cooktown has again become a fascinating sleepy hollow mainly accessible by sea. The article takes the reader to this fascinating corner of Queensland history.

Cooktown had such an important Chinese community that the Emperor appointed a consul to look after his subjects.

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