Cooktown
Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia.
Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repairs in 1770. Both the town and Mount Cook which rises up behind the town were named after James Cook.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Cooktown
10 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01Endeavour River National Park
Endeavour River National Park is a national park in Queensland, Australia, gazetted to protect and preserve some of the natural and cultural resources in and around the mouth of the Endeavour River, immediately north of the small town of Cooktown. The park is located 1,561 kilometres northwest of Brisbane.
5.1 km · national park in Australia · Wikipedia - 02Mount Cook National Park
Mount Cook National Park is a protected area in the locality of Cooktown, in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia.
2.4 km · national park in Australia · Wikipedia - 03Grassy Hill Light
Grassy Hill Light, also known as Cooktown Light, is an active lighthouse located on Grassy Hill above Cooktown, Queensland, Australia, on the south side of the entrance to Endeavour River.
1.3 km · lighthouse in Queensland, Australia · Wikipedia - 04Old Cooktown Hospital
Old Cooktown Hospital is a heritage-listed former public hospital and now Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall at May Street, Cooktown, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built from 1879 to c. 1881 by Alfred Doorey & Son.
900 m · historic site in Queensland, Australia · Wikipedia - 05James Cook Historical Museum
Cooktown Museum is a heritage-listed former convent and school and now museum at Furneaux Street, Cooktown, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built from 1888 to 1889 Hobbs & Carter.
400 m · historic site in Queensland, Australia · Wikipedia - 06Cook Shire Hall
Cook Shire Hall is a heritage-listed community hall at Helen Street, Cooktown, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1907.
300 m · Heritage listed building in Queensland, Australia · Wikipedia - 07Gallop Botanic Reserve
Gallop Botanic Reserve, incorporating Cooktown Botanic Gardens, is a heritage-listed botanic garden at Finch Bay Road, Cooktown, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1878 to 1980s.
800 m · park in Cooktown, also known as Queens Park · Wikipedia - 08Cook Shire Council Chambers
Cook Shire Council Chambers is a heritage-listed former town hall and now museum at 121 Charlotte Street, Cooktown, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1876 to 1877 by Henry J Meldrum and John Sullivan.
800 m · historic site in Queensland, Australia · Wikipedia - 09Cooks Monument and Reserve
Cooks Monument and Reserve is a heritage-listed memorial at Charlotte Street, Cooktown, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was designed in the office of the Queensland Colonial Architect and built by Hobbs and Carter in 1887.
1 km · historic site in Queensland, Australia · Wikipedia - 10Cooktown Cemetery
Cooktown Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery at Charlotte Street, Cooktown, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1874 to 1920.
1.3 km · heritage-listed cemetery in Queensland, Australia · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Getting to Cooktown
- Airports
- Cairns (CNS), 165 km
- Cairns → Cooktown171 km · quickest by road, 5h 32m · A$39–50
- Port Moresby → CooktownTrain, bus, flight, ferry and road, side by side
- Maroochydore → Cooktown1486 km · quickest by road, 31h 5m · A$230–305
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Cooktown
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Cooktown. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Go nextIt's 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.
From Wikivoyage: Cooktown, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-03.
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If you know how people move in Cooktown – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Cooktown
- Shire of Cooklocal government area of Queensland, Australia500 m