Local Scenic Roads...

The Captain Cook Highway

The Captain Cook Highway was named in 1933 and was finished in 1984, after blockades and protests. It is wedged between towering Mountains and the Coral Sea, providing views of the golden beaches of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Highway begins in Cairns and ends in Cooktown. The highway passes through 30,000 hectares of the Daintree National Park, including Rainforest and inaccessible mountains, though the new road does not traverse more than 8 kms of fringing Rainforest.

This road is conventional from the Daintree River Ferry up until Cape Tribulation. Up to Cow Bay, the road is now fully sealed and can be narrow in places as it twists through dense Rainforest and around spurs of the Alexandra range. From Cape Tribulation to Cooktown the road is for 4WD's only and not suited to conventional vehicles. The 15 kms section to Bloomfield is poor Eucalypt and Acacia Scrub and was used for grazing for years.

Creeks and Rivers that are tidal have to be crossed according to the tides during the wet season. This is a feat and adds as a highlight to the trip. A lot of them have had culverts placed across them for easier access, though in times of extreme wet weather these creeks do still go under and can't be crossed.

The Development Road

The Mulligan Highway is now designed in 2 parts, the Peninsula Road and the Cooktown Development Road. On road maps this road is longer (326 kms) from Cairns to Cooktown, compared with the Captain Cook Highway (235 kms). The 105 kms from Mareeba to Cooktown road is bitumen and the remaining 163 kms is gravel, being dusty, rough and corrugated.

The Palmer River Roadhouse has relics from the old Palmer Goldfields. Then the gold was so plentiful it glittered on every sandbank in every rocky bar for over 70 kms. At this time the Roadhouse was a hive of activity. Gold can still be found along the Palmer River, but not as easily as in the 1920's.

After the Normandy River, to the north is a chain of lagoons in which crayfish abound. This is on Kings Plains Station. There is said to be a huge bed of alluvial tin beneath here, where prize Brahman Cattle now graze.

The Development Road will take you through quite a few towns all with a lot of history and old style houses and buildings. Though this road is not nearly as picturesque as the Coastal Road, it does have other things to see and do.

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