THE DAINTREE BLOCKADE 30 YEARS ON – THE START OF THE ROAD TO WORLD HERITAGE AND THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

DAINTREE FRONTLINE – PIC COURTESY RUSSEL FRANCIS

In early December 1983 far north Queensland was the lead story on the news just about every night. The Douglas Shire Council, with the support of the Queensland Government, began to push a road through pristine rainforest in the Daintree, north of Cairns.

The road had been proposed a number of times over three decades, but the sudden move to begin construction caught many by surprise and set off almost a year of protest in the Daintree rainforest. At its peak, there were confrontations between police and protestors, environmentalists maintaining vigils high up in the trees or buried up to their necks in soil, trying to block bulldozers.

This weekend, the blockade will be remembered at a 30th anniversary event at Ferntree Rainforest Lodge and many of the original protestors will be there.

While it ultimately failed to prevent the construction of the road, the blockade gave the Daintree a national, even an international profile that gave birth to the now lucrative tourism industry locals couldn’t begin to imagine back then. And it eventually led to the region getting a world heritage listing.

LISTEN to the story of the Daintree blockade here

 

THE JAMES COOK LANDING RE-ENACTMENT 2013 – COOKTOWN FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND

RE-ENACTMENT CAST TAKE A BOW

n June of 1770, the British vessel HMS Endeavour was sailing along the far north Queensland coast. Captain James Cook and his crew had travelled far since leaving England in August 1768. Their luck was not with them this day and the Endeavour struck a reef north of Cape Tribulation. Many place names in the area derive from this story: Mount Sorrow, Endeavour Reef, and Cape Tribulation.

Cook and his crew nursed the Endeavour up the coast to an inviting river mouth and beached the ship at what is now Cooktown. Repairs were made, and then they waited for favourable weather in which to set sail for England. In all, the Englishmen stayed almost seven weeks at Cooktown. The local indigenous people, the Guugu Yimithirr, had seen them coming and kept their distance, but they eventually made contact with these strange, pale visitors. There was curiosity on both sides of the encounter, conflict, and the first act of reconciliation between indigenous Australians and Europeans. And it’s the first time the word “kangaroo” entered the English language.Botanist Joseph Banks recorded it in his diary, having asked the name of a local creature that baffled the Englishmen. Gangurru is the Guugu Yimithirr word for “grey kangaroo”.

Every June since 1960, on the Queen’s Birthday weekend, the people of Cooktown re-enact the events of 1770. The Queen saw it herself in 1970, during the Cook bicentennial. The event is the centre-piece of the annual Cooktown Discovery Festival http://www.cooktowndiscoveryfestival.com.au/

The Cook landing re-enactment has changed considerably in its 54 years. It’s a faithful telling of Cook’s own account, recorded in his journals, and has more recently included an indigenous perspective, drawn from Guugu Yimithirr oral history. The result is an engaging and informative spectacle, complete with costumes, musket fire and an enormous kangaroo. And it takes place right where the events depicted really occured, 243 years ago.

More about Cooktown http://www.tourismcapeyork.com/

Read about the James Cook Museum in Cooktown http://www.nationaltrust.org.au/qld/james-cook-museum

LISTEN Click on the red arrow to hear highlights of the 54th re-enactment of the Cook landing

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