Bart Bear's Blog

This little lighthouse is on Grassy Hill, a high hill near the entrance to Cooktown harbour. It usually looks dirty like this because it gets coated by red dust from the road. It has been marking the entrance to Cooktown since 1885. It is a bit different to most lighthouses because it has a timber frame and corrugated iron walls. The Barrier Reef is close to shore here and there are lots of reefs close in to the shore. My hero, Captain Cook, hit one way back in 1770. He had to beach his boat, the "Endeavour" on the bank of the river and that's how Cooktown and the Endeavour River got their names. There is a rock monument near the lighthouse that commemorates Cook's trips up Grassy Hill to try and see a way through the reefs. Half-way up the hill there is a statue of a kangaroo, at the spot where kangaroos first got their European name. The story is that Cook saw this strange critter and asked the local aboriginals what it was. They said "kangaroo". Cook didn't know that that meant "What did you say?" in the local language so he called the critter kangaroo. No wonder kangaroos get stroppy sometimes.

Labels: Barrier Reef, Captain Cook, lighthouse, Queensland