[citation needed] Guugu Yimithirr (also known as Koko Yindjir, Gugu Yimidhirr, Guguyimidjir) is an Australian Aboriginal language of Hope Vale and the Cooktown area.

[12] The site of modern Cooktown was the meeting place of two vastly different cultures when, in June 1770, the local Aboriginal Guugu Yimithirr tribe cautiously watched the crippled sailing ship – His Majesty's Bark Endeavour – limp up the coast seeking a safe harbour after sustaining serious damage to its wooden hull on the Endeavour Reef, south of Cooktown.

The British crew spent seven weeks on the site of present-day Cooktown, repairing their ship, replenishing food and water supplies, and caring for their sick.

[citation needed] After some weeks, Joseph Banks met and spoke with the local people, recording about 50 Guugu Yimithirr words, including the name of the intriguing animal the natives called gangurru (which he transcribed as "Kangaru").

[citation needed] "The visit on the 19th of July 1770 ended in a skirmish after Cook refused to share the turtles he kept on the Endeavour with the local inhabitants.

[14] Cook named the river the "Endeavour" after his ship, and, as they sailed north, he hoisted the flag known as the "Queen Anne Jack" and claimed possession of the whole eastern coast of Australia for Britain.

[16] The next recorded European expedition to the area was in 1819, when Captain Phillip Parker King on board HMS Mermaid, visited the Endeavour River during his surveying voyage around Australia.

They camped for two weeks at the mouth of the river in order to construct a new dinghy, and had mostly friendly interactions with the local Aboriginal people until an argument occurred over the possession of clothes.

A botanist, Allan Cunningham, accompanied King on this journey and collected numerous botanical specimens for the British Museum and Kew Gardens.

He established that Captain Cook was incorrect in the interpretation of the word kangaroo, with King noting that menuah was the local name for the large macropod.

[19] The Queensland government responded quickly to Mulligan's reports, and dispatched Archibald Campbell MacMillan to lead a party in establishing a port on the Endeavour River and a road from there to the goldfields.

[21] A local Aboriginal man who took a surveying flag while the area was being initially charted was shot at with a barrage of gunfire from both colonists aboard the Leichhardt and from Native Police under the command of Robert Arthur Johnstone.

[23][24] The Palmer River Goldfields and its centre, Maytown grew quickly, the recorded output of gold from 1873 to 1890 was over half a million ounces (more than 15,500 kg).

The visit went well, General Wong Yung Ho was pleased with what they had found, and cheers were exchanged between the Commission members and local residents as they left on 7 August 1887.

[citation needed] In spite of this, the train proved to be a lifeline for the Peninsula people connecting the hinterland to Cooktown, from where one could catch a boat to Cairns and other southern ports.

Much work was done in the early stages – with wells sunk, water reticulated, garden beds enclosed, stone-lined paths, stone-pitched pools and footbridges made, and lawns, trees and shrubs planted.

[citation needed] In 1886, Lutheran missionaries came to Cooktown to establish a secure place for the Aboriginal people who were living in abominable conditions on the edge of the town.

[citation needed] In February 1908, a new St Mary's Catholic Church was opened and dedicated by Bishop Murray to replace the one destroyed in the cyclone.

The senior missionary, Pastor Schwartz (known as Muni to the local people), was arrested and placed in internment, suspected of being an enemy sympathiser.

The busy airfield played a key role in the crucial Battle of the Coral Sea when Japanese expansion towards the Australian mainland was finally halted.

[citation needed] With the closure of the rail link to Laura in 1961 and the "Peninsula Development Road" opened up to the south, the population declined to just a few hundred people before it gradually began to climb again.

[citation needed] Since then, Cooktown and the Endeavour River Valley area have become a major attraction to biologists and illustrators of plants and animals.

Vera Scarth-Johnson (1912–1999), spent almost thirty years (1972 to 1999) illustrating the flowering plants of the region and then gave her collection to the people of Cooktown.

[36] In 2015 the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns opened the Holy Spirit College as a secondary school for disengaged and marginalised young people.

[citation needed] There is an active Aboriginal Community Centre on the main street called Gungarde (from the original Guugu Yimithirr name for the region).

[61] They celebrate the first act of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, based on the incident recounted above, when a Guugu Yimithirr elder (the "little old man") stepped in after some of his men had violated custom by taking green turtles from the river and not sharing with the local people, presenting Cook with a broken-tipped spear as a peace offering and thus preventing possible bloodshed.

[62] Cooktown was to have held an "Expo 2020" festival to mark 250 years since the arrival of Cook, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, the event was postponed[62] until 2021.

[64] Cooktown is of particular interest to botanists since the time of James Cook's visit when extensive collections and illustrations were made of local plants.

The Milbi ('Story') Wall tells the story of Cooktown and the Endeavour River from the perspective of the Aboriginal people in tiles, and is an outstanding monument to reconciliation.

[67] Extreme temperatures have ranged from 43.9 °C (111.0 °F) on 27 November 2018 to 4.4 °C (39.9 °F) on 14 July 1958; combining data from the three weather stations in Cooktown: at the Post Office (1874–1987), at the Mission Strip (1942–2018) and the Airport (open since 2000).