EXPLORE: CAPE YORK, QLD

There are trips you want to do, and trips you have to do. The Cape York Peninsula is a perfect example of the latter.

THE CAPE York Peninsula is a wilderness that defies imagination. It’s not all about wrecking the fourbie by dropping it off the Gunshot Creek bank, or being the first to ‘conquer’ the Telly Track after the Wet. No, the Cape is more than that. It has some of the best river and sea fishing, amazing photo opportunities, the best bird watching, the largest tract of lowland rainforest in Australia and the longest parabolic sand dunes in the world. The Jardine River is the largest perennial stream in Queensland, while just to the north the Kennedy-escape Rivers Aggregation has the largest mangrove tidal forests in the Sunshine State. The Jardine National Park is the wettest place in Australia, having more streams born from bountiful springs than anywhere else in the country.

This is the region that also has the world’s only ‘Wet Desert’, as the Jardine Brothers named it during their epic cattle drove from Rockhampton to Somerset, via the west coast, in 1864. The wet season caught up to them on the Mitchell River, where they fought off hostile natives protecting their country. Past the Wenlock River they struck sandy heartland country and heavy rain, yet 10 minutes after a downpour there was not enough to drink for the stock, hence they named it the Wet Desert. Yet the historical significance isn’t found in the Heathland Reserve name – which is a common scrub environment found on the east coast and across to Western Australia.

While three weeks is enough for anyone living north of Townsville to have a great time on the Cape, travellers residing in Melbourne, or farther afield, need to add at least a week or more to cover the extra travel time to Mareeba or Cooktown to stock up, check the vehicle, and have a break for a day. Let’s have a closer look at what this region has to offer.