Cape Tribulation is a headland and coastal

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

in the

Shire of Douglas The Shire of Douglas is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland. It is located on the coast north of the city of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mossman, Queensland, Mos ...

in northern

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. In the , Cape Tribulation had a population of 123 people.

Geography

The locality is north of

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

. It is within the

Daintree National Park The Daintree National Park is located in Far North Queensland, Australia, northwest of Brisbane and northwest of Cairns. It was founded in 1981 and is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland. In 1988, it became a World Heritage Site. The park co ...

and the

Wet Tropics The Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site consists of approximately 8,940 km2 of Australian wet tropical forests growing along the north-east Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range. The Wet Tropics of Queensland meets all f ...

World Heritage World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

area. It is within the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

(between 2008 and 2013, it was within the

Cairns Region The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. ...

). Cape Tribulation Bloomfield Road enters the locality from the south ( Thornton Beach) and exits to the north ( Bloomfield). The locality contains a small number of bed and breakfast eco lodges, tourism resorts and backpacker hostels. A few very rare plants can be found on Cape Tribulation.

History

Kuku Yalanji The Kuku Yalanji, also known as Gugu-Yalanji, Kuku Yalandji or Kokojelandji, are an Aboriginal Australian people originating from the rainforest regions of Far North Queensland. Language The traditional language of the people is Guugu Yaland ...

'' (also known as ''Gugu Yalanji'', ''Kuku Yalaja'', and ''Kuku Yelandji'') is an

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

of the Mossman and Daintree areas of

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its Tropical North Queensland, trop ...

. The language region includes areas within the local government area of

and

Shire of Cook The Shire of Cook (The Shire) is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. The Shire covers most of the eastern and central parts of Cape York Peninsula, the most northerly section of the Australian mainland. It covers an area ...

, particularly the localities of Mossman, Daintree,

Bloomfield River The Bloomfield River is a river in the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland, Australia, noted for its Bloomfield River cod fish species, found only in the river. Course and features The river rises in the Great Dividing Range below Zig Zag and ...

, China Camp, Maytown,

Palmer Palmer may refer to: People and fictional characters * Palmer (pilgrim), a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land * Palmer (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Palmer (surname), including a list of people and f ...

, Cape Tribulation and

Wujal Wujal Wujal Wujal, sometimes spelt Wudjil Wudjil, is a rural town and locality in the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire, Queensland, Australia. It is an Aboriginal community. In the , the locality of Wujal Wujal had a population of 276 people. The comm ...

. '' Yalanji'' (also known as ''Kuku Yalanji'', ''Kuku Yalaja'', ''Kuku Yelandji'', and ''Gugu Yalanji)'' is an

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...

. The traditional language region is

Mossman River The Mossman River is a river in lower Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. Geography The headwaters of the river rise under Devils Thumb on the Mount Carbine Tableland in the Great Dividing Range. The river flows through a deeply in ...

in the south to the

Annan River The Annan River ( Kuku Nyungkal: ''Yuku Baja'') is a river in the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland, Australia. Course and features The river rises in the Yorkey Range below Mount Romeo near , north-northwest of . The river flows generally ...

in the north, bordered by the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

in the east and extending inland to west of Mount Mulgrave. This includes the local government boundaries of the

, the

and the

Aboriginal Shire of Wujal Wujal The Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is managed as a Deed of Grant in Trust under the ''Local Government (Community Government Areas) Act 2004''. In the , the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal S ...

and the towns and localities of

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the '' Endeavour'', for ...

, Mossman, Daintree, Cape Tribulation and

. It includes the head of the

Palmer River The Palmer River is a river in Far North Queensland, Australia. The area surrounding the river was the site of a gold rush in the late 19th century which started in 1873. Course and features The headwaters of the Palmer River rise in the Suss ...

, the

, China Camp, Maytown, and Palmerville. Cape Tribulation was named by British

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...

Lieutenant

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

on 10 June 1770 (log date) after his ship scraped a reef north east of the cape, whilst passing over it, at 6pm. Cook steered away from the coast into deeper water but at 10.30pm the ship ran aground, on what is now named

Endeavour Reef Endeavour Reef is a coral reef within the Great Barrier Reef. It is within the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. On 11 June 1770, the HM Bark ''Endeavour'' under the command of Lieutenant James Cook struck the reef and ran agr ...

. The ship stuck fast and was badly damaged, desperate measures being needed to prevent it foundering until it was refloated the next day. Cook recorded "...the north point as namedCape

Tribulation In Christian eschatology, the Great Tribulation () is a period mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse as a sign that would occur in the time of the end. At , "the Great Tribulation" () is used to indicate the period spoken of by Jesus. u ...

because "''here begun all our troubles''". In the 1930s some European

settlers A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

started arriving in Cape Tribulation, but they found the rainforest environment an extremely challenging one within which to establish a settlement. Various ventures such as fruit and vegetable farming, fishing, cattle, and timber cutting were started and abandoned over the years, and having weekly barges as the only transport in and out was another limitation. In the 1960s a rough track was

bulldozed A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large tractor equipped with a metal blade at the front for pushing material (soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock) during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, though s ...

and the first vehicle access created, although the road remained a

four-wheel drive A four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, is a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case pr ...

track until the early 1990s. In 2002, the road was finally sealed all the way to Cape Tribulation and in early 2011 the last bridge was built creating year round all weather access to Cape Tribulation for the first time. In 1983, Cape Tribulation became widely known because of the

blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are ...

on the Bloomfield Track. Local government had decided to bulldoze a road through the rainforest north of Cape Tribulation to complete the coastal road to

. Protesters tried to stop the bulldozers and occupied trees to prevent their destruction. While wild scenes with a large police and media presence ensued at the southern end, the road was completed in three short weeks as the road builders approached from northern end and flanked the protestors. By now the state and federal governments had started to realise the value of this ancient rainforest and despite protests from the local council the forests surrounding Cape Tribulation were given World Heritage Listing in 1988.

Demographics

In the , Cape Tribulation had a population of 118 people. In the , Cape Tribulation had a population of 123 people.

Education

There are no schools in Cape Tribulation. The nearest government primary schools are Bloomfield River State School in neighbouring Bloomfield to the north and Alexandra Bay State School in Diwan to the south. There are no government secondary schools nearby; the options are

distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

and boarding school..

Climate

The average annual rainfall for Cape Tribulation is 3,900 mm.

Attractions

There are a number of lookouts in the locality, including: * Mount Sorrow Ridge Trail Lookout () * Kulki Boardwalk Lookout () * Marrja Boardwalk Lookout ()

References

External links

Movies of Cape Tribulation and cassowaries
{{1stVoyageCookAus Populated places in Far North Queensland

Localities in Queensland Shire of Douglas Landforms of Far North Queensland Coastline of Queensland Tourist attractions in Far North Queensland