Cape Tribulation is a headland and coastal locality in the

Shire of Douglas The Shire of Douglas is a local government area in Far North Queensland. It is located on the coast north of the city of Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mossman, covers an area of , and existed as a local government entity fro ...

in northern

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

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

Geography

The locality is north of Cairns. It is within the

Daintree National Park The Daintree rainforest is a national park 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 pa ...

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 A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

area. It is within the local government area of

(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 ...

). 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'' (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 northern part has been ...

. 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 are ...

, particularly the localities of Mossman, Daintree,

Bloomfield River The Bloomfield River is a river located 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 Zi ...

, China Camp, Maytown, Palmer, Cape Tribulation and Wujal Wujal. '' 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 Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf ...

. The traditional language region is Mossman River in the south to the Annan River in the north, bordered by the

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

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''. Geography It is on the east coast of ...

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 repai ...

, Mossman, Daintree, Cape Tribulation and Wujal Wujal. It includes the head of the

Palmer River The Palmer River is a river located 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

, 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 primar ...

Lieutenant James Cook 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. The reef is about long and runs in an east–west direction. The center of the reef is located at . It is about ...

. 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 named As, AS, A. S., A/S or similar may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * A. S. Byatt (born 1936), English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer * "As" (song), by Stevie Wonder * , a Spanish sports newspaper * , an academic male voice ...

Cape

Tribulation In Christian eschatology, the Great Tribulation ( grc, θλῖψις μεγάλη, thlîpsis megálē) is a period mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse as a sign that would occur in the time of the end. At Revelation 7:14, "the Great Tri ...

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

settlers A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settl ...

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

four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to 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 ca ...

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.

Protests

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 ar ...

on the

Bloomfield Track The Bloomfield Track, which is also known as the Coast Road or officially, the Cape Tribulation-Bloomfield Road, is a controversial four-wheel-drive road in Far North Queensland, Australia. The road's construction through untouched wilderness wa ...

. 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.

Climate

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

References

External links

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