5th June 2026: Nic’s 76th birthday! We headed into town to the Cooktown History museum where we read all about Cooktown starting with the Gold rush in the 1870’s, including from an indigenous perspective. Two elderly women volunteers chatted with me about what Cooktown was like 45 years ago when I was there and filled me in on some people I knew then. We then visited Des Hill at his surgery. He was a resident at Cairns Base Hospital when I was there as a registrar in 1981. He has been a GP in Cooktown since 1983 but sold his practice last week and he is to work in his old surgery until the end of the year. He turns 70 in September.

We then went in search of the old Cooktown Hospital where I used to work. It was sold to Jehovah’s Witnesses after been saved from demolition and moved to a new site in town. We were able to go inside the building via an unlocked back door. I found it unrecognisable. We went upstairs where there was a photographic record of the hospital being moved.

We then went to the restaurant at the Botanic Gardens for lunch and coffee. We then went to the Cooktown museum for more Cooktown history. We went back to the van for a cup of tea then walked to the restaurant Seagren’s 2km away in town. We had baby barramundi filled with garlic prawns followed by panacotta and passion fruit sauce, with a shared bottle of Church Hill Grenache, kept in the fridge like all red wines at the rest! We walked back to our van after a good day!

Old Cooktown Hospital in new location
Story of sale of the building 
Anchor from the Endeavour found in 1971 on Endeavour reed out of Vairns
Cooktown Museum in Old Sisters of Mercy Convent
Our camping site Peninsula Caravan park
Dinner at Seagren’s








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