Laura
Located on Kokowarra country, 224 kilometres northwest of Cairns and 104 kilometres west of Cooktown on the Peninsula Developmental Road in the Cook Shire, the township of Laura is the centre for the heritage-listed Quinkan Country. The surrounding area contains one of the world's largest collections of prehistoric rock art galleries on the escarpments, where the local people took shelter during the wet season each year.
The town takes its name from the nearby Laura River, named after his wife by surveyor Archibald Campbell Macmillan as he established a road from the Endeavour River to the newly discovered Palmer goldfield in November 1873. James Earl brought cattle into the area the following year.
Travellers passing between Cooktown and the Palmer crossed the Laura River around the site where a Native Mounted Police camp was established to protect them from attacks from the local Aboriginal clans.
Modern-day Laura developed after the Cooktown railway line to the Palmer reached the river in 1888. The bridge over the river opened in 1891, but a change of government in Brisbane saw work on the line abandoned after a single train crossed the bridge. Still, while Laura became the line's terminus, in its early days as many as twenty thousand passengers used it each year and it continued to operate until 1961.
The Quinkan rock art galleries were reported by airline pilot Percy Trezise, who identified likely sites from the air and later walked in to investigate them. Visitors can book guided tours to Mushroom Rock, Giant Horse Gallery and the Quinkan galleries through the Quinkan & Regional Cultural Centre on the town's southern entrance. The centre also provides information on the area's history and indigenous culture.
Apart from tourism associated with the rock art galleries and the biennial three-day Laura Quinkan Dance Festival, the local economy is based around grazing on native vegetation.
Links:
Cooktown to Laura railway
Endeavour River
Giant Horse Gallery
James Earl
Laura Quinkan Dance Festival
Mushroom Rock
Palmer goldfield
Percy Trezise
Queensland Native Mounted Police
Quinkan & Regional Cultural Centre
Quinkan galleries
