COOKTOWN  , a seaport of

Banks county, Queensland, Australia, at the mouth of the Endeavour river, about 1050 M. direct N.N.W. of Brisbane . It is visited by the ocean steamers of several lines, and is the centre of a very extensive beche-de-mer and pearl fishery . Tin and gold are worked in the district, in which also good coffee and rice are grown . Cooktown is the port of the Palmer gold-fields, and a railway runs to Laura on the gold-fields, 67 m . W. by S. of Cooktown . It is the chief port of Queensland for the New Guinea trade; and is also the seat of a Roman Catholic vicariate apostolic whose bishop has jurisdiction over the whole of Queensland north of lat . 18° 50' . In 1770 Captain Cook here beached his ship the " Endeavour," to repair the damage caused by her striking a reef in the neighbourhood of the estuary, which he could only clear by throwing his guns overboard . Cooktown became a municipality in 1876 . The population of the town and district in 19o1 was 1936 .