Cape York Peninsula

:*This article is about the peninsula in the Australian state of Queensland; not the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, or Cape York, Greenland.*
**Cape York Peninsula** is a large remote peninsula in the far north of Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoilt wilderness in eastern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth.  The area is mostly flat and about half is used for grazing cattle. Much of the wildlife is threatened by introduced species and weeds. However, the eucalyptus wooded savannah, tropical rainforests, and other types of habitat are now recognized as being globally important.

## Geography and geology
The Cape York Peninsula region covers an area of about 137,000&nbsp;km² north of 16°S latitude. From the tip of the peninsula, Cape York, it is about   to New Guinea across the island and coral reefs of Torres Strait.

The west coast is bordered by the Gulf of Carpentaria and the east coast by the Coral Sea. There is no clear border to the south, but the boundary in the Cape York Peninsula Heritage Act 2007 of Queensland follows the 16°S latitude.

At the peninsula’s widest point, it is 430&nbsp;km from the Bloomfield River, on the east coast, to the Aboriginal community of Kowanyama on the west coast. It is some 660&nbsp;km from the southern border, to the tip of Cape York. The largest islands in the Torres Strait include Prince of Wales Island, Horn Island, Moa, and Badu Island.

Cape York is the northernmost point on the Australian continent. It was named by Lieutenant James Cook on 21 August 1770, after Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany. The Duke was a brother of King George III of the United Kingdom, and died from illness in 1767 when he was only 20 years old:

:"The point of the Main, which forms one side of the Passage before mentioned, and which is the Northern Promontory of this Country, I have named York Cape, in honour of his late Royal Highness, the Duke of York."

The tropical **landscapes** are among the most stable in the world.

### Geological history
Around 40 million years ago, the Indo-Australian tectonic plate began to split apart from the ancient supercontinent Gondwana. As it crashed into the Pacific Plate on its northward journey, the high mountain ranges of central New Guinea were made around 5 million years ago. Cape York Peninsula also contains one of the highest rates of endemism in Australia, with more than 260 endemic plant species found so far. Because of this, parts of the Peninsula have been noted for their very high wilderness quality. The plants of the peninsula includes original Gondwanan species, plants that have developed since the breakup of Gondwana and species from Indo-Malaya and from across the Torres Strait in New Guinea. Most variety is in the rainforest areas. Most of the Cape York Peninsula is drier than New Guinea which stops the rainforest plants of that island from moving across to Australia.

Most of the Cape York Peninsula is covered in grass and woodlands. These have a tall, thick grass layer and scattered trees, mostly eucalypts. The most common tree is the Darwin stringybark. Rainforests need some rainfall during the long Dry season. These conditions are mostly on the eastern slopes of the Cape’s coastal ranges. These are old-growth forests and support a huge range of plants. These rainforests are of high conservation significance. Much has been damaged by overgrazing, mining, fires, wild pigs, cane toads, weeds, and other introduced species. But Cape York Peninsula remains fairly unspoilt with intact and healthy river systems and no recorded plant or animal extinction since European settlement.

The "Cape York Peninsula Land Use Strategy" study, by the Australian government in 1990, created plans to protect the wilderness. A nomination for World Natural Heritage is currently being looked at by the Queensland and Australian Federal governments. Major national parks include the Jardine River National Park in the far north, Mungkan Kandju National Park near Aurukun, and Lakefield National Park in the southeast of the bioregion.

## People and culture
The first known contact between Europeans and Aborigines took place on the west coast of the peninsula in 1606. It was not settled by Europeans until the 19th century when fishing communities, then cattle ranches and later mining towns were started. European settlement led to the displacement of Aboriginal communities and the arrival of Torres Strait Islanders on the mainland. Today the peninsula has about 18,000 people. About 60% of them are Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

The administrative and commercial centre for much of Cape York Peninsula is Cooktown, in its far southeastern corner. The peninsula’s largest settlement is the mining town Weipa on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Most of the Peninsula has few people, with half the people living in very small settlements and cattle ranches. Along the Peninsula Developmental Road, there are small service centres at Lakeland, Laura and Coen. At the tip of Cape York, there is a sizeable service centre on nearby Thursday Island. Aboriginal communities are at Hopevale, Pormpuraaw, Kowanyama, Aurukun, Lockhart River, Napranum, Mapoon, Injinoo, New Mapoon and Umagico. Torres Strait Islander communities on the mainland are at Bamaga and Seisia. A completely sealed inland road links Cairns and the Atherton Tableland to Lakeland Downs and Cooktown. The road north of Lakeland Downs to the tip of the Peninsula is sometimes cut after heavy rains during the wet season (roughly December to May).

The Peninsula is a popular with tourists in the Dry Season for camping, hiking, birdwatching and fishing. Many people make the adventurous, but rewarding, drive to the tip of Cape York, the northernmost point of mainland Australia.

Some of the world's most extensive and ancient Aboriginal rock painting galleries surround the town of Laura, some of which are available for public viewing. There is also a new Interpretive Centre from which information on the rock art and local culture is available and tours can be arranged.
## References
**Further references**

*Hough, Richard. 1994. *Captain James Cook: a biography*. Hodder and Stroughton, London. .
*Pike, Glenville. 1979. *Queen of the North: A Pictorial History of Cooktown and Cape York Peninsula*. G. Pike. .
*Moon, Ron & Viv. 2003. ''Cape York: An Adventurer's Guide*. 9th edition. Moon Adventure Publications, Pearcedale, Victoria. 
*Moore, David R. 1979. *Islanders and Aborigines at Cape York: An ethnographic reconstruction based on the 1848-1850 'Rattlesnake' Journals of O. W. Brierly and information he obtained from Barbara Thompson*. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Canberra.  (hbk); 0-85575-082-0 (pbk). USA edition  (hbk); 0-391-00948-6 (pbk).
*Pohlner, Peter. 1986. ***gangaurru***. Hopevale Mission Board, Milton, Queensland. 
*Trezise, P.J. 1969. *Quinkan Country: Adventures in Search of Aboriginal Cave Paintings in Cape York*. A.H. & A.W. Reed, Sydney.
*Trezise, Percy. 1973. *Last Days of a Wilderness*. William Collins (Aust) Ltd., Brisbane. .
*Trezise, P.J. 1993. *Dream Road: A Journey of Discovery.* Allen & Unwin, St. Leonards, Sydney.
*Haviland, John B. with Hart, Roger. 1998. *Old Man Fog and the Last Aborigines of Barrow Point''. Crawford House Publishing, Bathurst.
*Premier's Department (prepared by Connell Wagner). 1989. *Cape York Peninsula Resource Analysis*. Cairns. (1989). .
*Roth, W.E. 1897. *The Queensland Aborigines*. 3 Vols. Reprint: Facsimile Edition, Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, W.A., 1984. 
*Ryan, Michelle and Burwell, Colin, eds. 2000. *Wildlife of Tropical North Queensland: Cooktown to Mackay*. Queensland Museum, Brisbane.  (set of 3 vols).
*Scarth-Johnson, Vera. 2000. *National Treasures: Flowering plants of Cooktown and Northern Australia*. Vera Scarth-Johnson Gallery Association, Cooktown.  (pbk);  Limited Edition - Leather Bound.
*Sutton, Peter (ed). *Languages of Cape York: Papers presented to a Symposium organised by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies*. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra. (1976). 
*Wallace, Lennie. 2000. *Nomads of the 19th Century Queensland Goldfields*. Central Queensland University Press, Rockhampton. 
*Wallace, Lennie. 2003. *Cape York Peninsula: A History of Unlauded Heroes 1845-2003*. Central Queensland University Press, Rockhampton. 
*Wynter, Jo and Hill, John. 1991. *Cape York Peninsula: Pathways to Community Economic Development*. The Final Report of The Community Economic Development Projects Cook Shire. Cook Shire Council.