Cooktown to Cape York CLICK on image to enlarge.

Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. This remote peninsula contains some of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth, though about half of the land area is used for grazing cattle and much has been damaged by feral pigs, weeds, and other introduced species. Its relatively undisturbed tropical rainforests and savannas are now recognized for their global environmental significance. A nomination for World Natural Heritage is currently being considered by the Queensland and Australian Federal governments.

The Cape York Peninsula region encompasses an area of approximately 137,000 km² north of 16°S latitude. It has a population of only about 18,000, of which a large percentage, 60% are Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

At the tip of the peninsula lies Cape York, the northernmost point on the Australian continent. It was named by Lieutenant James Cook on 21 August, 1770 in honour of Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of York and Albany, who 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.

From the tip of the peninsula, it is about 160 kilometres to New Guinea across the island-studded Torres Strait. The west coast borders the Gulf of Carpentaria and the east coast borders the Coral Sea.

Cooktown is the northernmost town on the east coast of Australia, located at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland.

In Guugu Yimithirr the name for the region is, Gan gaarr, which means (place of the) rock crystals. Quartz crystals were used in various Aboriginal ceremonies and are found in the vicinity, they were traded at least as far as Mossman, about 300 km south of Cooktown.