Cooktown History Centre

16/10/2026

16/10/2026

It's Friday Flashback time again. Today we shall look at a couple of photos from a Young at Heart performance. The Young at Heart Entertainers were a Community Group primarily focused on musical comedies, social gatherings and providing recreational activities for local and senior retirees. If I'm wrong, please let me know.
And boy, could they party!
Let's see how many names you can get!

14/10/2026

For your information, we have a change to our opening days for the next two weeks. The Centre will not be open Friday 16th and Saturday 17th and the same applies to the following week, where we will be closed on the 23rd and 24th.
Apart from that, our hours are still the same, 9.00 am to 12 noon.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

04/10/2026

Where History Breathes and Legends Speak. Last Friday and Saturday evenings saw a very successful performance of the Spirits of Cooktown performed by the Box Jelly Theatre from Cairns along with some local volunteers.
And despite the inclement weather! Organised by Cook Shire Council and funded by RADF, the characters were researched by the Cooktown History Centre and the actors created their own sketches from this data.
A brillant addition to the performance was the inclusion of the children, reminding us that our cemetery is crowded with the sad tales of very many young children. Names of the characters are shown along the photos!

03/10/2026

Please take note that the Cooktown History Centre will not be open to the public on this coming public holiday for the King's Birthday on Mon Oct 5th 2026.

26/09/2026

Good morning all. Here are the names from the back of the 1974 CWA photo.
L to R.
Mrs McCormack, Mrs Rene Hallam, Mrs Scheinsplug, Robyn Gallop, Mrs Jean Voller, Elsie Gall, Mrs V.Sherrin, Mrs Martin, May Gray, Bette Anderson, Mrs B.Shea, Kath Innes-Will, E. Chatfield and Mrs Glidden!
Thanks everybody for the input for while we know the names from the papers, we sometime don't know their faces!

25/09/2026

The Spirits of Cooktown | Tickets on sale!

For the third year in a row, Box Jelly Theatre Co. is returning to Cooktown with The Spirits of Cooktown, bringing the true stories, characters and lives connected to the Cooktown Pioneer Cemetery to life in a unique community theatre experience.

🎟️TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE
With two performances each night, you don't want to miss this!

📅 Friday 2 October
6pm to 7pm | 7.30pm to 8.30pm

📅 Saturday 3 October
6pm to 7pm | 7.30pm to 8.30pm

💰Tickets:
Adults: $10
Youth (13 to 17): $5
Children (6 to 12): FREE

Bookings are required for everyone, including children.

Historical content for The Spirits of Cooktown has been sourced from research provided by the Cooktown History Centre.

For more information, visit the website:
https://www.cook.qld.gov.au/2026/09/11/the-spirits-of-cooktown-tickets-on-sale-now/

25/09/2026

Here's a photo for Forgotten Friday. It's a CWA meeting in 1974!! Does anybody recognise these faces?