Cedar Bay National Park

Cedar Bay National Park Queensland
IUCN category II (national park)
File:Cedar-bay-national-park-north-queensland-australia.JPG Cedar Bay National Park
Cedar Bay National Park
Nearest town or city	Cooktown
Coordinates
Established	1977
Area	56.5 km2 (21.8 sq mi)
Managing authorities	Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
Official site	nprsr.qld.gov.au/parks/cedar-bay/index.html
See also	Protected areas of Queensland

Cedar Bay is a 56.5 km² (21.8 sq mi) national park in Queensland, Australia, 1,522 km (946 mi) northwest of Brisbane, 40 km (25 mi) south of Cooktown and accessible only by boat or foot. The park is one of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area series of national parks, and is a gazetted World Heritage site. It is also known as Mangkal-Mangkalba in the dialect of the local Aboriginal population, the Eastern Kuku Yalanji.

History

The Cedar Bay area was developed in the 1870s for tin mining, and the remains of the tin work can still be seen in the area of Black Snake Rocks. Cedar Bay gained a degree of notoriety in the 1970s when squatters, seeking a different way of life, were evicted from the park. In 2007, the national park was part of the 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi) of land handed over to Cape York's Aboriginal population by the Queensland government. The handover came as a result of a 1994 Native Title claim.

It was known as Mount Finnigan National Park before being enlarged.

Activities

The park contains some of the northernmost tropical rainforests in Australia. Birdwatching is a popular activity with the most common birds including cassowaries, yellow-breasted sunbirds, double-eyed fig-parrots, mangrove kingfishers, beach stone-curlews and pied imperial-pigeons. Bush camping is permitted in the park, however fishing and collecting are prohibited. The sole walking track in the park was a former donkey track used by tin miners. It is inaccessible to all but fit walkers.

See also

• Protected areas of Queensland