Recorded history starts with Cook’s visit in June 1770 when Cooktown hosted the first extensive period of interaction between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians. Cook and his crew spent 7 weeks repairing the Endeavour and then waiting for fair winds to sail away. During that time there were a number of mainly friendly exchanges between Cook and his crew and the local Guugu Yimithirr people apart from the infamous turtle scuffle that then led to the first reconciliation between the different peoples. Cooktown is also the place where the local language was first written down with Joseph Banks recording and translating 130 of the local words including, most famously, ‘gungurru’ which became ‘kangaroo’.

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In the local Guugu Yimithirr language the name for the region is Gangardie which means "Place of the Rock Crystals." Gungaar (rock crystals) were important to the local tribes as they were used to cut chest skin during initiation ceremonies. Because of its importance to the different tribes Gangardie was a neutral area where the Guugu Yimithirr and the neighbouring Kuku Yalanji tribes could have safe, unhindered access to collect the quartz stones. Gangardie stretched from Annan River (Yuku Baja) and the Endeavour River (Wahalumbaal Birri). The beaching of the Endeavour on the neutral territory of Gangardie land is regarded as extremely fortuitous for Cook and his crew as it seems that this removed the potential for any conflict with the local peoples. 

When Cook left on 5 August 1770 life returned to normal for the local peoples for just over 100 years. However, life changed significantly and for the worse when James Mulligan found gold on the Palmer River and Cooktown was established as a port to service the gold fields in 1873. While the gold rush brought riches for some it brought disruption, conflict and misery to many of the local Aboriginal people. There was early conflict in October 1873 when 93 miners led by Goldfields Commissioner set out from the Endeavour River to blaze a track to the Palmer River heading north across the Endeavour River and then west towards what is now Laura. There were several skirmishes along the way, culminating in a pitched battle between about 150 Aboriginal warriors and the expedition members at their camp near the Normanby River. The site of this encounter was subsequently named ‘Battle Camp’ and the road running west to Laura is known as Battle Camp Road. More and more miners poured into the goldfields and pastoral stations were established taking control of large tracts of land. Aboriginal peoples continued to resist and ‘frontier’ violence was frequent during the 1870s leading to many aboriginal casualties and a significant reduction in the Aboriginal population.

As mining activity slowly declined in the 1890s. Aboriginals were employed as stockmen and workers on the surrounding pastoral stations and Aboriginal fringe camps were established on the outskirts of Cooktown. John Davis, the then Mayor of Cooktown suggested establishing an Aboriginal reserve on the North shore of the Endeavour River to keep them from ‘any unnecessary intermingling’ with the European residents of Cooktown and provide a ready labour force for the beche-de-mer fishing industry’. In 1885, a Lutheran missionary travelling to New Guinea was unexpectedly delayed in Cooktown. On witnessing the poor conditions suffered by local Aboriginals, he negotiated with the Queensland Government to establish one mission close to Cooktown at Cape Bedford and another at the Bloomfield River. The original mission at Cape Bedford moved and eventually ending up at Hope Value while the Bloomfield mission became Wujal Wujal. In 1887 the legendry George Schwartz (known as Muni) arrived to take over the Cape Bedford mission. His commitment and empathy over the 50 years he ran the Mission are one of the major reasons we can still experience Guugu Yimithirr people and culture today,