Cooktown Museum

A restored 1888 Sisters of Mercy convent on the Endeavour River, opened as a museum by Queen Elizabeth II in 1970. The collection centres on Guugu Yimithiir culture, the region's earliest European contact, and one of Australia's first recorded acts of reconciliation — alongside a jettisoned Endeavour cannon and anchor retrieved from the Great Barrier Reef. The verandah views upriver are worth the admission alone.