Port Douglas

Founded in 1877 to serve the gold miners, Port Douglas has had a boom and bust history. After a devastating cyclone in 1911, and later a decision to route a railway to the goldfields from Cairns instead of "Port" as locals call it, the population dwindled. It was a sleepy fishing village until the Cairns international airport went in; that brought tourists in the 80's and now tourism is the driving force here.

The town is at the end of a peninsula, with Flagstaff Hill at the tip, and on our walk up to the lookout, we enjoyed a great view of Four Mile Beach, which is on one side - the river is on the other.

Four Mile beach

A cairn at the top told us that Buenos Aires is 13,842 kms away, Cape Town is 13,250 kms, and Vancouver 11,484 kms.
Later we walked to the riverside restaurant On the Inlet, as they feed an enormous Queensland groper fish at precisely 5:00 p.m. We were told, however, that there were no groper feedings until at least Saturday as a rather large 4 metre long crocodile had been coming by to see what food he could find...

No groper feeding from the riverside deck until the croc goes away...