Cape York Peninsula Totally Explained

ť This article is about the peninsula located in the Australian state of Queensland; it shouldn't be confused with either Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, or Cape York, Greenland.

Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula in northern Queensland, Australia. Cape York is at the tip of the peninsula and is the northernmost point on the Australian continent. It was named by Lt. James Cook in 1770 after His Royal Highness the Duke of York.
From the tip, it's about 140 km to New Guinea across the island-studded Torres Strait. The west coast borders the Gulf of Carpentaria and the east coast borders the Coral Sea. Cape York Peninsula is approximately 137,000 km² in area and it has a population of about 18,000, of which a large percentage are Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

Landforms

Geographically, it's an extremely eroded, almost level plain, with some very low hills on the eastern side. The highest of these form the Iron Range, noted for its unusual tropical rainforests. These support species, including the Eclectus Parrot and Southern Common Cuscus, also found in New Guinea.
The soils are remarkably infertile even compared to other areas of Australia, being almost entirely laterised and in most cases so old and weathered that very little development is apparent today (classified in USDA soil taxonomy as Orthents). It is because of this extraordinary soil poverty that the region is so thinly settled: the soils are so unworkable and unresponsive to fertilisation that attempts to grow commercial crops have usually failed.
The lowlands of the western side of the peninsula are dominated by winding, slow-flowing rivers, which empty into the Gulf of Carpentaria, including the Mitchell, Staaten, and Gilbert-Einasleigh Rivers.

Climate

The climate on Cape York Peninsula is tropical and monsoonal, with a wet season extending from November to April and a dry season from May to October. The temperature across it's warm to hot, with a cooler climate in higher areas. The mean annual temperatures range from 18 °C at higher elevations to 27 °C on the lowlands in the far south-west. Temperature over 40 °C and below 5 °C are rare.
Annual rainfall is high, ranging from over 2000 mm. in the Iron Range and north of Weipa to about 700 mm. at the southern border. Almost all this rain falls between November and April, and only on the eastern slopes of the Iron Range is the median rainfall between June and September above 5mm (0.2 inches). Between January and March, however, the median monthly rainfall ranges from about 170mm (6.5 inches) in the south to over 500mm (20 inches) in the north and on the Iron Range.
There are many rivers, amongst them the Endeavour, Annan, Bloomfield, Pascoe, Jardine, Wenlock, Archer, Holroyd, Mitchell, and Staaten. In fact, Cape York Peninsula contributes as much as a quarter of Australia's surface runoff. Indeed, with only about 2.7 percent of Australia's land area it produces more runoff than all of Australia south of the Tropic of Capricorn.

General Information

A completely sealed inland road links Cairns and the Atherton Tableland to Lakeland Downs and Cooktown. The road north of Lakeland Downs to the tip of the Peninsula is sometimes cut after heavy rains during the wet season (roughly December to May). Cape York is a popular destination from May to October for 4WD enthusiasts who come to test their driving skills and their vehicles on the remaining sections of the Overland Telegraph Track.
   It is 430 km from the Bloomfield River, in the southeast, across to the west coast (just south of Kowanyama), and some 660 km from the southern border of Cook Shire, to the tip of Cape York.
   Some of the world's most extensive and ancient rock painting galleries surround the tiny town of Laura, some of which are available for public viewing. There is also an impressive new Interpretive Centre from which information on the rock art and local Aboriginal culture is available and tours can be arranged.
   There are extensive deposits of bauxite along the west or Gulf of Carpentaria coast. Weipa is the centre for this mining activity.
   Although much of the Cape is sparsely populated, there are settlements at Cooktown, Lakeland, Laura, Coen, and Weipa, and Aboriginal communities at Wujal Wujal, Hopevale, Lockhart River, Injinoo, New Mapoon, Umagico, Old Mapoon, Napranum, Aurukun, Pormparaaw, and Kowanyama. Torres Strait Islander communities on the mainland are Bamaga and Seisia.
   The main industries are tourism, mining, fishing and cattle.

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