Quarantine Bay

Quarantine Bay is located 8 km by road from Cooktown and 4 km off the Cooktown Road. It is a 1 km long, north-east facing beach, lying in lee of the densely vegetated 100 m high Monkhouse Point, that protrudes 1 km seaward of the southern end of the beach. The point together with Mount Cook, which rises 415 m in lee of the beach, surround the beach with steep, tropical slopes. A road crosses a saddle toward the southern end, giving good access to the beach and a few beach houses that back the central and northern section of the beach. The beach is backed by dense vegetation. It has a steeper high tide beach that contains a mixture of sand and gravel, while at low tide a low gradient bar grades into wide tidal shoals toward the southern half. Polished granite boulders dot the beach, while the granite rocks of the headlands fringe each end

Quarantine Bay owes its name to the fact that it was first used as a quarantine section for passengers of ships with diseases. Covered with pebbles and shells, this beach is fantastic for fishing and swimming thanks to its warm and shallow waters

Quarantine Bay – this awesome beach is situated 8 km from town, on the east side of Mount Cook National Park. There is a small car park with toilets right next to the beach. Usually, there are not many visitors.

Quarantine Bay

There is a camping spot at Quarantine Bay accessed by a narrow, 100 meters track to the left of the car park.There is a public toilet at the carpark entrance and bins for rubbish.

The steamship “L’AUier,” on arrival at Cooktown from Java, was ordered into quarantine on 14th Feb- ruary, with typhoid fever on board. A special area on the north bank of the Endeavour River was proclaimed on that date as a lazaret for the quarantine of this ship’s company. Quarantine cases went to Cooktown not here at Quarantine Bay.