About Apudthama National Park (CYPAL)

Park features

Apudthama National Park (CYPAL) encompasses the traditional country of several Aboriginal groups, including people from the Atambaya, Angkamuthi, Yadhaykenu, Gudang and Wuthathi language and social groups. The area is a living cultural landscape, with places and features named in Aboriginal languages, story-places and story-beings, and occupation and ceremony sites throughout. Today the Traditional Owners retain a strong and continuing interest in their land and jointly manage the national park (CYPAL) with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

This vast, remote wilderness is an ancient sandstone landscape. Clear, fresh water is abundant, not only in the mighty west-flowing Jardine River—which dominates the landscape—but also in swamps, boggy gullies and numerous smaller streams. The area features a diversity of plant communities. Heathland, grassland, rainforest and woodland grow on low broad sandstone ridges separated by swamps, while shrublands and vine thickets cover massive coastal sand dunes. The animals that live in this area are an interesting mix of species. Some have been present since the ancient Gondwanan rainforests while other endemic species have evolved from Gondwanan times over long periods of isolation and climate change. More recent species, originating from New Guinea, arrived via ice-age land bridges.

The area also has links of early European travellers to Cape York Peninsula. In 1848, Edmund Kennedy was speared on the Escape River, at the northern end of the park. The Jardine brothers were involved in skirmishes with Aboriginal people during their overland expedition in 1865 and later during their settlement at Somerset. Geologist Robert Logan Jack encountered local Aboriginal people on the east coast in 1880, at a place known today as Captain Billy Landing. In 1887, a telegraph line was completed to provide communications with remote Cape York Peninsula—today this line forms the western boundary of some parts of Apudthama National Park (CYPAL).

Looking after the park

Help preserve this natural area by following the guidelines below:

• Domestic animals are not permitted in the national park (CYPAL).
• Do not remove or disturb plant material, living or dead.
• Do not interfere with or feed native animals.
• The use of firearms is prohibited in the national park (CYPAL).
• Generators and chainsaws are prohibited in the national park (CYPAL).
• Do not use soap or detergent in streams, rivers or waterholes. Remember this is crocodile country. Be Crocwise in croc country.
• Camp only in designated camp sites—camping is not permitted in other parts of the parks or on adjacent Aboriginal land.
• Light camp fires responsibly and only in existing fireplaces. Never collect firewood from within the parks. Where possible, use gas stoves.
• Keep your camp site clean and free from food scraps.

See the guidelines on caring for parks for more information about protecting the environment and heritage in parks.

Park management

Apudthama National Park (CYPAL) covers an area of more than 362,000ha and is managed  by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, in collaboration with the Aboriginal Traditional Owners from the Atambaya, Angkamuthi, Yadhaykenu, Gudang and Wuthathi language and social groups.

Tourism information links

Nature's Powerhouse Visitor Information Centre
www.cooktownandcapeyork.com
Cooktown Botanic Gardens, Cooktown QLD 4895
ph (07) 4069 5444
email info@naturespowerhouse.com.au

For tourism information for all regions in Queensland see Queensland Holidays.