AUSTRALIA-Queensland-NORTH COAST-Cairns: Captain Cook Statue on Captain Cook Highway / Morning

Walter Bibikow/Getty

Captain Cook Statue

Cairns


You won't be able to miss this mammoth statue, one of Australia's most controversial 'Big Things'. Looming over the city's main road since 1972, the 10m-high concrete likeness of Captain James Cook – depicted with his right arm extended and outstretched hand palm-down – evokes a whirlwind of sentiment from both visitors and locals. Some feel it's disrespectful to local Indigenous people, while others claim it's a city icon. Pretty much everyone wonders why he's doing that salute.

The statue was built nearly 50 years ago as a roadside gimmick promoting the now-demolished Captain Cook Motel. Local lore has it that permission to build the hulking Cook was accidentally given – apparently the Council mistook the planned statue's dimensions (given in metres) for Imperial measurements.

In January 2017, the statue was hung (by folks unknown) with a giant sign reading 'SORRY', in apparent reference to Invasion Day (or Australia Day). That same year, Aboriginal artist Munganbana Norman Miller suggested a giant boomerang be given to Cook to hold.

Debate rages on as to the statue's future.


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