Daintree Shire

Daintree Shire (1879-1919) began as an area of over 15,000 sq miles, occupying the coast and hinterland around Cooktown. Cooktown was a separate municipal borough which had been proclaimed three years before.

Daintree was at first a local government division, changing to a shire in 1902. It was named after Richard Daintree, geologist, who prospected the Etheridge goldfields in the late 1860s. He was geologist in charge of the northern division of Queensland. Daintree died in 1878, the year before Daintree division was proclaimed.