The place behind the crocodiles.

Captain Cook sailed past this stretch of coast in 1770. In 1882 the explorer Christie Palmerston named Hartley’s Creek after Robert Hartley, a customs officer, and in 1907 tin and tungsten-bearing quartz were found there.

The Cook Highway was opened at Hartley’s Creek on 17 December 1933, linking Cairns and Port Douglas along the coast. A wayside teahouse opened beside it the same day.

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The teahouse’s owners bought a crocodile in 1935, and Charlie became the attraction that people stopped for. He lived at Hartley’s Creek for 65 years, through several owners, until 2000.

His legend is told in the Croc Centre at the park, alongside the history of the highway and of crocodile conservation.

Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures opened in July 2002 on more than 15 hectares of bushland beside World Heritage-listed rainforest, with eucalypt woodland, rainforest and a melaleuca wetland lagoon.

This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.

• Read the history of the park→
• Explore the timeline→