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A teahouse on the new highway
Hartley’s Creek was named in 1882 by the explorer Christie Palmerston, after the customs officer Robert Hartley. When the Cook Highway was opened there on Sunday 17 December 1933, Herb (Pop) Evans and his wife Mabel opened a wayside teahouse beside it, The Halfway House.


Charlie the crocodile
In 1935 Herb Evans bought a live crocodile advertised in The Cairns Post for three pounds. Named Charlie, he became the zoo’s best-known resident: Prince Charles met him in 1966, and he lived at Hartley’s Creek until his death in 2000.
A new park at Wangetti
The Freeman family bought Hartley’s Creek Zoo in 1986 and began developing a crocodile farm and wildlife park on a nearby property. Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures opened there in July 2002, 500 metres south of Hartley’s Creek.

