A stop on the coast road
The Cook Highway between Cairns and Port Douglas was opened at Hartley’s Creek on 17 December 1933. Herb (Pop) Evans and his wife Mabel opened The Halfway House, a wayside teahouse, there on the same day.
Charlie of Hartley’s Creek
In 1935 Evans bought a crocodile advertised in The Cairns Post for three pounds. Charlie lived at Hartley’s Creek for 65 years, through several changes of owner, until he died in 2000. His story is told in the Croc Centre today.
A new home at Wangetti
The Freeman family bought the zoo in 1986 and began building a crocodile farm and wildlife park nearby. Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures opened in July 2002, and the farm still breeds and raises saltwater crocodiles.



