Cedar Bay National Park
Named Mount Finnigan National Park before it was enlarged and subsequently renamed the Mangkalba (Cedar Bay) section of the Ngalba Bulal National Park, the former Cedar Bay National Park lies around 40 kilometres south of Cooktown in Eastern Kuku Yalanji Country and is accessible only by boat or foot.
While the area was opened up by timber-getters and tin miners from the 1870s, and the remains of the tin workings can still be seen, its relative inaccessibility made it an attractive retreat for dropouts and alternative lifestyle-seekers. A commune established at Cedar Bay in 1972 — relocated after an earlier attempt in Kuranda — attracted the Queensland Government's attention and gained a degree of notoriety after a controversial raid mounted at significant expense — a helicopter, light aircraft and a Navy vessel were involved — that produced a dozen arrests on drug and vagrancy charges and resulted in an award-winning Television report on the ABCTV current affairs show This Day Tonight.
Following a 1994 native title claim, Cedar Bay National Park was part of 2,000 square kilometres of land handed over to Cape York's Aboriginal population by the Queensland government in 2007.
