Bloomfield is a rural town in the

Shire of Cook The Shire of Cook (The Shire) is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. The Shire covers most of the eastern and central parts of Cape York Peninsula, the most northerly section of the Australian mainland. It covers an area ...

and a coastal locality which is split between the Shire of Cook and the

Shire of Douglas The Shire of Douglas is a Local government in Australia, local government area in Far North Queensland. It is located on the coast north of the city of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns. The shire, administered from the town of Mossman, Queensland, Mos ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. The neighbourhood of Ayton is within the locality (). In the , the locality of Bloomfield had a population of 228 people. The neighbourhood of China Camp is an abandoned

tin mining Tin mining began early in the Bronze Age, as bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with approximately 2 ppm (parts per million), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm. History Tin extraction and use ca ...

area within the locality ().

Geography

The locality of Bloomfield is geographically divided into a northern section in the Shire of Cook and a southern section in the Shire of Douglas. The narrow boundary between the two sections is about in width and follows Granite Creek, a tributary of the Bloomfield River which passes through the locality to its mouth at the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down t ...

. Much of the northern section of Bloomfield is within the Ngalba Bulal National Park. Much of the southern section of Bloomfield is within the Ngalba Bulal National Park and the Daintree National Park. Although Bloomfield () is officially the population centre, in practice, there is little there apart from the school. Most of the development is in Ayton, on the northern bank of the Bloomfield River near its mouth.

History

'' Yalanji'' (also known as ''Kuku Yalanji'', ''Kuku Yalaja'', ''Kuku Yelandji'', and ''Gugu Yalanji)'' is an

Australian Aboriginal language The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...

. The traditional language region is Mossman River in the south to the Annan River in the north, bordered by the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

in the east and extending inland to west of Mount Mulgrave. This includes the local government boundaries of the

, the

and the Aboriginal Shire of Wujal Wujal and the towns and localities of Cooktown, Mossman, Daintree,

Cape Tribulation Cape Tribulation is a headland and coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas in northern Queensland, Australia. In the , Cape Tribulation had a population of 123 people. Geography The locality is north of Cairns. It is within the Daintree N ...

and Wujal Wujal. It includes the head of the Palmer River, the Bloomfield River, China Camp, Maytown, and Palmerville. The town and locality are named after the Bloomfield River. The Bloomfield River Sugar Company was established in 1882 by Frederick Bauer and his two sons. They established a sugarcane plantation that they called Vilele. The sugar mill they constructed did its first full-scale crush in 1885. In 1886 they built a saw mill and had of tramway built from portable track. The sugar mill closed in 1890 as it proved to be not economic. Ayton Provisional School opened on the road from

to Cooktown circa 1897. On 1 January 1909 it became Ayton State School. It 1924 it was closed due to low student numbers. Bloomfield River State School opened on 16 July 1952. Prior to the deamalgamation of Shire of Douglas on 1 January 2014, Bloomfield was split between

and

Cairns Region The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. ...

Demographics

In the , the locality of Bloomfield had a population of 403 people. In the , the locality of Bloomfield had a population of 204 people. In the , the locality of Bloomfield had a population of 228 people.

Facilities

Cook Shire Council operates a public library in Ayton.

Education

Bloomfield River State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 3202 Rossville-Bloomfield Road (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 41 students with 6 teachers and 9 non-teaching staff (5 full-time equivalent). The nearest primary school is in Rossville, which is another small school about 30 mins away and then the nearest secondary school is in Cooktown (approximately 1 hour away).

Geography

History

Demographics

Facilities

Education

See also

References

Further reading