Yorkeys Knob, Queensland
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Yorkeys Knob is one of the beach suburbs of Cairns, the regional capital of Far North Queensland, Australia. It is located approximately 13km north of the centre of Cairns, and is the third beach suburb after Machans Beach and Holloways Beach. The suburb's promotional slogan is "Yorkeys Knob... It's bigger than Moby's Dick".
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[edit] History
The suburb got its name from George Yorkey Lawson, a Yorkshire-born, Cairns-based fisherman who retired to the headland (the Knob) after a fishing accident. Locals are rather attached to the name, despite the reaction it sometimes gets, and recently successfully stopped a developer from advertising a development as being at "Yorkeys Beach".
[edit] Facilities
There are a number of small shops at the main complex near the centre of the suburb. There's a supermarket, post office, bottleshop, and bakery, and a variety of other stores, there is no newsagent however. A small corner shop can be found on the beachfront near the main swimming area.
There are a number of restaurants, including the restaurant at the Half Moon Bay marina, which has an over-the-water deck looking across Half Moon Bay to Double Island and Haycock Island (also known as Scout's Hat due to its shape).
[edit] Recreation
Yorkeys Knob has two beaches, though only one is really suitable for swimming. You will find the swimming area at the northern end of Sim's Esplanade. It is now patrolled year round by Surf Lifesaving Queensland, and has a stinger net to protect swimmers from box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri). Trust the lifesavers and swim between the flags - there have been drownings around the rocks just a short distance away. Nearby you will find barbecue and picnic facilities, and public toilets and showers. The beach is lined with she-oak casuarinas, beach almonds, ballnuts and coconut palms. At the southern end it meets Thomatis Creek, which lies between Yorkeys Knob and Holloways Beach.
The other beach is located beside the marina on the other side of the headland, but swimming isn't recommended; partly due to the absence of a stinger net and the possibility of estuarine crocodiles coming from the nearby river, but mainly because you're likely to get hit by one of the jet-skis or outrigger canoes that use the beach. It's also a very small beach, with the rocks of the headland on one side and the seawall of the marina on the other. Alongside that is the Moon River which separates Yorkeys Knob from the suburb of Trinity Park.
Half Moon Bay Golf Club is located at the western end of Wattle Street, and is a short but challenging layout which features a number of water hazards. It's 5,129 metres and par is 70. Most of the course is sand-based, and it dries rapidly after heavy rains. A 9-hole course is generally open even if all the other Cairns courses are closed due to flooding, although cyclones can force the course to close for a couple of days.
[edit] Wildlife
The golf club is a very good bird-watching location, with masked lapwings, bush stone-curlews, a range of kingfishers, rainbow lorikeets and sea eagles fairly easy to find. Between the 12th and 13th holes lies Ray Howarth Park, which is home to a huge colony of flying foxes, which you can see heading out searching for food in the early evenings. During the day they hang upside down from the mangroves trees, and make an almighty din. When the melaleucas are in flower you will find them gorging on nectar in the trees at the northern end of Sim's Esplanade.
A small bush track near the primary school offers a chance to catch a variety of birdlife, monitor lizards, and lots of skinks. Along the beach you will find pied oyster catchers, bush stone-curlews, ghost fiddler crabs and sand-bubbler crabs. At the rocks at the end of the beach keep an eye out of the beach tree skink scampering around the rocks looking for lunch, while you also watching for a pod of bottlenose dolphins that sometimes visits the small bay on the northern side of the groyne.
[edit] Public Transport
Yorkeys Knob is serviced by Sunbus seven days a week. The normal service, the 1C, runs hourly Monday to Saturday, and every second hour on Sundays. This service also runs to the Smithfield shopping centre, the nearest large shopping complex. A direct service, the 1D, is available during the peak periods, travelling to Cairns in the mornings and back to Yorkeys in the late afternoon. A ticket to town is $Aus4, or a 24-hour Country Clubticket is $7.70.
Taxis are also available, and it will cost around $Aus30 to get into the CBD.
[edit] Tourism
Yorkeys Knob doesn't have a large tourism industry at present, possibly due to the flight path for Cairns Airport being overhead. It's starting to change though, with a number of large developments under way. The suburb's promotional slogan, "Yorkeys Knob... It's bigger than Moby's Dick", has a rather embarrassed looking whale pictured beside the wording. You can get T-shirts from the post office with this slogan on them.
