Reconcilation Rocks Commemoration Park

Cooktown, Queensland, Australia

This Federally funded memorial park commemorates the site and the first act of reconciliation after a conflict in 1770 between the Cook expedition and traditional landowners on the foreshore of what is present day Cooktown. The reconciliation took place at a large outcrop of boulders, still present today, although divided into 2 sections by a 19th Century gold rush railway cut. LA3 provided the Landscape Architectural component of design, documentation, and construction of the Reconciliation Rocks project for Cook Shire Council.

The design utilises the former rail cut to install, off the embankment, a series of shallow cast concrete and grass terraces to create an informal amphitheatre  overlooking the significant remaining boulders where reenactment of the event occurs annually. LA3 worked closely with the project Architects, CA Architects and local artist Braham Stevens, Cook Shire Council, and various stakeholders, including the Guugu Yimithirr Elders & Bama-ngay Traditional Custodians of the White & Black Cockatoo Clans, to help bring their nationally significant, ancestral reconciliation story to life in a symbolic empowering way. Along with the boulders the two artworks are the heroes of the project, one of the two clan cockatoo feathers, the other a portrait of the peace making elder.

The project, while delayed due to Covid 2020 Restrictions, was designed and delivered within budget for the rescheduled opening in June 2021. In 2022, Reconciliation Rocks received the AILA QLD Award for Cultural Heritage.