Editing Cape Upstart National Park (section)

== Cultural Importance of Cape Upstart ==

There are numerous middens in the sand dunes of Cape Upstart to demonstrate the connection of the ''Juru'' People to Cape Upstart.<ref name="Small">Small, M. (1992) 'Gulumba's Land': A study in ethnoarchaeology at Cape Upstart, North Queensland. BA (Hons) thesis, JCU.</ref> There are also several sacred sites, like the women's area at Worrungu Bay,<ref>{{cite web |author=Renarta Prior (Gootha) |title=Juru - Knowledge Base |work=NQ Dry Tropics: Land & Water Solutions |url=http://wiki.bdtnrm.org.au/index.php/Juru  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403080642/http://wiki.bdtnrm.org.au/index.php/Juru |archive-date=3 April 2015}}</ref> and the stone arrangements near Mine Island,<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Rowland, MJ |author2=Ulm, S |name-list-style=amp |year=2011 |title=Indigenous Fish Traps and Weirs of North Queensland |journal=QLD Archeological Research |volume=14 |url=https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/17602/ |page=18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329223639/http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/17602/ |archive-date=29 March 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> which the senior elder always stated were never 'fish traps' but an important ceremonial ground used for initiation.<ref>Peter Prior (Gulumba), Personal Communication to Michael Small, Aaron Small & Gresham Ross, Circa.1994</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=unpublished personal communication is not a reliable source per [[WP:SOURCEDEF]]|date=March 2023}} The ceremonial ground laid out the paths taken by ''Gubulla Munda'' (the Carpet Snake) when creating the land and islands inhabited by the Juru people and the paths followed by ''Gubulla Munda'' (the totem of the ''Juru'' Clan) in the ''Gubulla Munda Dreaming'' (the creation story of the ''Juru'' and ''Birri-Gubba'' People).<ref>Renarta Prior (Gootha), Personal Communication to Aaron Small, 25–26 July 2012</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=unpublished personal communication is not a reliable source per [[WP:SOURCEDEF]]|date=March 2023}}

Cape Upstart was named by Lieutenant [[James Cook]] on 5 June 1770 during his voyage along the eastern coast of Australia in [[HM Bark Endeavour]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite QPN|35853|Upstart Bay|bay in Shire of Burdekin|access-date=26 July 2017}}</ref>

Europeans, mostly from the nearby Burdekin farming community, began - in the early twentieth century - building semi-permanent huts on the Cape's western foreshores. By the start of the twenty-first century these had mostly been replaced by permanent structures used mostly for recreational purposes, a small permanent population having also taken up residency by then.