History
Before Europeans settled in the area around the 1870s, numerous Aboriginal clans occupied the fertile coastal strip. Aboriginal cultural heritage sites are located at Hann and Kalpowar crossings.
The first explorer to visit the area by land was Edmund Kennedy. Another early explorer of the region was William Hann. Laura Homestead was established in 1892 or earlier and is one of the oldest, intact, pastoral homesteads in the region. Lakefield was gazetted in 1979, after the Queensland Government purchased several cattle stations the previous year. In 2005, a Townsville man was attacked and killed by a crocodile while he was canoeing with his wife at the Midway waterhole on the Normanby River.
Read more about this topic: Lakefield National Park
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