Western Australia · Attraction
Cossack Historic Town
Pearling port frozen in time
schedule 1 min read / Updated Jun 2026
Cossack is a hauntingly beautiful ghost town on the banks of the Harding River, 50 kilometres east of Karratha, that served as the original pearling port of the north-west before the industry migrated to Broome in the late 1880s. Its cluster of heritage limestone buildings - courthouse, customs house, lockup, and bond store - were built in the 1890s and have been carefully preserved by the Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation. Today the courthouse operates as the Cossack Museum, and the old customs building houses a cafe serving meals and coffee.
Walking the Cossack Heritage Trail takes around an hour and threads past the Tien Tsin Lookout - named for the ship that brought one of the first settlers - and through a multicultural cemetery that records the graves of Chinese, Japanese, Malay, Afghan, and European workers who shaped this remote port. The museum inside the 1895 George Temple Poole courthouse is free to enter and displays artefacts from the pearling and pastoral eras alongside accounts of the Yaburara people who had lived on this coast for thousands of years before European contact.
The annual Cossack Art Award, described as the nation's richest regional art prize, fills the heritage buildings with contemporary artworks each July and August, drawing artists and visitors from across Australia. Settler's Beach, a short walk from the townsite, offers calm fishing and kayaking waters, and between April and October the same Staircase to the Moon phenomenon visible at Hearson Cove can be watched from the beach lookout. The museum is open seven days from April through October, and on weekends only from February through March and November through December.
Scenic views
Lookouts near Cossack Historic Town.
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