Don and Carol with their beloved dog Tippy in front of their Hope Street home in the late 90s.
AFTER a final trip to Cape York, well-loved former Cooktown couple Don and Carol Sinclair were farewelled by family and friends in a small ceremony on Grassy Hill.
The extended Sinclair family travelled back to their late parents’ favourite place to spread their ashes last week and spend some time with old friends.
“We went up the Cape and took Mum and Dad on the backseat for one last trip,” daughter Donna Lewis said.
“There are nine of us here, my two brothers, one has his wife and kids and my husband and kids.”
Family and friends gathered on Grassy Hill to farewell Don and Carol Sinclair on Wednesday 21 June.
The Sinclairs lived in Cooktown for over a decade and were active members of the community before leaving to be closer to their grandchildren in the early 2000s.
“I can’t believe how much my Dad actually did,” Ms Lewis said.
“Mum was the quiet one behind him, she loved it here and had a wonderful life but when I had my first child she said she wasn’t missing out on her grandkids so they moved to Manly and spent their last years there.
“My dad ran Cooktown Cruises when he first came here, he started the Historical Society with John and Bev Shay and him and Terry Dukes did the big memorial at the airport.”
The Sinclairs were also the driving force behind reinvigorating the Cooktown RSL and the Coast Guard.
“When dad first arrived, he’s an ex-digger and he said we need to get the RSL going so he started holding sausage sizzles on Sunday nights,” Ms Lewis remembers.
“They used to live on Hope Street in the big double-storey block house Dad built opposite Palmer Kate’s.
“They had a big back verandah and everyone would turn up for morning tea, you’d turn up and there’d be all these police cars out the front, just there for morning tea.
“Mum had a little tea and coffee book with your name and what you had and how many sugars, as they were walking in she would say ‘I’ve got you’ – mum and dad were very hospitable.”
Ms Sinclair passed away four years ago and Mr Sinclair died in 2022. They are survived by their children Greg and Martin Sinclair and Donna Lewis and their families.
