Cardwell is a coastal town and rural locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, the locality of Cardwell had a population of 1,309 people.

George Augustus Frederick Elphinstone Dalrymple was a colonist, explorer, public servant and politician, member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. He founded the towns of Bowen and Cardwell, and pioneered the opening up of the Herbert, Burdekin, Johnstone and Daintree River regions to British colonisation. During this time he was responsible for many killings of Aboriginal people who lived in the area.