Bewick Island is part of the

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports an ...

in the

Howick Group Howick may refer to: Places *Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa **Howick Falls * Howick, Lancashire, a small hamlet (Howick Cross) and former civil parish in England *Howick, New Zealand **Howick Historical Village **Howick (New Zealand electo ...

National Park and is about 100 km south-east of

Cape Melville Cape Melville is a headland on the eastern coast of the Cape York Peninsula in Australia. To its west lies Princess Charlotte Bay. It is part of the Cape Melville National Park. Cape Melville was named Stoney Cape in 1815 by Lieutenant Charles ...

, Queensland. It is around 130 hectares or 1.3 square km in size. The island is north-west of

Howick Island The Howick Island is the southernmost and a now uninhabited island in the Howick group that is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Far North Queensland, Australia. It fell within the territory of the Ithu people in pre-colonial tim ...

and home to

sea turtles Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...

and sea pigeons.

Maritime collision

About 0134 on 20 June 1985 the Australian registered bulk carrier

River Boyne The River Boyne ( ga, An Bhóinn or ''Abhainn na Bóinne'') is a river in Leinster, Ireland, the course of which is about long. It rises at Trinity Well, Newberry Hall, near Carbury, County Kildare, and flows towards the Northeast through C ...

of 51,994 gross tons, on passage from

Weipa Weipa () is a coastal mining town in the local government area of Weipa Town in Queensland. It is the largest town on the Cape York Peninsula. It exists because of the enormous bauxite deposits along the coast. The Port of Weipa is mainly involv ...

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

with a cargo of

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...

, collided with the Australian registered fishing vessel

Babirusa The babirusas, also called deer-pigs ( id, babi rusa), are a genus, ''Babyrousa'', in the swine family found in the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi, Togian, Sula and Buru. All members of this genus were considered part of a single species until ...

, on passage from

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

to the Gulf of Carpentaria, in approximate position 1 4 ' 18'S, 114° 39'E. There was no injury to any person and the only damage sustained was to the starboard outrigger boom and the sternlight on the Babirusa. Having established that the Babirusa required no assistance, the River Boyne continued its voyage to Gladstone. The Babirusa returned to Cairns for repairs.

References

Islands on the Great Barrier Reef Uninhabited islands of Australia Islands of Far North Queensland Places in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park {{Queensland-national-park-stub