South Molle Island, part of the Whitsunday Islands, is a resort island in the Whitsunday section of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia. The hilly island has numerous bays and inlets accessible by 16 km of walking and cycling tracks, with most protected in the

Molle Islands National Park Molle Islands is a national park in North Queensland, Australia, 913 km northwest of Brisbane. The park covers several continental islands a short distance offshore including Long Island, Tancred Island, Repair Island, Planton Island, Goat ...

. The islands were named by Lieutenant Charles Jefferys in 1815 after Colonel George James Molle, the then

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

of New South Wales. Nearby islands include Mid Molle, North Molle and West Molle (known as Daydream Island). Just to the east and southeast, respectively, are the small islands Planton and Denman. Wild goats were introduced to the island in the nineteenth century as a food source for shipwrecked sailors.

Tourism

First established in 1937, the island's resort lies on Bauer Bay on the northern end of the island and so is well protected from the prevailing south easterly winds. The resort area, now known as South Molle Island Resort, is owned by Koala Adventures and has a nine-hole golf course in addition to 200 rooms that can accommodate 600 guests. In 1961 a large jetty was built as the small jetty that existed was only usable at high tide. Popular hiking and cycling trips include the walk to Mount Jeffreys in the southern half of the island, from which one can continue southwest to Sandy Bay. The South Molle Island resort was operated by

Ansett Transport Industries Ansett Australia was a major Australian airline group, based in Melbourne, Australia. The airline flew domestically within Australia and from the 1990s to destinations in Asia. After operating for 65 years, the airline was placed into admini ...

in the late 1980s. At the time, Ansett was half owner of the Hamilton Island Airport which provided a strong team of tourists to South Molle. Bauer Bay holds a seaplane base. In 2016, the island was bought by a Chinese company, but was destroyed by Cyclone Debbie only a few months later. As of 2019, the resort remains closed and in disrepair.

History

There is some evidence that Aboriginals visited the island to extract hard stone for their weapons. The islands's first

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Australia Pastoral lease ...

was granted in 1883. It was owned by the Bauer family since around 1920 and primarily used for sheep and cattle grazing until a resort was built in the 1950s. In 1970,

Cyclone Ada Severe Tropical Cyclone Ada was a small but intense tropical cyclone that severely impacted the Whitsunday Region of Queensland, Australia, in January 1970. It has been described as a defining event in the history of the Whitsunday Islands, ...

destroyed the island's resort. Coca-Cola filmed a TV commercial on the island.Coca Cola ad 'Uplift' on YouTube
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Settlement

Housing for the resort staff and the personnel from the seaplane base is located at the jetty on Bauer Bay.

References

External links

Queensland tourism websiteThumbrella Article
{{Coord, 20, 14, 58.45, S, 148, 49, 48.91, E, dim:500_scale:5000_region:AU-QLD_type:isle_source:dewiki, display=title Ansett Australia Whitsunday Islands

Tourism

History

Settlement

See also

References

External links