Stanley 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 ...

at the tip 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 in

Bathurst Bay Bathurst Bay is a bay in the localities of Lakefield and Starcke in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. In the 19th century it was the base for the pearling fleet. It is now a tourist attraction on Cape York Peninsula in northern Que ...

. It is located North of Denham Island and

Flinders Island Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Flinders Island was the place where the last remnants of aboriginal Tasmanian population were exiled by the colon ...

in the

Flinders Group National Park Flinders Group National Park (Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land) is a national park in Queensland (Australia), 1,745 km northwest of Brisbane. The national park was previously named Flinders Group National Park until it was renamed on 28 ...

Princess Charlotte Bay Princess Charlotte Bay is a large bay on the east coast of Far North Queensland at the base of Cape York Peninsula, 350 km north northwest of Cairns. Princess Charlotte Bay is a part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and it is a habit ...

. The island is a popular tourist destination with fine anchorage between the islands and along various coastal stretches. Stanley Island was first declared a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

in 1939.

Cape Flinders Cape Flinders is a headland in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is located on the western point of the Kent Peninsula, now known as Kiillinnguyaq. The cape was named by Sir John Franklin in 1821 after the navigator Matthew Flinders. ...

is the name of the northern tip of Stanley Island and the ship ''

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Nobility Anhalt-Harzgerode *Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) Austria * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198 * Frederick ...

'' was wrecked there in 1818.

Rock art

Stanley island is an integral part of the mythological complex of the Flinders Group. There are several spectacular

rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

sites on Stanley Island, the best known being the huge Yintayin rock shelter (Tindale's "Endaen") known as the "Ship" rock shelter. Other islands in the group also contain rock art, all of which are considered to be of international significance. The rock art covering the walls of the Ship shelter shows ships from a number of nations, painted in red and white

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

on the red sandstone: sailing ships rigged in the distinctive styles of the European

lugger A lugger is a sailing vessel defined by its rig, using the lug sail on all of its one or several masts. They were widely used as working craft, particularly off the coasts of France, England, Ireland and Scotland. Luggers varied extensively i ...

and the

Macassan Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan ...

(Indonesian)

prau Proas are various types of multi-hull outrigger sailboats of the Austronesian peoples. The terms were used for native Austronesian ships in European records during the Colonial era indiscriminately, and thus can confusingly refer to the do ...

; a dugout canoe with a figure standing upright in it, hands outstretched. Some construe the images of European vessels with high sterns to be 16th or 17th century (Portuguese) ships, which is historically notable as the first reports of exploration of this coast to reach Europe are those from Captain

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

's voyage aboard in 1770. In shelters on nearby Castle Peak there are similar paintings: of a steam ship, and a detailed image of a lugger, identifiable as the Mildred, towing a dinghy. An important mythological site occurs at Muyu-Walin figuring in the major Itjibiya mythic cycle.

References

Islands on the Great Barrier Reef Rock art in Australia {{Queensland-national-park-stub

Rock art

See also

References