Whitsunday Island is the largest island in the Whitsunday group of islands located off the coast of

Central Queensland Central Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Capricorn Coas ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

History

Whitsunday Island was inhabited by the sea-faring

Ngaro people The Ngaro are an Australian Aboriginal group of people who traditionally inhabited the Whitsunday Islands and coastal regions of Queensland, employing a seafaring lifestyle in an area that archaeologically shows evidence of human habitation since ...

for around 8,000 years prior to British colonisation.

Captain 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 ...

named the island while sailing through the area in June 1770. The first of the logging camps on the island was set up by

Eugene Fitzalan Eugene Fitzherbert Albini Fitzalan (1830–1911) was an Irish-born botanist in Australia. He made many botanical expedition and discovered numerous new species. He created the first botanical garden in Cairns, Queensland, now the heritage-listed ...

in 1861 to exploit the large hoop pine for construction of buildings at the new colonial outpost of

Bowen Bowen may refer to: Places Australia * Bowen, Queensland, a town * Bowen Hills, Queensland, a suburb ** Bowen Hills railway station, a railway station in Bowen Hills ** Bowen Park, Brisbane, a park in Bowen Hills * Bowen Bridge, crossing the Derw ...

on the mainland. Local Ngaro people laid siege to this camp, preventing work there for two weeks. A

Native Police Australian native police units, consisting of Aboriginal troopers under the command (usually) of at least one white officer, existed in various forms in all Australian mainland colonies during the nineteenth and, in some cases, into the twentie ...

detachment was soon afterwards stationed on the island to protect the loggers. By the mid-1860s leisure trips to Whitsunday Island from the port of Bowen were being organised by colonists. In 1878, Captain McIvor of the vessel ''Louisa Maria'' was

careening Careening (also known as "heaving down") is a method of gaining access to the hull of a sailing vessel without the use of a dry dock. It is used for cleaning or repairing the hull. Before ship's hulls were protected from marine growth by fasteni ...

his boat on a beach on the western side of the island with some Ngaro people being employed to clean the hull. After these people had heard that some Aboriginal men at Bowen had been killed, they became agitated. They threw the captain into the sea, pelted him with various objects and then speared him in the face. The Ngaro then killed the only other crew-member on board and set fire to the ship, destroying it. Captain McIvor survived and he and the remaining crew were picked up by a nearby vessel and taken to the mainland. Sub-Inspector George Nowlan of the

, with his Aboriginal troopers and Captain McIvor, subsequently travelled to Whitsunday Island in order "to punish the blacks." Nowlan's party spent a week pursuing the Ngaro across the island, where they "had punishment dealt out to them" and concluded with the expedition "permanently dispersing" the Ngaro. The "policy of dispersal" was associated with the "indiscriminate slaughter of unoffending Aborigines." The Ngaro who survived, fled in canoes to the mainland near

Mackay Mackay may refer to: *Clan Mackay, the Scottish clan from which the surname "MacKay" derives Mackay may also refer to: Places Australia * Mackay Region, a local government area ** Mackay, Queensland, a city in the above region *** Mackay Airpor ...

and were further pursued by Inspector Morisset and Sgt Graham and their troopers. A few months later, Captain McIvor was hacked to death by his Chinese cook.

Geography

The island is accessible by boat from the mainland tourist ports of

Airlie Beach Airlie Beach is a coastal locality in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland, Australia. In the , Airlie Beach had a population of 1,208 people. Geography Airlie Beach is one of many departure points for the Great Barrier Reef. Cruise ships visi ...

and

Shute Harbour Shute Harbour is a coastal locality and harbour in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland, Australia. In the , Shute Harbour had a population of 122 people. Geography Shute Harbour is in sheltered port for small vessels located approximately 10 ...

. It contains many popular destinations for both day visitors and overnight sailors, including the magnificent pure-white sands of

Whitehaven Beach Whitehaven Beach is on Whitsunday Island, Australia. The island is accessible by boat, seaplane & helicopter from Airlie Beach, as well as Hamilton Island. It lies across from Stockyard Beach, better known as Chalkie's Beach, on Haslewood Isl ...

and Hill Inlet, the secure anchorage of Cid Harbour, and the sheltered waterway of Gulnare Inlet. The island also has six campgrounds. The island covers in area. Around the northern bays of the island are

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

beds which support a diverse range of marine life. Unadorned rock-wallabies are found on the island. The seas here are warm, clear, shallow, nutrient rich and fast moving due to large tidal flows making them well-suited to the growth of fringing coral reefs. Whitehaven Beach on the east coast of the island was rated internationally as the top ''Eco Friendly Beach'' in 2010. The island should not be confused with

Pinaki Pinaki,Te Kiekie or Artomix is a small atoll of the Tuamotu group in French Polynesia. Geographically Pinaki Atoll is part of the East-central subgroup of the Tuamotus, which includes Ahunui, Amanu, Fangatau, Hao and Nukutavake. Geography Th ...

in the

Tuamotu The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (french: Îles Tuamotu, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extendin ...

group which was named "Whitsunday Island" by

Samuel Wallis Samuel Wallis (23 April 1728 – 21 January 1795 in London) was a British naval officer and explorer of the Pacific Ocean. He made the first recorded visit by a European navigator to Tahiti. Biography Wallis was born at Fenteroon Farm, n ...

in 1767.

Gallery

File:Whitsunday islands.jpg, Whitehaven Beach File:WhitsundayIslandBeach.JPG, Hill inlet, north of Whitehaven Beach File:Plage Whitesunday island.jpg, Panoramic view of Whitehaven Beach

References

External links

* {{Coord, 20, 15, S, 148, 58, E, type:isle, display=title Whitsunday Islands Uninhabited islands of Australia

History

Geography

Gallery

See also

References

External links