Hope Islands National Park is a national park in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

( Australia) 1,521 km north-west of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

. The park consists of four islands: East Hope and West Hope, Snapper Island and Struck Island. The Hope Islands are situated approximately 37 km south-east of

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repai ...

and about 8 km offshore () and officially part of the mainland

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localities (Australia), in which a locality is a geographic subdivis ...

of Rossville. Struck Island is a rocky outcrop just off Thornton Beach and south of Cape Tribulation. Snapper island is about two km long and is at the mouth of the

Daintree River The Daintree River is a river that rises in the Daintree Rainforest near Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland, Australia. The river is located about northwest of Cairns in the UNESCO World Heritagelisted Wet Tropics of Queensland. The area ...

. It is about 20 km north of

Port Douglas Port Douglas is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Douglas, Queensland, Australia, approximately 60 km north of Cairns. In the , Port Douglas had a population of 3,504 people. The town's population can often double, however, with the in ...

. Access is via private vessel or by permitted commercial operators. The Hope islands were named by Lt James Cook on 13 June 1770, after his ship ''

HMS Endeavour HMS ''Endeavour'' was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Australia and New Zealand on his first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771. She was launched in 1764 as the collier ''Earl of Pembroke'', ...

'' narrowly escaped sinking after running aground on the eastern part of Endeavour Reef at 11pm on 11 June. Cook writes of taking a risk and sailing from the reef on the morning of 13 June in favourable conditions but the three operational bilge pumps could not keep up with the flow of water. Cook wrote "we were always in hopes of being able to reach these Islands". Cook speaks of he and the crew thinking the situation so dire that the best scenario would be to ground the boat on the reef surrounding the islands if the mainland could not be reached. They aimed to build a vessel from the wreck to make it back to the East Indies. However, some crew members were able to "

fother The load, also known as a fodder, fother, and charrus ( la, carrus, "cartload"), is a historic English unit of weight or mass of various amounts, depending on the era, the substance being measured, and where it was being measured. The term wa ...

" the leak using a sail so that the water could be cleared easily using one bilge pump. Endeavour was able to be sailed safely to what is now Cooktown so that repairs could be undertaken.

References

{{National Parks of Queensland National parks of Far North Queensland Protected areas established in 1939 1939 establishments in Australia

See also

References