Marpa is a national park at Yarraden on

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupació ...

in Far North Queensland, Australia, 1,757 km northwest 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 ...

. It 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 ...

west 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 ...

in Princess Charlotte Bay. The park is a restricted access area in order to protect cultural resource of the islands

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have right ...

, the Lama Lama people. The national park was formerly known as Cliff Islands National Park. The alteration was part of new process where parks on the Cape York Peninsula are jointly managed between Aboriginal land trusts and the state government under the Cape York Peninsula Heritage Act 2007. It comprises three small sandstone islands. Ronganhu is positioned to the north, Errewerrpinha in the west and Olilu to the south. The islands have remained in pristine condition. The islands are home to a number of important bird species, including the

beach stone-curlew The beach stone-curlew (''Esacus magnirostris'') also known as beach thick-knee is a large, ground-dwelling bird that occurs in Australasia, the islands of South-east Asia. At and , it is one of the world's largest shorebirds. At a mean of in ...

eastern curlew The Far Eastern curlew (''Numenius madagascariensis'') is a large shorebird most similar in appearance to the long-billed curlew, but slightly larger. It is mostly brown in color, differentiated from other curlews by its plain, unpatterned brown ...

and

sooty oystercatcher The sooty oystercatcher (''Haematopus fuliginosus'') is a species of oystercatcher. It is a wading bird endemic to Australia and commonly found on its coastline. It prefers rocky coastlines, but will occasionally live in estuaries. All of its fea ...

. Also seen around the islands are the

white-bellied sea-eagle The white-bellied sea eagle (''Haliaeetus leucogaster''), also known as the white-breasted sea eagle, is a large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Originally described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it is closely related t ...

, peregrine falcon and eastern

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

. Fringing reefs and seagrass beds are found in the surrounding waters.

Green turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

s nest on the beaches.

Facilities

There are no roads, walking tracks or public facilities. Camping is not permitted.

References

External links

* Islands on the Great Barrier Reef National parks of Far North Queensland Protected areas established in 1989 1989 establishments in Australia Uninhabited islands of Australia {{Queensland-national-park-stub

Facilities

See also

References

External links