Adolphus Island is an uninhabited island located in the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

region of Western Australia. It is situated in Cambridge Gulf approximately north of Wyndham and covers an area of about . The island has a maximum height of approximately . The island, the gulf and many other features surrounding the gulf were named by Philip Parker King who visited the area in 1819 aboard the survey cutter HMS ''Mermaid'' but left after spending eleven days charting the gulf, being unable to find supplies of freshwater in the

mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

s, rivers and hills that surround the Cambridge Gulf. King named the island after the Duke of Cambridge at the time,

Prince Adolphus Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, (Adolphus Frederick; 24 February 1774 – 8 July 1850) was the tenth child and seventh son of the British king George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He held the title of Duke of Cambridge from 18 ...

. One of the earliest European burials in Western Australia occurred on Adolphus Island at Nicholls Point, ten years before the foundation of the

Swan River Colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just Swan River, was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, and it ...

, during King's time in Cambridge Gulf. The following passages from King's journals start on 27 September 1819.

I have this day to record the death of one of the crew, William Nicholls, who, for some time past, and particularly during the last three days, had been suffering from a dropsical complaint; his death was occasioned by suffocation, having very imprudently laid down with his head to leeward while we were under sail: this poor fellow had been for nearly three months on our sick list; he was a native of Norfolk Island, and, when in health, had been one of my most useful and attentive men.

September 28.

He was interred the next morning on shore; in memorial whereof the north-west point of the island was named after him.

King later mentions the death on 30 September, after they had left Cambridge Gulf.

...we had only lost one man; and this from a complaint which even medical assistance might not, perhaps, have cured; and by an accident which could not have been prevented, for our people were at the moment so busily employed in working the vessel through a dangerous navigation that the unfortunate man's situation was not known until the vital spark was nearly extinct, and too far gone for any human means to save his life.

The island is home to endangered flora such as ''Brachychiton incanus'' and a variety of birdlife such as rufous night heron, little eagle,

brown falcon The brown falcon (''Falco berigora'') is a relatively large falcon native to Australia and New Guinea. A number of plumage morphs occur, with the primary distinction being between the pale morph and the dark morph. Both morphs usually have dark ...

, whimbrel, tawny frogmouth, great bowerbird and rainbow bee-eater. The agile wallaby is commonly sighted on the island.

References

{{reflist Islands of the Kimberley (Western Australia) Uninhabited islands of Australia Cambridge Gulf