Cape Melville is a headland on the eastern coast of the

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: Agrupación ...

in Australia. To its west lies

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 ...

. It is part of the

Cape Melville National Park Cape Melville National Park (Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land) is a national park in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. The national park was previously named Cape Melville National Park until it was renamed on 28 November 2013. Geogr ...

. Cape Melville was named Stoney Cape in 1815 by Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys on the HM Kangaroo but later renamed by him as Cape Melville Pipon Island is about six km north of the cape and Hales Island about two km east, both 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 ...

. King Island lies several kilometres to the north west of the cape. The highest peak on the cape is Abbey Peak, which named in 1901 by Commander Munro. R.N., while aboard . The cape consists of granite outcrops which formed 250 million years ago.

Unique ecosystem

The headland has been described as a "lost world". Several animal species have existed in an isolated section of rainforest for millions of years. A field of granite boulders has prevented bushfires from affecting the area and kept moisture in. In March 2013, a team of scientists and filmmakers joined the ranks of the few human visitors to the misty rain forest atop the Melville Range, a small mountain range on Cape Melville, part of northeastern Australia's Cape York Peninsula. The fauna and flora found near Cape Melville is diverse and includes several

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species, including the Foxtail Palm the

Cape Melville leaf-tailed gecko The Cape Melville leaf-tailed gecko (''Saltuarius eximius'') is a species of geckos that is endemic to the Melville Range on Cape Melville in Northern Australia. The species was described in 2013 by Australian zoologists Conrad Hoskin (of James ...

, the

Cape Melville shade skink The Cape Melville shadeskink (''Saproscincus saltus'') is a species of lizards from the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia, described in 2013.

, the

Blotched boulder-frog ''Cophixalus petrophilus'', the blotched boulder-frog, is a species of frogs from the Cape York Peninsula (Queensland, Australia) that was described in 2013. It is one of three newly described vertebrate species from Cape Melville, Australia, t ...

and the Cape Melville Tree Frog.

References

{{Reflist Melville Landforms of Far North Queensland

Unique ecosystem

See also

References