Stanley Island 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 ...

at the tip 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 Charle ...

, Queensland in

Bathurst Bay Bathurst Bay is a bay in the localities of Lakefield and Starcke in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. In the 19th century it was the base for the pearling fleet. It is now a tourist attraction for Cape York Peninsula in northern Queen ...

. It is located North of

Denham Island Denham Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park at the tip of Cape Melville, Queensland in Bathurst Bay. It is the southernmost island in the Flinders Group National Park. It is south of Flinders Island. It is around 390 hectares ...

and

Flinders Island Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Today Flinders Island is part of the state of Tasmania, Australia. It is from Cape Portland, Tasmania, Cape Portl ...

in the

Flinders Group National Park Flinders Group National Park (Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land) is a national park in Queensland (Australia), 1,745 km northwest of Brisbane. The national park was previously named Flinders Group National Park until it was renamed on 28 ...

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 habitat ...

. The island is a popular tourist destination with fine anchorage between the islands and along various coastal stretches. Stanley Island was first declared a

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

in 1939.

Cape Flinders Cape Flinders is a headland in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is located on the western point of the Kent Peninsula, now known as Kiillinnguyaq. The cape was named by Sir John Franklin in 1821 after the navigator Matthew Flinde ...

is the name of the northern tip of Stanley Island and the ship ''

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Given name Nobility = Anhalt-Harzgerode = * Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) = Austria = * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria fro ...

'' was wrecked there in 1818.

Rock art

Stanley island is an integral part of the mythological complex of the Flinders Group. There are several spectacular

rock art In archaeology, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type al ...

sites on Stanley Island, the best known being the huge Yintayin rock shelter (Tindale's "Endaen") known as the "Ship" rock shelter. Other islands in the group also contain rock art, all of which are considered to be of international significance. The rock art covering the walls of the Ship shelter shows ships from a number of nations, painted in red and white

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colou ...

on the red sandstone: sailing ships rigged in the distinctive styles of the European

lugger A lugger is a sailing vessel defined by its rig, using the lug sail on all of its one or more masts. Luggers were widely used as working craft, particularly off the coasts of France, England, Ireland and Scotland. Luggers varied extensively ...

and the

Macassan Makassar ( ), formerly Ujung Pandang ( ), is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, and Ba ...

(Indonesian) prau; a dugout canoe with a figure standing upright in it, hands outstretched. Some construe the images of European vessels with high sterns to be 16th or 17th century (Portuguese) ships, which is historically notable as the first reports of exploration of this coast to reach Europe are those from Captain

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

's voyage aboard in 1770. In shelters on nearby Castle Peak there are similar paintings: of a steam ship, and a detailed image of a lugger, identifiable as the Mildred, towing a dinghy. An important mythological site occurs at Muyu-Walin figuring in the major Itjibiya mythic cycle.

References

{{Coord, -14.153, 144.235, region:AU-QLD_type:isle, display=title Islands on the Great Barrier Reef Rock art in Australia

Rock art

See also

References