| White Rock | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Coordinates | 18°46′19″S146°43′05″E / 18.772°S 146.718°E |
| Archipelago | Greater Palm group |
| Administration | |
Australia | |
| State | Queensland |
| Local Government Area | Shire of Hinchinbrook |
Albino Rock, [1] formerly White Rock, is an island east of Great Palm Island, part of the Greater Palm group in Queensland, Australia. The island is in the Hinchinbrook jurisdiction, and is part of Orpheus Island National Park. [2]
Great Palm Island, also known as Palm Island, or by the Aboriginal name Bwgcolman; is a tropical island with a resident community of about 2,000 people. The island has an area of 55 km2 (21 sq mi). The official area figure of 70.9 km² refers to Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island and includes nine smaller islands. It is in Queensland, Australia, off the east coast of northern Queensland, situated 65 kilometres (40 mi) northwest of Townsville, and 800 kilometres (500 mi) north of the Tropic of Capricorn. The Australia Post lists the local post office as Palm Island, QLD. It is the main island of the Greater Palm group, and consists of small bays, sandy beaches and steep forested mountains rising to a peak of 548 metres (1,798 ft). The ocean surrounding the island is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park where extraction and fishing are regulated.
Queensland is the second-largest and third-most populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, it is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. To its north is the Torres Strait, with Papua New Guinea located less than 200 km across it from the mainland. The state is the world's sixth-largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 square kilometres (715,309 sq mi).
The Shire of Hinchinbrook is a local government area in North Queensland, Queensland, Australia. The shire, administered from the town of Ingham, covers an area of 2,810.8 square kilometres (1,085.3 sq mi), and has existed since its creation on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions around Queensland under the Divisional Boards Act 1879.
The surrounding waters are in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in the Coral Sea, which is administrated by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). [3] The island once held the Albino Rock lighthouse. The older name "White Rock" is at least as old as 1939. [4]
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 and shipping, recreation, scientific research and Indigenous traditional use. Fishing and the removal of artefacts or wildlife is strictly regulated, and commercial shipping traffic must stick to certain specific defined shipping routes that avoid the most sensitive areas of the park. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest and best known coral reef ecosystem in the world. Its reefs, almost 3000 in total, represent about 10 per cent of all the coral reef areas in the world. It supports an amazing variety of biodiversity, providing a home to thousands of coral and other invertebrate species, bony fish, sharks, rays, marine mammals, marine turtles, sea snakes, as well as algae and other marine plants.
The Coral Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) down the Australian northeast coast.
Plans for the Albino Rock lighthouse were published in 1940 with construction scheduled to begin the same year. The plans showed a 30-foot (9.1 m) tower with square white concrete standing at a base elevation of 96 feet (29 m). It was the last light to complete the chain along Northern Queensland to Torres Strait. 44 miles (71 km) to the north lay the Hinchinbrook Light, and 32 miles (51 km) to the south was Cape Cleveland Light. The light characteristic was white with three flashes every 20 seconds (Fl.W.20s), 15,000 candlepower, and 15 miles (24 km) visibility. The light is no longer operational, while the Fresnel lens is in the Townsville Maritime Museum.
