The Cumberland Islands form a group of 70 islands at 20°34′S149°08′E / 20.567°S 149.133°E on the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Mackay in Queensland, Australia. They were discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770. [1]
In 1770 James Cook (then a lieutenant in the Royal Navy) in His Majesty's Bark the Endeavour sailed past the coast off Mackay. After travelling north for a further two days, in his journal for Monday 4 June he recorded that he named the body of water through which he sailed Whitsunday's Passage "… as it was discovered on the day the Church commemorates that Festival" and called the islands in the area "Cumberland Isles in honour of His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland" (Henry Frederick, the brother of His Majesty King George III of Great Britain).
In giving the name, Cook gave no firm indication which islands in the area were encompassed, but his chart showed the name covering islands as far south as St Bees Island and Keswick Island, and Hayman to the north. More detailed charts by those following Cook showed likewise. Over time "Isles" has been replaced by "Islands". More recently these islands have increasingly become known as the Whitsunday Islands, and the general area more simply as the "Whitsundays".
The Cumberland Islands were grouped into the Whitsunday Group, the Lindeman Group, the Anchor Islands, the Sir James Smith Group and the South Cumberland Islands National Park.
Captain James Cook was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
Possession Island is a small island in the Torres Strait Islands group off the coast of far northern Queensland, Australia. It is inhabited by a group of Torres Strait Islanders, the Kaurareg, though the Ankamuti were also indigenous to the island.
South Cumberland Islands is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 831 km northwest of Brisbane. It is famous for the marine stingers which can be found in the waters of the park between October and May.
The Torres Strait, also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is 150 km (93 mi) wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mainland. To the north is the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after the Spanish navigator Luís Vaz de Torres, who sailed through the strait in 1606.
The Whitsunday Islands are 74 continental islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, Australia, 900 kilometres north of Brisbane. The northernmost of the islands are off the coast by the town of Bowen, while the southernmost islands are off the coast by Proserpine. The island group is centred on Whitsunday Island, while the commercial centre is Hamilton Island. The traditional owners of the area are the Ngaro people and the Gia people, whose Juru people has the only legally recognised native title in the Whitsunday Region.
Whitsunday Island is the largest island in the Whitsunday group of islands located off the coast of Central Queensland, Australia.
The Regions of Queensland refer to the geographic areas of the Australian state of Queensland. Due to its large size and decentralised population, the state is often divided into regions for statistical and administrative purposes. Each region varies somewhat in terms of its economy, population, climate, geography, flora and fauna. Cultural and official perceptions and definitions of the various regions differ somewhat depending on the government agency or popular group by which they are being applied.
The Northumberland Islands are a scattered island chain off the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia.
North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been historically remote and undeveloped, resulting in a distinctive regional character and identity.
Keswick Island is an island in the southern half of the Whitsunday Islands. Located 34 kilometres north-east of the Queensland city of Mackay, Keswick Island is part of the Cumberland Islands of islands that lay protected inside the waters of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Captain Matthew Flinders was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to utilise the name Australia to describe the entirety of that continent including Van Diemen's Land, a title he regarded as being "more agreeable to the ear" than previous names such as Terra Australis.
The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which James Cook was the commander. The aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun, and to seek evidence of the postulated Terra Australis Incognita or "undiscovered southern land".
Hayman Island is the most northerly of the Whitsunday Islands, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The island is 294 hectares. It is a private island open to the public, most famous for its luxury resort which was built in the 1950s by Ansett Transport Industries. The island is a significant for tourism in Queensland. The resort is managed by the InterContinental Hotels Group.
Whitehaven Beach is on Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia. The island is accessible by boat, seaplane & helicopter from Airlie Beach, as well as Hamilton Island. It lies across from Stockyard Beach, better known as Chalkie's Beach, on Haslewood Island. The beach is known for its crystal white silica sands and turquoise coloured waters. The beach has tour barbeque and camping facilities.
The Ngaro are an Australian Aboriginal group of people who traditionally inhabited the Whitsunday Islands and coastal regions of Queensland, employing a seafaring lifestyle in an area that archaeologically shows evidence of human habitation since 9000 BP. Ngaro society was destroyed by warfare with traders, colonists, and the Australian Native Police. The Native Police Corps forcibly relocated the remaining Ngaro people in 1870 to a penal colony on Palm Island or to the lumber mills of Brampton Island as forced labourers.
The Colony of Queensland was a colony of the British Empire from 1859 to 1901, when it became a State in the federal Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. At its greatest extent, the colony included the present-day State of Queensland, the Territory of Papua and the Coral Sea Islands Territory.
The second voyage of James Cook, from 1772 to 1775, commissioned by the British government with advice from the Royal Society, was designed to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible to finally determine whether there was any great southern landmass, or Terra Australis. On his first voyage, Cook had demonstrated by circumnavigating New Zealand that it was not attached to a larger landmass to the south, and he charted almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia, yet Terra Australis was believed to lie further south. Alexander Dalrymple and others of the Royal Society still believed that this massive southern continent should exist. After a delay brought about by the botanist Joseph Banks' unreasonable demands, the ships Resolution and Adventure were fitted for the voyage and set sail for the Antarctic in July 1772.
Dorothee Island is an island in the Australian state of South Australia which is part of the Pearson Isles which itself is part of the larger island grouping known as the Investigator Group. It is located about 69 kilometres west south-west of Cape Finniss on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula. It was discovered as part of the Pearson Isles by Matthew Flinders on 13 February 1802. The island was given its name in August 1969 in order to preserve a name used within the locality by the Baudin expedition. The island has enjoyed protected area status since at least 1972 and since 2011, it been part of the Investigator Group Wilderness Protection Area.
Veteran Isles is a pair of islands in the Australian state of South Australia which is part of the Pearson Isles which itself is part of the larger island group known as the Investigator Group. It is located about 69 kilometres west south-west of Cape Finniss on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula. It was discovered as part of the Pearson Isles by Matthew Flinders on 13 February 1802. The island was given its name in August 1969 in order to preserve a name used within the locality by the Baudin expedition. The island has enjoyed protected area status since at least 1972 and since 2011, it been part of the Investigator Group Wilderness Protection Area.