Native name: Dabuukji | |
---|---|
Geography | |
Location | Coral Sea |
Area | 0.15 km2 (0.058 sq mi) |
Administration | |
Australia | |
State | Queensland |
LGA | Cairns Region |
Green Island Queensland | |||||||||||||||
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Coordinates | 16°45′46″S145°58′06″E / 16.7627°S 145.9683°E Coordinates: 16°45′46″S145°58′06″E / 16.7627°S 145.9683°E | ||||||||||||||
Population | 25 (2016 census) [1] | ||||||||||||||
• Density | 7.14/km2 (18.5/sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
Postcode(s) | 4871 | ||||||||||||||
Area | 3.5 km2 (1.4 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
Time zone | AEST (UTC+10:00) | ||||||||||||||
LGA(s) | Cairns Region | ||||||||||||||
State electorate(s) | Cairns | ||||||||||||||
Federal division(s) | Kennedy | ||||||||||||||
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Green Island (originally Dabuukji) is a marine island and locality in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. [2] [3] In the 2016 census Green Island had a population of 25 people. [1]
Green Island is coral cay 27 km (17 mi) offshore from Cairns, Queensland, Australia located within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park World Heritage Area in the Coral Sea. The island is surrounded by coral reef and protected in the Green Island National Park. Most visitors come for the day. A luxury resort with 46 rooms is situated on the island.[ citation needed ]
The island supports a range of vegetation, including dry coastal/beach plants and a vine thicket rain forest. There are no natural freshwater springs on the island so all vegetation relies on rainwater and a small freshwater lens located under the island.
The island was formed approximately 6,000 years ago by waves depositing sand, coral and other debris onto its coral foundations. [4]
Local Aboriginal language speakers (Roy Banning, Robert Patterson, and Henry Fourmile) advised and confirmed the Gungganyji language group are especially connected with the island. To them it is named Dabuukji. [5] Dabuukji, as a name, may refer to the island having been within local Aboriginal mythology and history a larger island with a freshwater marsh or 'hole' (later a well) at its centre. Alternatively it may be a reference to the story of the turtle which first obtained holes in its nose (nostrils) on this coral cay. It may also be a reference to some aspect of young Gungganyji male initiation rituals reported to have been conducted on this coral cay in times past. [5]
The local Aboriginal people (particularly Dick Moses, speaking Yidinyji) say that in the Dreamtime Dabuukji (Green Island) was approximately four times the size it is now, and that the present coral cay is only the north-east portion of the whole, original island. [6]
Local Aboriginal people have grown up with the understanding the coral cay was a place to be generally avoided, being wunjami, that is, "a place haunted by spirits". [5]
The Queensland Government has gazetted Green Island as the cay's official name, this being the name given it by Lieutenant James Cook on 10 June 1770, either because of the appearance of the coral cay's vegetation, or possibly after Charles Green, who was an astronomer aboard the Endeavour at the time. [2]
The first known non Aboriginal person to reside on the island was fisherman James Seton Veitch Mein in 1857 who established a beche-de-mer smoking station. [7] [8] Coconut palms were planted on the island in 1899 to provide food for shipwrecked sailors.
In April 1873, the Goodwill vessel arrived at Green Island with 3 European crew and 5 Manbarra people press-ganged from Palm Island to collect and process beche de mer. The Aboriginals, including 3 men and 2 women, resented their treatment and killed two of the whites and stole the "Goodwill". The third, Daniel Kelly, escaped to nearby Oyster Quay Island to report the killings to another beche-de-mer fisherman named Philip Garland. [9] The incident was reported to authorities in Cardwell and the Queensland Police Commissioner Seymour ordered Native Police officer Robert Arthur Johnstone to organise a punitive mission.
Johnstone and his troopers sailed to the area in their police boat and found the "Goodwill" abandoned and burnt on a beach in Trinity Bay where the modern-day community of Yarrabah is now located. "The blacks were given a proper warm reception" when Johnstone arrived and after proceeding inland for 3 miles his troopers dispersed another group of local Yidinji people first by firing on them from a distance and then charging amongst them. Johnstone's section then sailed to the mouth of what is now called the Mulgrave River and dispersed "a large mob of blacks" with gunfire. They then sailed further south to the Gladys Inlet (which is now known as the Johnstone River) where a large group of Aboriginals led by a very tall man decorated with pipeclay resisted the troopers' approach. Johnstone punished their "insolence" with gunfire and this leader was one of those killed in the shooting. [10]
In July 1873, four workers, including the owner James Mercer, at another beche-de-mer fishing station on Green Island were killed by press-ganged Manbarra labourers. These Palm Island natives were denied food rations for their work and subsequently killed their overseers in revenge. [11] The record is unclear on whether another punitive mission was organised but the regional newspapers at the time were strong in their contempt for the Manbarra people and hoped for their "final extermination" whether it be by bullets or by rum. [12]
Since the early 20th century, tourism has been the main activity on the island. A guest house was originally built in the 1930s and an underwater observatory was installed in 1954.
In 1970 Queen Elizabeth II, The Duke of Edinburgh and Her Royal Highness Princess Anne toured Australia including Queensland. The Queensland tour began on Sunday 12 April when the royal yacht Britannia entered Moreton Bay at Caloundra, sailing into Newstead Wharf. After visiting Brisbane, Longreach and Mount Isa the Royal Family travelled to Mackay. The royal party had a leisurely cruise to Townsville. According to the formal schedule, the Royal Yacht Britannia arrived off Green Island on the morning of 21 April, after leaving Townsville the day before. The scheduled visit to Green Island was dependent on the weather. All three members of the Royal family were taken by Royal Barge to the Green Island jetty. The visit only lasted 30mins, before Britannia left for Cooktown by 10:15am the same day. [13]
The current resort, Green Island Reef Resort, was opened in 1994. [7]
A seawater desalination plant was commissioned to supply water to the resort in 2001. The plant supplies 55 kL/d of potable water, and returns waste brine to the sea. [14]
There are no schools on Green Island. The nearest schools are in Cairns. [15] Distance education and boarding schools are other options.
Commercial charter boats, helicopter and seaplane services all provide transport to the island. [16] The island is reachable by a 45-minute catamaran ride from the mainland city of Cairns.
The Coral Sea Islands Territory is an external territory of Australia which comprises a group of small and mostly uninhabited tropical islands and reefs in the Coral Sea, north-east of Queensland, Australia. The only inhabited island is Willis Island. The territory covers 780,000 km2 (301,160 sq mi), most of which is ocean, extending east and south from the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef and includes Heralds Beacon Island, Osprey Reef, the Willis Group and fifteen other reef/island groups. Cato Island is the highest point in the Territory.
Fitzroy Island National Park is a gazetted protected area covering Fitzroy Island, in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia. Fitzroy Island, is a continental island located 22 kilometres (14 mi) east of Cairns on the mainland.
Green Island National Park is a protected area declared over a small coral cay of Green Island, Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. It is known to the local Gungganyji Aboriginal peoples as Dabuukji. The Gungganyji people used the island as an initiation ground.
Cairns is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-populous in Queensland, and 15th in Australia.
A cay, also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, including in the Caribbean and on the Great Barrier Reef and Belize Barrier Reef.
Hinchinbrook Island is an island in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It lies east of Cardwell and north of Lucinda, separated from the north-eastern coast of Queensland by the narrow Hinchinbrook Channel. Hinchinbrook Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and wholly protected within the Hinchinbrook Island National Park, except for a small and abandoned resort. It is the largest island on the Great Barrier Reef. It is also the largest island national park in Australia.
Heron Island is a coral cay located near the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern Great Barrier Reef, 80 kilometres north-east of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, and 460 km (290 mi) north-north-west of the state capital Brisbane. The island is situated on the leeward (western) side of Heron Reef, a fringing platform reef of significant biodiversity, supporting around 900 of the 1,500 fish species and 72% of the coral species found on the Great Barrier Reef. During the summer months Heron Island is also home to over 200,000 birds including Noddy Terns and Mutton Birds.
Mission Beach is a coastal town and locality in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, the locality of Mission Beach had a population of 815 people.
Palm Island is a locality consisting of an island group of 16 islands, split between the Shire of Hinchinbrook and the Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island, in Queensland, Australia. The locality coincides with the geographical entity known as the Palm Island group, also known as the Greater Palm group, originally named the Palm Isles.
Lady Elliot Island is the southernmost coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The island lies 46 nautical miles north-east of Bundaberg and covers an area of approximately 45 hectares. It is part of the Capricorn and Bunker Group of islands and is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia. The island is home to a small eco resort and an airstrip, which is serviced daily by flights from Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Fantome Island is one of the islands in the Palm Island group. It is neighboured by Great Palm Island and is 65 km (40 mi) north-east of Townsville, Queensland on the east coast of Australia. The island is small with an area of 7.8 km2 (3.01 sq mi) and is surrounded by a fringing reef. The Djabugay (Aboriginal) name for this island is Eumilli Island.
Hull River Aboriginal Settlement, sometimes incorrectly referred to as Hull River Aboriginal Mission, was an Aboriginal reserve established in 1914, located at the present location of Mission Beach in the Hull River National Park, Queensland, Australia.
The history of Cairns in Queensland, Australia, is a transition of a port from a shanty town to a modern city, following an uncertain start because of competition from the newly created neighbouring community of Port Douglas. A succession of major work projects, institution establishments and direct involvement in world enterprise accelerated the settlement's development.
The Manbarra, otherwise known as the Wulgurukaba, are Aboriginal Australian people, and the traditional custodians of the Palm Islands, Magnetic Island, and an area of mainland Queensland to the west of Townsville.
Raine Island is a vegetated coral cay 32 hectares in total area situated on the outer edges of the Great Barrier Reef off north-eastern Australia. It lies approximately 620 km (390 mi) north-northwest of Cairns in Queensland, about 120 kilometres (75 mi) east-north-east of Cape Grenville on the Cape York Peninsula.
Bramble Cay, also known as Maizab Kaur and Massaramcoer, is a small cay located at the northeastern edge of Australia and the Torres Strait Islands of Queensland and at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Lying around 50 km (31 mi) north of Erub Island in the Gulf of Papua, it is the northernmost point of land of Australia and marks the end of the Great Barrier Reef.
The Coral Sea Reserves Ramsar Site comprises the 17,289 km2 of oceanic island and reef habitats within the former Coringa-Herald National Nature Reserve and the former Lihou Reef National Nature Reserve in the Australian Coral Sea Islands Territory.
Robert Arthur Johnstone was an officer in the Native Police paramilitary force which operated in the British colony of Queensland. He was stationed at various locations in central and northern Queensland between 1867 and 1880 conducting regular punitive expeditions against clans of Indigenous Australians who resisted colonisation. He also participated in several surveying expeditions in Far North Queensland, including those under the leadership of George Elphinstone Dalrymple.
Masig Island is an island and locality in the Torres Strait Island Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census Masig Island had a population of 270 people.
William Bairstow Ingham was a British colonist who operated a sugarcane plantation in the lower Herbert River region and was an agent for the colonial Government of Queensland during the early years of the British occupation of New Guinea. The town of Ingham in North Queensland is named after him.
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