Dunk Island

“Other islands and islets are in close proximity, a dozen or so within a radius of as many miles, but this, Dunk Island, is the chief of its group, the largest in area, the highest in altitude, the nearest the mainland, the fairest, the best”… E J Banfield - ‘Confessions of a Beachcomber’

Midway between Townsville and Cairns lies the ‘Family Group of Islands’, characterised by long, golden spits of sand formed by wave action and sea currents. The so-called ‘father’ of these islands is Dunk Island, a 6km long, 2km wide rainforest paradise that lies 4kms east of the mainland.

On June 8, 1770, Captain James Cook sailed the ‘Endeavour’ past the ‘Family Islands’ naming Dunk after Lord Montague Dunk - the Earl of Sandwich and the First Lord of the British Admiralty. Previously known to the first inhabitants, the Djiru Aboriginal Tribe, as ‘Coonanglebah’ (“The Isle of Peace and Plenty”), Cook renamed Dunk the ‘Father Isle’, with nearby Bedarra the ‘Mother Isle’ and the remaining 14 islands called ‘The Children’.