Erskine Island is a small coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

 cay

Cay

A cay , also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island formed on the surface of coral reefs. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans , where they provide habitable and agricultural land for hundreds of thousands of people...

 in the southern Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...

, located 60 kilometres northeast of Gladstone

Gladstone, Queensland

- Education :Gladstone has several primary schools, three high schools, and one university campus, Central Queensland University. It is also home to CQIT Gladstone Campus.- Recreation :...

, Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. 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...

 and 17 km west-south-west of Heron Island. It is part of the Capricornia Cays National Park

Capricornia Cays National Park

Capricornia Cays is both a national park and a scientific national park in Queensland , located 486 km and 472 km north of the state capital Brisbane respectively. Collectively they comprise 241 ha of coral cays....

 and of the Capricornia Cays Important Bird Area

Important Bird Area

An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...

.

Flora and fauna

The Capricorn Silvereye

Capricorn Silvereye

The Capricorn Silvereye , also known as the Capricorn White-eye or Green-headed White-eye, is a small greenish bird in the Zosteropidae or White-eye family...

, a small bird endemic to islands in the Capricorn-Bunker Group, is resident on Erskine. Loggerhead Turtles nest on the beaches. It is the type locality of the shrimp Periclimenes madreporae Bruce, 1969.