The Hinchinbrook Channel is a channel between the Australian mainland and Hinchinbrook Island

Hinchinbrook Island

Hinchinbrook Island lies east of Cardwell and north of Lucinda, Queensland Australia. Hinchinbrook Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and wholly protected within the Hinchinbrook Island National Park, except for a small resort. It is the largest island on the Great Barrier Reef...

. It runs between Oyster Point

Oyster Point

Oyster Point lies at the mouth of Stoney Creek, about one kilometre south of Cardwell in northern Australia. The location provides excellent boating access to the shallow, warm waters of the Hinchinbrook Channel, numerous reefs and many islands including Hinchinbrook Island and Goold Island.The...

, just south of Cardwell

Cardwell, Queensland

Cardwell is a tropical coastal town in northeastern Queensland. It is located at the southern extremity of the Cassowary Coast. At the 2006 census, Cardwell had a population of 1,250. The Bruce Highway National Highway 1 and the North Coast railway line are the dominant transport routes;...

, and Lucinda

Lucinda, Queensland

Lucinda is a coastal town in the state of Queensland, Australia, located at the southern entrance to Hinchinbrook Channel near the town of Ingham. A sugar-exporting town, Lucinda is noted for its 6km-long sugar jetty, the world's largest bulk sugar loading facility...

 in Far North Queensland

Far North Queensland

Far North Queensland, or FNQ, is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. The region, which contains a large section of the Tropical North Queensland area, stretches from the city of Cairns north to the Torres Strait...

. The Aboriginal name for the channel is Bolan Milbirmi. The Herbert River

Herbert River

The Herbert River is a river located in Far North Queensland, Australia. The southernmost of Queensland's wet tropics river systems, it is named after Robert George Wyndham Herbert , the first Premier of Queensland...

 flows into the channel's southern point.

The Hinchinbrook Channel is protected within the Hinchinbrook Island National Park. Dugong

Dugong

The dugong is a large marine mammal which, together with the manatees, is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow , was hunted to extinction in the 18th century...

 feed and seek habitat in the sea grass patches along the channel seafloor.