Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

's Northumberland Islands are a scattered island chain off the 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...

 coast, located south-east of the city of Mackay

Mackay, Queensland

Mackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....

 roughly between the latitudes 21°S and 22°S. All islands are of the continental type. The island group was named by James Cook

James Cook

Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...

 during his historic voyage along Australia's eastern seaboard in 1770, after the First Duke of Northumberland, Hugh Percy

Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland

Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, KG, PC was an Engish peer, landowner and art patron.He was born Hugh Smithson, the son of Langdale Smithson and grandson of Sir Hugh Smithson, 3rd Baronet from whom he inherited the baronetcy in 1733...

 http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/property/placenames/detail.php?id=24762. Both Cook and Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders

Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...

 make note of the island group in their journals, Cook describing them as such:

As soon as we got round the Cape [Cape Townshend] we hauld our wind to the Westward in order to get within the Islands which lay scatter'd up and down in this bay [Shoalwater Bay] in great number, and extend out to Sea as far as we could see from the Masthead; how much farther will hardly be in my power to determine; they are as Various in their height and Circuit as they are numerous. http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/cook/james/c77j/chapter8.html

The island group is remote, and apart from charter flights to Marble Island accessible only by private yacht.

The Northumberland Islands are further subdivided into smaller groups: the Bedwell Group, Beverley Group, Broad Sound Islands, Duke Islands, Flat Isles, Guardfish Cluster and Percy Group. The islands are listed below, with the geographical coordinates of the largest islands given. Only the major islands of each group are listed.

Bedwell Group

Name origin: Staff Commander E. P. Bedwell, surveyor http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/property/placenames/detail.php?id=2038

• Calliope Island
• Connor Islet
• Innes Island
• George Island
• Poynter Island 21°50′S 149°47′E

Beverley Group

Name origin: Unknown http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/property/placenames/detail.php?id=2430

• Beverlac Island
• Digby Island 21°30′S 149°56′E
• Double Island
• Henderson Island
• Hull Island
• Keelan Island
• Knight Island
• Minster Island
• Noel Island
• Prudhoe Island 21°19′S 149°41′E

Broad Sound Islands

Name origin: Situated at the mouth of Broad Sound

Broad Sound

Broad Sound is a large bay on the east coast of Australia, in the state of Queensland 675 km northwest of the state capital, Brisbane. It is about 50 km long and 20 km across at its widest point...

, a vast inlet named by Cook in 1770 http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/property/placenames/detail.php?id=4593

• Long Island 22°10′S 149°53′E
• Quail Island22°08′S 149°59′E
• Tern Island
• Wild Duck Island 22°01′S 149°52′E

Duke Islands

Name origin: Unknown http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/property/placenames/detail.php?id=10764

• Alnwick Island
• Bamborough Island
• Cheviot Island
• Hexham Island 22°02′S 150°22′E
• High Peak Island 21°57′S 150°41′E
• Hunter Island
• Marble Island 21°59′S 150°11′E
• Otterbourne Island
• Shields Island
• Steep Island
• Tweed Island
• Tynemouth Island

Flat Isles

Name origin: Named by Flinders in 1802 due to their height http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/property/placenames/detail.php?id=12726 - Avoid Island is the highest at 33 metres above sea level

• Aquila Island 21°58′S 149°33′E
• Avoid Island
• Flock Pigeon Island 22°08′S 149°34′E
• Red Clay Island

Guardfish Cluster

Name origin: Unknown http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/property/placenames/detail.php?id=14927

• Bluff Island
• Curlew Island 21°37′S 149°48′E
• Tinonee Peak Island

Percy Isles

Name origin: Named by Flinders in 1802 after the Duke of Northumberland

Duke of Northumberland

The Duke of Northumberland is a title in the peerage of Great Britain that has been created several times. Since the third creation in 1766, the title has belonged to the House of Percy , which held the title of Earl of Northumberland from 1377....

's family name http://www.nrm.qld.gov.au/property/placenames/detail.php?id=26441

• Hotspur Island
• Middle Percy Island 21°39′S 150°16′E
• North East Island
• Pine Islet
• Pine Peak Island
• South Percy Island21°46′S 150°20′E
• Sphinx Island
• Walter Island

External links

• Map of Mackay region, showing Northumberland Islands at bottom right