Princess Charlotte Bay is a large bay on the east coast of 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...

 at the base of Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...

, 350 km north northwest of Cairns. Princess Charlotte Bay is a part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. Fishing and the removal of artefacts or...

 and it is a habitat for the 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...

.

Reefs in the bay are described as pristine. Barramundi habitat and associated wetlands exist in declared green zones which restrict commercial fishing.

History

The bay is in the traditional lands of the Bakanambia

Bakanambia

The Bakanambia, also known as the Wanbara, are an Aboriginal group of Australia. Another term, Wambara, is occasionally used, but is generally considered incorrect. Traditionally, the Bakanambia lived in the vicinity of Princess Charlotte Bay in the state of Queensland, covering an area of around...

 and Jeteneru people. Early coastal explorers, 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...

 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...

 both failed to identify the bay. The bay was named after Princess Charlotte of Wales by Lieutenant Charles Jeffreys of the British Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 in 1815.

Princess Charlotte Bay and surrounds were devastated by the Mahina Cyclone of 1899 which destroyed all 100 ships moored there at the time. Other estimates suggest a lower figure of 82 boats destroyed. On the 4 March 1899, the entire North Queensland pearling fleet was in the bay where they regularly collected supplies and unloaded shells. Around 100 Aboriginals who were assisting survivors ashore and 307 men from the pearling fleet were drowned in Queensland's worst maritime disaster.

Geography

The most easterly point of the bay is Cape Melville

Cape Melville

Cape Melville is a headland on the eastern coast of the Cape York Peninsula. To its west lies Princess Charlotte Bay. It is part of the Cape Melville National Park....

. Also in this area is Flinders Island, part of the Flinders Group

Flinders Group National Park

Flinders Group is a national park in Queensland , 1745 km northwest of Brisbane....

. The bay's most westerly point is Claremont Point.

Normanby

Normanby River

The Normanby River is a major river in northern Queensland, located on the edge of the Wet Tropics and flowing in a generally north-northwestward direction through seasonally flooded savanna grassland to Princess Charlotte Bay about 150 kilometres from Cooktown....

, Bizant, North Kennedy, Marrett and Morehead rivers terminate in the bay. Marine fossils and old beach ridges have been discovered well inland along the river systems. This indicates the bay has been experiencing a gradual infill

Infill

Infill in its broadest meaning is material that fills in an otherwise unoccupied space. The term is commonly used in association with construction techniques such as wattle and daub, and civil engineering activities such as land reclamation.-Construction:...

ing.

During spring tides salt water inundates low areas for several kilometres inland. Mixed mangrove

Mangrove

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...

 forests predominate in tidal areas. The adjacent wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s are one of the largest in Australia. Extensive areas of seagrass

Seagrass

Seagrasses are flowering plants from one of four plant families , all in the order Alismatales , which grow in marine, fully saline environments.-Ecology:...

 beds exist on the bay's seafloor. There are also large areas of tidal flats covered in sand and mud.

Protected areas around the bay include Cliff Island National Park, Lakefield National Park

Lakefield National Park

Lakefield is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 1,707 km northwest of Brisbane and 340 km north-west of Cairns by road, on Cape York Peninsula. At 5,370 km2 Lakefield is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 1,707 km northwest of Brisbane and 340 km north-west of...

 and Cape Melville National Park

Cape Melville National Park

Cape Melville is a national park in Queensland, Australia, located 1711 km northwest of Brisbane....

. The best boat access to Princess Charlotte Bay is from the Bizant boat ramp which is 20 km from Bizant.

Fauna

The Bizant river shark is a rare species of fresh or brackish water shark. More common marine species found in the bay include barramundi

Barramundi

The Barramundi , also known as Asian Seabass, is a species of catadromous fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. The native species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific region from the Persian Gulf, through Southeast Asia to Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia. Known in Thai...

, blue salmon

Salmon

Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...

, grey mackerel

Mackerel

Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of fish, mostly, but not exclusively, from the family Scombridae. They may be found in all tropical and temperate seas. Most live offshore in the oceanic environment but a few, like the Spanish mackerel , enter bays and can be...

, queenfish

Queenfish

Queenfish are a species of croaker occurring from Uncle Sam Bank, Baja California, to Yaquina Bay, Oregon; they are the only species in the genus Seriphus. They are common during summer in shallow water around pier pilings on sandy bottoms. They are found at depths up to 180 feet; however, occur...

, grunter, mangrove jack, tiger prawn and mud crab

Mud crab

Mud crab may refer to any crab that lives in or near mud, such as:*Scylla serrata, also called mangrove crab and black crab.*Scylla tranquebarica, another variety of the mangrove crab.*Scylla paramamosain...

.

Both Princess Charlotte and nearby Bathurst Bay

Bathurst Bay

Bathurst Bay is the name of a 19th century peninsula settlement that is now a tourist attraction on Cape York in northern Queensland, near the Great Barrier Reef. The British first settled Bathurst Bay sometime in the early-19th Century. The settlement had few tradable goods because of its climate...

have some of the highest densities of dugong in Queensland. A Special Management area has been established in Princess Charlotte Bay. It aims to protect the dugong from commercial net fishers by limiting the number of fishing permit holders.