Restoration Island is a national park in 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...

, 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...

, 1928 km northwest of Brisbane and a few hundred metres from Cape Weymouth and the Iron Range National Park

Iron Range National Park

Iron Range is a National Park located in Queensland, Australia, 1940 km northwest of Brisbane and 100 km east of Weipa in the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Within the National Park is the Iron Range , Scrubby Creek mining site and the Lockhart River Aboriginal Reserve...

.

On 29 May 1789, after the mutiny on the Bounty

Mutiny on the Bounty

The mutiny on the Bounty was a mutiny that occurred aboard the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty on 28 April 1789, and has been commemorated by several books, films, and popular songs, many of which take considerable liberties with the facts. The mutiny was led by Fletcher Christian against the...

, Captain Bligh

William Bligh

Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers...

 and the men who remained loyal to him arrived on the island in the ship's boat. This was the first island they came to, and he named it Restoration Island because the food they found (oysters and native fruits) greatly restored their spirits and because that date was the anniversary of the restoration of King Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 (in 1660).

Bligh saw evidence of the local aborigines

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

 using the island (rough huts and places fires had been made). He also saw kangaroo

Kangaroo

A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...

tracks and wondered if the aborigines brought them from the mainland to breed, since they'd be easier to catch later in the confined space of an island. (When leaving the following day he saw aborigines on an opposite shore, but didn't communicate with them.)

Today Restoration Island is not just a National Park, one third of the island is leased to David Glasheen, a former businessman who moved to the island in 1993http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24846744-1248,00.html. Visitors who want to see the island and live there for a while firstly have to go to Lockhart River and try to get in contact with friends of the caretaker to arrange a meeting. In December 2008, Mr Glasheen advertised on an internet dating site for a female companion to join him and his dog living on the island. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24846744-1248,00.html

External link

• Article featuring Restoration Island resident David Glasheen

http://riverbendnelligen.com/dearall2814.html More about Restoration Island and David Glasheen