The Whitsundays

Over the past couple of weeks we've been able to see some of the beautiful Whitsunday islands just off the coast. We acknowledge the Ngaro people, who are the traditional custodians of the islands and coastal fringes in the Whitsundays and who have inhabited the area for over 9000 years.

For the past week we've been camped in the town of Bowen which has some of the best views, and access to Whitsunday islands of anywhere we've been on the coast so far. So to accompany our endless photos of aqua seas, white beaches and palm trees, here's a few fun facts about the Whitsunday Islands.

Before hitting a reef and tearing a hole in the hull of the HMB Endeavour at Cape Tribulation, Cook sailed into the Whitsunday passage on 1 June 1770. Two days later, he navigated around a peninsula he later named Cape Conway and saw a deep and wide stretch of water separating the mainland from a string of islands. That year, 3 June marked the Christian Festival of Whitsun and so Cook named the passage "Whitsunday's Passage". Cook named several other landmarks on this trip including Repulse Bay, the Cumberland Islands, Cape Hillsborough and Cape Gloucester (later re-named Gloucester Island). Any of the Grundy clan following this blog might be interested to know that Poole Island lies just off the coast at Bowen. I suspect Cook also named Poole Island as it's very close to Gloucester Island and others he named after English towns, although I can't find a reference confirming that. It's now privately owned and was recently up for sale for just under a million including the abandoned meat works and airstrip. The second photo below shows Poole Island in the foreground with the much larger Gloucester Island behind.

The Whitsundays were originally part of an ancient chain of mountains formed by volcanic activity and then submerged between 30 and 50,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. The islands we see today are the peaks of those mountains. There are 74 islands in the Whitsundays, with Hamilton Island being the largest inhabited island. Only eight islands are inhabited and most are now protected and part of the Whitsundays National Park.

European settlement began in the 1860s when camps were formed to harvest hoop pine timber used to construct buildings in Bowen. There were several attempts to establish grazing operations on some of the islands but these were unsustainable and failed. Tourism began in the 1920s with boats taking visitors for day trips to some of the inhabited islands. Gradually the industry grew with Lindeman Island being the first to encourage visitors to stay overnight.

Joining the S.S. Yongala on the ocean floor in the Whitsundays are the Singapore which sank off Keswick Island in 1877; the Llewellyn, which also sank off Keswick Island in 1919 during a heavy gale; the Cremer, which ran aground off St Bees Island during a storm in 1943; and the Woy Woy, which is thought to have sunk off Keswick Island but hasn't yet been found.

Bowen itself is on our list of places we'd happily come back to. It's a smallish town but is well serviced with all the important things like pubs, coffee shops, fresh seafood and supermarkets. The views of the nearby Whitsunday islands really are stunning, and Bowen is also the only place on the coast where it's possible to snorkel on the reef right off the beach.

Bowen is the mango capital of the country and has a 'big mango' to prove it. Such a pity they're not in season. Most importantly, to us at any rate, Bowen has several beautiful dog friendly croc-free beaches to explore. Swimming and romping has been kept to a minimum due to Juddy's sore leg, but the Labs have finally wet their paws in the Coral Sea. Happy Labs.

One last fun fact about Bowen: the 'Darwin' scenes in Baz Luhrmann's Australia were filmed in Bowen in 2008. The cast and crew spent several months in Bowen, with Nicole Kidman celebrating her 40th birthday here. Coincidentally we watched the movie for the first (and probably last) time a couple of weeks ago so the scenes filmed around the jetty and pub in particular were fresh in my mind. The Labs slept through the movie, as they usually do, so they were more interested in the jetty's fishy smells.