Wellesley Islands
Mornington Isld beach
The Wellesley Islands are a group of 22 islands off the coast of north Queensland, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Mornington is the largest of the islands.
Mornington, Sydney and Wallaby are the largest of the North Wellesley Islands; Bentinck and Sweers are the largest of the South Wellesley Islands.
Two small islands in the group form the Manowar and Rocky Islands Important Bird Area because of their importance for breeding seabirds. The South Wellesley Islands and the Forsyth Islands are in the same area and all are the local government area of the Shire of Mornington.
The Wellesley Islands were named by British explorer and navigator Matthew Flinders in honour of Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley.
One of the South Wellesley Islands, in Queensland's Gulf of Carpentaria. It was named by Matthew Flinders after John Allen, a member of the party of naturalists that accompanied the 1801 1803 voyage of HMS Investigator under Flinders.
It is notable for being directly east of Point Parker, the proposed northern terminus of a still-born land grant railway from Charleville. Point Parker, though a prominent feature on the map, is not always labelled on maps.
The island is flat with the maximum elevation of 150 metres. The island is fringed by mangrove forests. Cyclones routinely hit the island.
The population was estimated to be 1,007 in 2001 and the majority of the citizens live in the township of Gununa. Mornington Island is included in the Shire of Mornington local government area. The majority of the islanders are Aboriginal.
Lardil are the predominant clan group on Mornington Island and are the traditional owners of the land and surrounding seas. The Kiadilt clan arrived more recently (1947) from nearby Bentinck Island, when that island's water supply was contaminated by salt after a cyclone.
The Bentinck Island artists are a group of very senior female painters of the Kaiadilt people who live on Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. They commenced painting in 2006 after Sally Gabori became involved in painting workshops run for participants at the aged care facility there. She took great pride in being able to tell her stories through her art and introduced members of her extended family to painting, creating a small-scale but important movement within the community.
The Lardil, Yankaal and Kaiadilt indigenous peoples have occupied the islands for thousands of years. They now live in the township of Gununa, together with people that originally came from the mainland, predominantly from the Gangalida tribes.
Macassan trepangers once travelled thousands of kilometres from Sulawesi to Mornington Island and other Australian mainland destinations in search of sea cucumbers. Their expeditions were later described by Flinders as large undertakings involving many ships and large crews, who took the habit of interbreeding with the native populations of the lands they visited.
The first Europeans to visit the Gulf of Carpentaria were Dutch traders of the East Indian Company in 1606. The first documented visit of what are known as the Wellesley Islands took place when Abel Tasman visited the area in 1644, and charted the islands as part of a peninsula, which he called Cape van Diemen . Another Dutchman, Maarten van Delft, on an expedition to the area was ordered to enter the Bay of Hollandia Nova (i.e. the Gulf of Carpentaria) and pass the Cape van Diemen in order to establish whether there might be a passage through Australia. At that time it was thought that Australia might consist of two large islands.
Contact with the British began when Mathew Flinders anchored the HMS Investigator off Sweers Island (South Wellesley) in 1802. Flinders named the islands after Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley who was known as The Earl of Mornington. The British did not return until 1841, when Captain Stokes visited Bountiful, Fowler, Bentinck and Sweers Islands in the Beagle.
Contact with non-Indigenous people intensified after Burketown was established in 1865. Burketown residents were relocated to Sweers Island in 1866 after an outbreak of gulf fever . The following year the Customs House and township of Carnarvon was established at Sweers Island, bringing many people into the Wellesley Islands including Chinese and Pacific Island labourers.
The Mornington Island Airport was a temporary airfield used by the RAAF and allied air forces during World War II.
