Hinchinbrook Island
Lying southeast of Cardwell, north of Lucinda and north-northwest of Townsville, Hinchinbrook Island is the largest island in the waters behind the Great Barrier Reef and Australia's largest island national park. Mount Bowen is the island's highest peak, 1121 metres above sea level.
Hinchinbrook Island and the coastal ranges are composed of late Palaeozoic igneous rocks believed to have been thrust up as blocks with subsidence between them, subsequently forming the coastal plain and Hinchinbrook Passage, 164 square kilometres of mangrove estuaries which developed after the last Ice Age, 18,000 years ago, when rising seas inundated the gap between the former coastal range and the ranges to its west.
On the island's west coast, the Bandjin people modified rock formations to build fish traps that exploited the tides. The traps captured fish and held the catch alive for days—an essential food source for the Bandjin people and the local bird life. Shell middens are further evidence of the Bandjin's pre-contact activities.
Although James Cook passed the island, Phillip Parker King named it on 19 May 1819. King may have chosen the name for its association with the Montagu family, formerly earls of Halifax. Cook had named nearby Halifax Bay after George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, in 1770.
