Northumberland Islands
James Cook named the Northumberland Islands, located southeast of Mackay between 21°S and 22°S, after Hugh Percy, First Duke of Northumberland, when the Endeavour sailed along the North Queensland coastline in June 1770. Matthew Flinders conducted a more thorough investigation of the area around Cook's Broad Sound in the Investigator in 1802.
After four members of an 1855 botanical expedition led by naturalist Frederick Strange — Strange, his assistant Richard Spinks, ship's mate William Spurling and sook Andrew Gittings — were killed on Middle Percy Island when they encountered Guwinmal people, Captain Chimmo of HMS Torch conducted an investigation and took ten islanders, including three women and three children prisoner and took them to Sydney to stand trial. Although a child died in custody, the rest were eventually repatriated to Gladstone.
All of the islands are continental — there are no coral cays — remnants of the coastal plain that extended towards the continental shelf until it was inundated at the end of the last ice age. Apart from charter flights to Marble Island, they are accessible only by privately owned vessels.
Several smaller groups come within the overall Northumberland Islands group"
