Hinchinbrook Island - History

History

Hinchinbrook Island was inhabited by the Bandjin people, along a western coastal strip. Shell middens and fish traps are evidence of their activities. Fish were an important source of food for Aboriginal people living in the area. The Bandjin fish trap rock formations exploited the cyclic tidal regime, not only capturing fish, but also holding their catch alive for days. At times, many fish would be caught in the traps. These fish would not be killed nor eaten, instead they were left for the birds. To this day fish are still captured by these traps feeding the local birds.

In 1770 James Cook and his crew on HMS Endeavour sailed past at some distance east of Hinchinbrook Island. Hinchinbrook Island was named on the 19 May 1819 by Lieutenant Phillip Parker King RN (1791-1856). King was a naval officer, hydrographer and company manager who explored the northeastern coast of Australia on the HM Colonial Cutter Mermaid.

In the following decades Europeans settled on Hinchinbrook Island. Their main activities were fishing, farming and mining. In 1932 Hinchinbrook Island was declared a national park. In 1942, a US B24 Liberator bomber crashed into a mountain on the island, killing all 12 people on board. After World War II, commercial crocodile hunting in the area nearly reduced numbers to the point of extinction by the 1960s.

The 2008 movie Nim's Island was partly filmed on the island.