Mission Beach Region Guide

Dunk Island

Dunk Island is located within the Family group of Islands National Park.

Make sure you visit Dunk Island when you stay at Mission Beach. 

It is possible to hire a little catamaran and make your own way to Dunk Island from the South Mission Beach Watersports hire in front of the caravan park.  This is weather dependent.
 
Alternatively the Quick Cat ferry departs Clump Point Jetty at the Northern end of Mission Beach four times daily.  Or, it is possible to take a Water Taxi.  Water Taxi's run regular transfers throughout the day from Wongaling Beach.  

It is not possible to visit the resort unless you purchase a resort pass or are a resort guest but there are day visitor facilities with a well equipped Water Sports facility and the Spit Bar. 

If you would like to camp over this needs to be pre-arranged with "National Parks".

Dunk Island is by far the largest island, covering 970ha, of which 730ha is national park and the balance freehold. The highest peak in the park is Mt Kootaloo on Dunk Island, which is 271m above sea level.

Edmund James Banfield and his wife Bertha moved to the island in 1897 until his death in 1923.  Edmund, also known as the Beachcomber recorded his life on the island in a series of books - the most famous of which was The Confessions of a Beachcomber.

The graves of E.J Banfield and his wife are on the island.  Edmund was a keen naturalist and did much to ensure that most of the island became a sanctuary for its wildlife. Today the southern section of Dunk Island is a National Park.

The first European to make contact with its shores was James Cook who sailed past in June 1770 and observed it to be a 'tolerable high island'. He named it after the Earl of Halifax, George Montagu Dunk.

In 1848 the HMS Rattlesnake anchored off the island and John MacGillivray studied the fauna and flora of the island. He subsequently wrote of its natural features in the Narrative of the Voyage of HMS Rattlesnake, published in England in 1852.

Located 4 km off the coast, Dunk Island is 160 km north of Townsville and 120 km south of Cairns. It used to be called Coonanglebah (sometimes spelt
Gunanggulba) by the local Aborigines. Some sources suggest the word meant
'Island of Peace and Plenty'.   This name is still used in marketing the
island as a holiday resort.

In 1968 Dunk was used as the setting for the cinematic version of Norman Lindsay's The Age of Consent, which starred James Mason and Helen Mirren.

Today the island is a careful mixture of tourism and national parkland.
There is one resort and visitors spend their time inspecting the reef or wandering around the island's tracks, which include a fascinating path (which starts at the back of the resort) that crosses a suspension bridge and continues on past Banfield's grave to Mount Koo-Tal-Oo Lookout.

Dunk Island has a varied topography including sandy beaches and rocky shores on the leeward side, slightly undulating slopes, foothills and steeper semi-rugged terrain. A sand spit and beaches are located on the western side, and there are also sand beaches on the south-western end of the island. At least two creeks have water for most of the year.

Landscape

The Family Islands, together with the other islands in Rockingham Bay — the Brook Islands, Goold Island and Hinchinbrook Island — provide an important recreational resource and vital area for conservation of natural and cultural resources.

The Family Islands consists of nine islands, most of them small and all consisting of granite rock. Bedarra and Thorpe Islands are privately owned and not included within the Family Islands National Park. Bedarra Island has one resort and Wheeler Island has been traditionally a popular picnicking destination for guests from the resorts.

A cruise of the Family Islands departs daily at 11am from Dunk Island jetty and returns at 1pm.