Lady Musgrave Island
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Lady Musgrave Island Queensland |
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IUCN category II (national park)
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 Lady Musgrave Island
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| Nearest town or city | Gladstone |
| Coordinates | 23°54′30″S 152°23′39″E / 23.90833°S 152.39417°ECoordinates: 23°54′30″S 152°23′39″E / 23.90833°S 152.39417°E |
| Area | 0.275 km2 (0.1 sq mi) |
| Managing authorities | Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service |
| Website | Lady Musgrave Island |
| See also | Protected areas of Queensland |
Lady Musgrave Island is a 14 hectares (35 acres) coral cay on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, with a 1,192 hectares (2,950 acres) surrounding reef. The island is the second island in the Great Barrier Reef chain of islands (with the first being Lady Elliot Island), and is most easily reached from the town of 1770, Queensland, located on approximately 5 hours north of Brisbane.You can also get to the Island via boat on the Lady Musgrave Experience that leaves from the Bundaberg Port in Burnett Heads. The Island is named for the wife of Sir Anthony Musgrave, a colonial governor of Queensland.
Lady Musgrave Island, and the immediate surrounds, is a national park and can be reached by excursion boat from the Town of 1770. It is also part of the Capricornia Cays Important Bird Area.
Lady Musgrave island is actually also referred to as Wallaginji by local Australian Aboriginal tribes. The name Wallaginji means beautiful reef.
This island is the only shingle cay situated on the leeward reef flat. The island also has beach rock that is exposed along the north eastern and eastern beaches and an outcrop of lithified coral conglomerate, similar to that forming the core of the cay, occurs near the south eastern corner.
Vegetation consists of Pisonia grandis, Tournefortia argentea, Casuarina equisetifolia, and Pandanus tectorius. The vegetation is less dense than that of the larger sand cays of the Capricorn Group.
A small pond of brackish water is located towards the southern end of the cay. The island is located on the southern end of a large lagoon. From a boating perspective the great thing about Lady Musgrave reef is that you can enter the lagoon via a deep water channel. There has been some conjecture whether the channel into the lagoon is a naturally occurring phenomenon, or was cut into the lagoon by Japanese or Taiwanese fisherman, or as legend has it was widened by guano miners many years ago; it is recorded by 1938 and in 1966 surveys.
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Wikipedia