Long Island (New South Wales)

Long Island is an elongated island of 73 hectares in the Hawkesbury River, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is joined to the mainland at its south eastern edge by the railway causeway across Sandbrook Inlet. At the other end of this causeway is the Sydney suburb of Brooklyn in Hornsby Shire, to which Long Island belongs.

Other islands in the Hawkesbury River include Dangar Island, Spectacle Island, Milson Island, Peat Island and Lion Island.

As with Spectacle Island and Lion Island, Long Island is a nature reserve (73ha, notified in 1972), which means it is illegal to visit without permission from the N.S.W. Office of Environment and Heritage. The New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service runs very infrequent guided tours of the island, for those who are interested in its flora, fauna, geology and Aboriginal history.

Some of the best views of Long Island are from Lloyd Trigonometrical station, and Tipper's Lookout, both located to the west in nearby Muogamarra Nature Reserve. From these vantage points it is possible to look down along the length of the island, and see the mouth of the Hawkesbury River and Broken Bay in the far distance.

Long Island was added to the Australian National Heritage List in December 2006.

The area has been inhabited for thousands of years by the Guringai people, who left their mark on the land with hundreds of rock engravings, stone sharpening sites, cave paintings and shellfish middens. The first European to see the area was Governor Arthur Phillip, who explored the lower river by small boat in March 1788. At first the local people were friendly towards him, but when he returned a year later, they would not come into contact with him. By 1790 over half the Guringai had succumbed to the smallpox the British had brought with them.

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