South Cumberland Islands National Park

South Cumberland Islands National Park Queensland
IUCN category II (national park)
South Cumberland Islands National Park
Nearest town or city	Mackay, Queensland
Coordinates	20°44′28″S 149°28′25″E / 20.74111°S 149.47361°E / -20.74111; 149.47361Coordinates: 20°44′28″S 149°28′25″E / 20.74111°S 149.47361°E / -20.74111; 149.47361
Area	21.8 km2 (8.4 sq mi)
Managing authorities	Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
Website	South Cumberland Islands National Park
See also	Protected areas of Queensland

South Cumberland Islands is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 831 km northwest of Brisbane. It is famous for the Marine stingers which can be found in the waters of the park between October and May.

Islands that are protected within the park include (portion of) Keswick Island, St Bees Island, Cockermouth Island and Scawfell Island, which is the largest in the group. Refuge Bay on Scawfell Island provides good anchorage and fishing is permitted here. Bush camping is permitted on Scawfell Island but visitors must be self-sufficient.

Scawfell Island

Scawfell Island (located at 20°52'S., 149°37'E.) rises to a peak, 397m high, South East of Duddon Point, the North extremity of the island. The Island lies off the cost of Queensland Australia, North East of Mackay. The island, lying 60 kilometres off the Australian mainland, is a large horseshoe shape. Granite cliffs line the coast of Scawfell Island, the largest national park island in the South Cumberland group. Large areas of rainforest perch on steep mountain slopes. Access to the island is via Refuge bay, a tree lined 1.3 km white sandy beach. The bay is a wide sheltered bay facing north with all tidal access. The bay has clear blue water, an excellent coral fringing reef, ideal for snorkelling.

The island is officially regarded as the beginning of the Whitsunday group. It was originally part of the Cumberland Isles Group identified by Captain James Cook in 1770, but was not named. The island is one of the Cumberland Isles, later known as Whitsundays, and is now part of the South Cumberland Islands. Designated L Island by Lieutenant Matthew Flinders of the British Royal Navy in September 1802 as one of his numerous alpha-numeric designations along the Queensland coast during his circumnavigation of Australia in HMS Investigator in 1802/3. Named as Scawfell Island in 1879 by Staff Commander E. P. Bedwell of the British Royal Navy who surveyed and named many islands of the Whitsundays in 1879 in SS Llewellyn. The Island is named after England's second highest mountain, in Cumbria. Called "Scawfell" at the time, this mountain is now called Sca Fell due to a procedural error by the Ordnance Survey in capturing the correct name, publishing this in 1867. This mistake changed common usage by about 1920. The Scafell Range includes Scafell Pike, England's highest mountain, but in 1879 many people did not differentiate between Scawfell Pike and Scawfell (spellings of that date) - regarding them as part of the same mountain.