St Helena Island, Queensland

St Helena Island National Park Queensland
IUCN category II (national park)
View of the butcher's shop and bakery at St Helena
St Helena Island National Park
Coordinates	27°23′36″S 153°13′54″E / 27.39333°S 153.23167°E / -27.39333; 153.23167Coordinates: 27°23′36″S 153°13′54″E / 27.39333°S 153.23167°E / -27.39333; 153.23167
Established	1979
Area	75 ha (185.33 acres)
Managing authorities	Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
Website	St Helena Island National Park
See also	Protected areas of Queensland

St Helena Island is a heritage-listed island in Queensland, Australia, 21 kilometres (13 mi) east of Brisbane and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of the mouth of the Brisbane River in Moreton Bay. Originally used as a prison, it is now a national park. Local Australian Aborigines called the island Noogoon but it was renamed St Helena after an aboriginal named Napoleon was exiled there in 1826. The island is visible from the mainland, particularly the suburbs of Wynnum, Manly and Lota. It has its own permanent water supply, a spring in the centre of the island. Many migratory birds use the island as a watering hole; it forms part of the Moreton Bay and Pumicestone Passage Important Bird Area, so identified by BirdLife International because it supports large numbers of migratory waders, or shorebirds.

In the 19th century St Helena Island was a quarantine station which became one of the most profitable prisons in Queensland history. The island was used to house prisoners and staff for 65 years. Many of those involved in the 1891 Australian shearers' strike were imprisoned there along with murderers and bushrangers.

Four kilometres from the mouth of the Brisbane River lies St Helena Island. For more than 60 years from 1867, St Helena was the place of imprisonment for many hundreds of society's outcasts, for here was located colonial Queensland's foremost prison for men.