Whitsunday Islands

Whitsunday Islands

Geography
Location	Queensland, Australia
Coordinates	20°18′S 148°56′E / 20.300°S 148.933°E / -20.300; 148.933
Total islands	74
Major islands	Hamilton Island
Area	282.82 km2 (109.20 sq mi)
Administration
Australia
State	Queensland
Largest settlement	Hamilton Island (pop. 1350)
Demographics
Population	1570 (2014)
Pop. density	5.551 /km2 (14.377 /sq mi)

The Whitsunday Islands is a collection of continental islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, Australia, approximately 1,400 kilometres (900 miles) north of Brisbane. The northernmost of the islands are situated off the coast by the town of Bowen while the southernmost islands are off the coast by Proserpine. The island group is centered on Whitsunday Island, while the group's commercial center is Hamilton Island. The traditional owners of the area are the Ngaro people and the Gia people (Birri Gubba language group) whose Juru Clan has the only legally recognized native title in the region.

The term is a misnomer as it is based on Captain Cook’s date for the naming of Whitsunday Passage, or as Cook spelled it in his HMS Endeavour journal, Whitsunday’s Passage. Based on his journal date, Cook believed that the passage was discovered on Whitsunday, the Sunday of the feast of Whitsun—Pentecost in the Christian liturgical year—which is observed 7 weeks after Easter. As the International Date Line had not yet been established, the day of discovery was actually Whit Monday.

There is some contention as to exactly which islands are within the informally named Whitsunday Islands, in particular those at the southern extremity and the inclusions to the west. What is certain is that they lie within the chain named Cumberland Isles by Captain Cook (now officially the Cumberland Islands) and a reasonably defined section of that chain and surrounding waters have become known worldwide as The Whitsundays, based on a contraction of the Whitsunday Islands designation.

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Wikipedia