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Whitsunday Facts
Cumberland Islands
On his historic voyage through the Whitsundays in June 1770 in HMS Endeavour, Lieutenant James Cook, RN, gave the name after the then Duke of Cumberland, Henry Frederick, younger brother of King George III of England. The county of Cumberland lay in the north-west of England, its northern border being also part of the southern border of Scotland. However the county of Cumberland as Cook knew it does not exist today. In 1974 it was merged with Westmorland, part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and the Furness area of Lancashire to become the new county of Cumbria.
Cook actually named the group 'Cumberland Isles' as his journal and charts show but by the 1820s, following Lieutenant P. P. King's surveys of the area, 'Isles' had been dropped in favour of 'Islands' and that nomenclature has remained ever since.
In giving the name Cook gave no firm indication of which islands were among his Cumberland Isles, but his journal stated 'This Passage I have named Whitsunday's Passage and the islands which form it the Cumberland Isles'. It therefore could be argued that Shaw Island was the most southerly of the Cumberland Islands but Cook's chart showed the name covering islands well to the south of Shaw and those following him showed similarly on their more detailed charts. However there was never any doubt as to the northernmost island, which Cook's journal and narratives of those who followed close behind him, clearly defined as what today is Hayman Island.
Cook named only one island in the group, Pentecost Island.
The group was defined positively in the Australia Pilot of the 1930s as including all the islands from Hayman Island to Snare Peak Island and lying east of the Whitsunday Passage and the Hillsborough Channel. Thus the Molle Group and the islands south of Gloucester Island were not included in that definition. However in 1960 the Hydrographic Service of the RAN thought it desirable the group be re-defined for navigational purposes to include new names brought to the fore by tourist development. They re-confirmed that Hayman Island was the most northerly and Snare Peak Island the most southerly and decided the more southern islands were sufficiently isolated not to warrant a separate grouping. However it also was decided that in the north, in addition to The Sir James Smith group, two new groups should be defined, the Whitsunday group and the Lindeman group (RAN Hydrographic Service).
The Whitsunday group was defined as 'The islands between Young Island, Long Island, North Molle Island, Hayman Island and Edward Island'. The Lindeman group was defined as 'The islands between Thomas Island and Pentecost Island' (Notice to Mariners No. 316 of 15 July 1960).
In the late 1870s Staff Commander E. P. Bedwell, RN, then Admiralty Surveyor for Queensland, conducted extensive surveys of the Cumberland Islands in the SS Llewellyn and to tidy up the remaining un-named islands in the group drew heavily on place names from Cumberland, including some from the historical association between the Border counties of both England and Scotland. Names with a 'Cumberland' association given by Bedwell are:
Allonby, Aspatria, Blackcombe, Border, Brampton, Calder, Carlisle, Cockermouth, Deloraine, Derwent, Duddon, Edward**, Egremont, Esk, Filmoy*, Harold**, Helvellyn, Hesket, Ireby, Keswick, Maryport, Minstrel, Penrith, Scawfell, Silloth, Skiddaw, Solway, St. Bees, Whitehaven, Wigton, Workington
We can help you arrange Airlie/Island and cruise combo's or your entire east coast adventure. Talk to us, we give you what YOU want.
Whitsunday Accommodation & Tours Libby & Bob 4 Tyree Rd. Mt. Julian , Queensland 4800 Phone: +61 7 49452019 Fax: +61 7 49452061 E-Mail: whitacc@bigpond.net.au
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