Raine Island

The Raine Iceland National Park (English Raine Iceland National Park ) is a 131 -acre national park in Queensland, Australia. It consists of three coral islands and is a UNESCO World Heritage Great Barrier Reef. The island is named after Captain Thomas Raine, who discovered the island in 1815.

Location

The National Park is located 620 kilometers north of Cairns and 160 kilometers southwest of Cape York on the east coast of Cape York Peninsula. The islands are located about 150 kilometers off coast of the Coral Sea at the eastern edge of the Australian continental shelf.

In the environment, the National Parks Saunders Islands, Sir Charles Hardy Group and Denham Group lie.

Provincial nature

The National Park covers Raine Iceland and the adjacent Moulter and MacLennan Cays, small Koralleninselchen. It is believed that they are in the course of melting glaciers after the last ice age and the associated therewith sea level rise, formed during the last 4700 years.

Flora and Fauna

The vegetation consists of grass and low bushes.

In the area of the National Park 84 different bird species have been recorded, including the endangered South Trinidad Petrel ( Pterodroma heraldica ) and the endangered Red-tailed Tropicbird ( Phaethon rubricauda ). The largest colony of masked boobies (Sula dactylatra ) in the Coral Sea is their home as well as one of the three largest white-bellied gannet colonies (Sula leucogaster ) in eastern Australia.

Particularly important are the islands of green turtles (Chelonia mydas). The internationally classified as threatened animals come in the breeding season to tens of thousands to the island and lay their eggs.

History

Long before the first Europeans explored the Australian seas, sailed Torres Strait Islanders of the Eastern Torres Strait Islands, Murray, Darnley and Stephens with dugout canoes to these islands. The Wuthathi, a group of Aborigines from mainland Australia, came with seaworthy outrigger canoes on the Raine Island. Both groups talked cultural and social contacts among themselves.

The islands, reefs and surrounding waters of the outer Great Barrier Reef have been used to hunt sea turtles to dive for pearls and Trochus to collect a Meeresschneckenart, later also sea cucumbers. The names of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, which are engraved on the stone tower testify how far they drove out in their simple boats in the 19th century on the open sea.

The stone tower was built by convicts in 1844 on European command of the British Admiralty after in this area at least 21 ships have run base in the 18th and 19th centuries, including the HMS Pandora. Ironically, the wood of the fallen Martha Ridgeway was used for the construction of the tower. The 14 meter high tower was occurring on the island of phosphorite, the limestone, built within 4 months and should have the ships the way through this difficult field.

From 1890 to 1892 phosphorite was mined on the island. In a purpose-built rails and a landing stage ten of thousands of tons were shipped from Chinese and Malay workers under the supervision of 10 Europeans.