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Armit Island
HISTORY
Armit Island
Armit Island was named in 1866 by Commander G. S. Nares,
RN, in HMS Salamander after crew member Sub Lieutenant Robert
M. Armit, RN.
Sailing directions issued by Nares in 1866 and published in the Port Denison Times of 13 October 1866 call the island 'Wedge or Armit Island', it being likely 'Wedge' was derived from the island's shape. Nares' original survey chart showed today's Armit Island and the small island to its south-east as 'Armit Islands', but later charts call the larger island alone 'Armit Island' (such discrepancies between charts are not unusual, generally the result of transcription errors).
Settlement
The first settler on the island must be guessed at. It may
have been one T. Heron in the 1880/ 90s for the Proserpine Guardian of 5
April 1941 carries an article
about a ghost on Armit Island and says a man called 'Heron' leased the island
'about 50 years ago' and built a hut and developed an orchard. While there is no
official record of such a lease in those years, a T. Heron worked for the
Department of Harbours and Marine in Bowen in 1889 and possibly squatted on the
island from time to time without any formal tenure.
Sidney William Corbett 1924 - 1925
On 18 July 1924 an occupation licence
477 was given to Sidney William Corbett of Mackay but nothing is known of this
man. While he paid his first year's rent it seems he did nothing with the island
and it again was opened to occupation on 9 March 1926 as OL500.
Arthur (' Sailor') Bull 1926 - 1929
On 8 December 1926 OL500 was taken
up by Bull
who hailed originally from Fairymead and after service with the Adelaide
Steamship Company on coastal steamers gravitated to Mackay where he became
something of an identity skippering boats for, among others, the Busuttins of Brampton
Island and the Nicolsons of Lindeman Island.
On Lindeman Island he met and married Ruth Sinclair and together they must
have had dreams of an island of their own for Arthur held an occupation licence
over Grassy Island from 1924 to 1926 and Armit Island from 1926 to 1929. In the
event it seems they did not live permanently on either island but camped there
occasionally. The occupation licence over
Armit Island was eventually forfeited to be re-opened to occupation on 14
February 1930, though there were no takers at that time.
A. F. E. (Boyd) Lee 1932 - 1933
On 29 September 1932 local identity A. F.
E. Lee of
Grassy Island was granted occupation licence 545 over the island but held
it only until 1933, apparently doing nothing with it. His was the last tenure
recorded and in 1938 the island was declared a national park.
The Information on the Whitsunday Islands is reproduced by kind permission of Mr. Ray Blackwood from his book: " The Whitsunday Islands An Historical Dictionary ".
Please visit his site here. It is well worth the time!