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Carlisle Island
HISTORY
Carlisle Island
Carlisle Island, together with today's Brampton
Island was designated as 'M Island' by Matthew Flinders in 1802. His
chart notes the 'Bluff ' at its south-east corner which is almost a separate
island attached to the main one by sand dunes.
Carlisle Island received its separate name in 1879 from Staff Commander E. P. Bedwell, RN, in SS Llewellyn and is one of the many names from the then English county of Cumberland he brought to the Whitsundays following James Cook's 1770 designation of the group as 'The Cumberland Isles'. A cathedral city, Carlisle is the largest city in Cumbria into which the county of Cumberland was absorbed in 1974.
In February 1888 the steamer Geelong was wrecked on the
north-west corner of the island, its remains still visible to divers in the
1990s.
Settlement
William Vereker Bindon 1911- 1913 W. V. Bindon from Auckland, New Zealand
applied for an occupation licence on 18 September 1911 and was given OL174.
Later, in June 1912 he also obtained an occupation licence over Brampton Island
but did nothing with either island and the licences lapsed in 1913. He had a
boat Florence in which he visited the islands and this he sold to the
Busuttin family who later occupied St Bees and Brampton Islands. Bindon also
showed an interest in Green Island near Mackay and Prudhoe Island in the
Northumberland group.
Paradise Island Syndicate 1937 In 1937 southern interests proposed to form a resort on Carlisle Island at a cost of £15,000 ($ 30,000). The idea was to form a club, to be known as 'Paradise Island' with a substantial club-house with all modern facilities. Fishermen were to be catered for especially and a fleet of small craft would be made available to members free of cost. A large and luxurious steam yacht, known as The White Yacht, was to be available to convey club members from Sydney (Bowen Independent 15 December 1937; Brisbane Telegraph 10 December 1937). However nothing came of the idea.
The island was gazetted a national park on 5 November 1938.
Secret Intelligence Australia 1942- 1943
During World War 2, from late 1942 to April 1943 the island was used
as a training base by an arm of the Allied Intelligence Bureau, Secret
Intelligence Australia (SIA). Under the command of Lieutenant Phillip Jacks,
RANVR, about a dozen Indonesian nationals were brought to the island to be
trained in intelligence work and later to be infiltrated into various islands in
Japanese occupied Indonesia to gather information about enemy movements, weather
etc. These plans went ahead during 1944 and 1945 and Lachlan Nicolson of
Lindeman Island was one of the officers of the RANVR who conducted the agents to
and from their placements in the islands via US submarines from Darwin and
Fremantle. His involvement began in late 1942 when he became skipper of the
unit's supply vessel Lady Emma which ferried supplies between Mackay and
the island (Nicolson family).
Carapark Motels Ltd 1962- 1964
In 1959 Carapark Motels took over the lease of Brampton Island resort from
the Busuttin family and with the idea of providing air transport to that island
obtained special lease 26260 for 30 years from 13 February 1962 over fifty acres
on the north-west corner of Carlisle Island for an airstrip. In 1964 the then
owners of Brampton Island resort, Brampton Island Pty Ltd, also took up the idea
of an airstrip and the Carapark lease of Carlisle Island was transferred to them
on 8 May 1964. However it was found that in south-east winds there was too much
air turbulence at the site and the idea was abandoned, the lease being
surrendered on 31 December 1964. Instead a strip was constructed on the
north-eastern shore of Brampton Island.
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!