Eclipse Island, or Garoogubbee, once known as Punishment Island, is one of the small

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

s in the Palm Islands group off the coast of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. The nearest island is Great Palm Island, after which the group is named. Along with nine of the other islands within the Palm Islands group, it falls under the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

of the Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island. In March 1921 Eclipse Island was gazetted as an

Aboriginal reserve An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th ...

, some years after a government-run reserve, the Palm Island Aboriginal Settlement, had been established on Great Palm Island. Some of the other small Palm Islands were later also designated as reserves in 1948 under Chief Protector John William Bleakley, who targeted them as sites for further institutions for punishing people. There is no record of dwellings or other structures being built on these islands, but Eclipse Island had become known as "Punishment Island" under Superintended Robert Henry Curry (who later murdered four people on the Great Palm Aboriginal Settlement). Curry, as punishment for misdemeanours such as speaking their own language or gambling, would exile men to Eclipse Island, and sometimes Curacoa Island, with only bread and water, sometimes for weeks at a time. The Aboriginal term for this island is Garoogubbee.

References

{{Great Palm Island group Great Palm Island group Uninhabited islands of Australia

See also

References