Snapper Island is an island at the mouth of the Daintree River in

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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, some north of Port Douglas. It is administered by the

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports an ...

and the

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) is a business division of the Department of Environment and Science within the Government of Queensland. The division’s primary concern is with the management and maintenance of Protected areas ...

as the Snapper Island National Park and Marine Park. Snapper Island is a popular tourism and sea kayaking destination. It is around 66 hectares or 0.66 square km in size.

Indigenous culture

The island is part of the traditional sea country of the Kuku Yalanji Aboriginal people. The Kuku Yalanji people hunt and fish around the island and traditionally manage the island's culture.

Other history

In the early 1900s, Jerry Doyle operated a

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called ''quicklime'' (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is: CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can tak ...

on the island, fired by wood from the Daintree, ferried over on a vessel called the "Nellie". Beche-de-mer (sea cucumbers) processing (boiling) may also have been undertaken here. There is evidence of remains of an early Chinese market garden on the island, the watercourse stonework of which is still visible today. This island was a stopover by George Elphinstone Dalrymple before he discovered the Daintree River.

Flora and Fauna

The island is home to a variety of vegetation communities such as a small mangrove community, closed sclerophyll forest, closed vine forest and some coastal vegetation. It is inhabited by many sea creatures and birds including the pied imperial-pigeons who come here during the summer season.

References

{{reflist Islands on the Great Barrier Reef Islands of Far North Queensland National parks of Far North Queensland