Sweers Island is an island in the South Wellesley Islands in the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is a sea off the northern coast of Australia. It is enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea, which separates Australia and New Guinea. The northern boundary ...

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. Most of the island is Aboriginal Freehold Land, held in trust by the Kaiadilt Aboriginal Land Trust (KALT) on behalf of the traditional owners. There is a small private resort
Sweers Island Resort
owned via a perpetual lease on Crown Land, being the site of a township dating from the 1800s, with the only residents being the owners and workers at the resort. Sweers Island was the location of "The Investigator Tree" which is now in

Queensland Museum The Queensland Museum Kurilpa is the state museum of Queensland, funded by the government, and dedicated to natural history, cultural heritage, science and human achievement. The museum currently operates from its headquarters and general museu ...

History

Kayardild (also known as Kaiadilt and Gayadilta) is a language of the

, once spoken by the Kaiadilt people. The Kayardild language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Mornington Shire Council. The island was given its European name by explorer

Matthew Flinders Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer who led the first littoral zone, inshore circumnavigate, circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then ...

on 16 November 1802 after Salomon Sweers, a council member of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

at Batavia who was one of those who instructed

Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch sea explorer, seafarer and exploration, explorer, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first European to reach New ...

to explore the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1644. Flinders was circumnavigating the Australian continent in the sloop HMS ''Investigator'' to map the coastline and establish if Australia was a single island or whether there were two or more islands (the Gulf of Carpentaria and the

Great Australian Bight The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight (geography), bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern Coast, coastline of mainland Australia. There are two definitions for its extent—one by the Internation ...

were suspected to be the entrances to straits between the islands).

Robert Towns Robert Towns (10 November 1794 – 11 April 1873) was a British master mariner who settled in Australia as a businessman, sandalwood merchant, colonist, shipowner, pastoralist, politician, whaler and civic leader. He was the founder of Townsvil ...

established

Burketown Burketown is an isolated outback town and coastal Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Cairns and west of Normanton, Queensland, Normanton on the Albert River (Gulf Sa ...

in 1865 as a base for his extensive holdings in the

Gulf Country The Gulf Country or North West Queensland is the region of woodland and savanna grassland surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria in north western Queensland and eastern Northern Territory on the north coast of Australia. The region is also ca ...

. Burketown's development was limited due to the extent of

tropical disease Tropical diseases are diseases that are prevalent in or unique to tropical and subtropical regions. The diseases are less prevalent in temperate climates, due in part to the occurrence of a cold season, which controls the insect population by forc ...

s suffered by its inhabitants. When the ship ''Margaret and Mary'' arrived in Burketown from

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

carrying a fever (possibly

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

), the majority of those on board died at Burketown. In the belief that Burketown was inherently unhealthy,

William Landsborough William Landsborough (21 February 1825 – 16 March 1886) was an explorer of Australia. He was notable for being the first explorer to complete a North-to-South crossing of Australia. He was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council. ...

evacuated most of the survivors to Sweers Island for 18 months, with only a further two people dying. Towns and Co then traded wool, tallow, hides and skins between Sweers Island and Batavia in October 1868. Thomas ("Tex") and Lyn Battle, along with Ray and Salme Atherinos, established a low-key fishing lodge on the island in 1987.

The Investigator Tree

In 1841, the island was visited by

John Lort Stokes Admiral John Lort Stokes (1 August 1811 – 11 June 1885) was a Royal Navy officer who served onboard for almost eighteen years.Although 1812 is frequently given as Stokes's year of birth, it has been argued by author Marsden Hordern that Stok ...

, commander of the ''

Beagle The Beagle is a small breed of scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle was developed primarily for hunting rabbit or hare, known as beagling. Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking inst ...

'' on an exploration of northern Australia. Stokes discovered a tree (''

Celtis paniculata ''Celtis paniculata'', commonly known as tripewood, silky keltis, silky celtis, native hackberry, native celtis, Investigator tree or whitewood, is a rainforest tree in the family Cannabaceae native to parts of Malesia, Melanesia and Australia. ...

'') on the western part of the island with the word "Investigator" carved into it by Flinders on his 1802 visit, giving the tree the name "The Investigator Tree". Stokes also carved the name "Beagle" on the tree. Subsequent visitors to the island also carved names, including from

Augustus Charles Gregory Sir Augustus Charles Gregory (1 August 1819 – 25 June 1905) was an English-born Australian explorer and surveyor. Between 1846 and 1858 he undertook four major expeditions. He was the first Surveyor-General of Queensland. He was appointed a ...

's expedition in 1856 and Landsborough's search for the

Burke and Wills expedition The Burke and Wills expedition (originally called the Victorian Exploring Expedition) was an exploration expedition organised by the Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) in Australia in 1860–61. The exploration party initially consisted of ninet ...

in 1861. A cyclone on 5 March 1887 severely damaged the tree, so part of the trunk was removed to the

in 1889.

Geography and governance

Sweers Island is approximately long. It is located east of Bentinck Island (the largest island in the South Wellesley Islands) and north from

on the Queensland mainland. The island lies within the Shire of Mornington.

Climate

Sweers Island has a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry "winter") and ''As'' (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than ...

( Köppen: Aw), with a sultry

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the rainy season or monsoon season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Generally, the season lasts at least one month. The term ''green season'' is also sometimes used a ...

from November to March, and a long

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The t ...

from April to October, with cooler temperatures. Average daily maxima remain warm to hot year-round: from in July to in December. Average annual rainfall is , and the highest daily rainfall recorded was on 1 March 2011. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 1 July 2002 to on 6 December 2012.

Recreation

Recreational activities on Sweers Island include fishing and watching wildlife. Sweetlip is the most common table fish caught off the island, while other fish species include: coral trout,

red emperor ''Chìdì'' ( "Red Deity" or "Red Emperor") or , also known as the or , as a human was , who is also the same as , a function occupied by different gods and god-kings in mytho-history. Shennong is also one of the Three Patrons, specifically the ...

, golden snapper, nannygai and

parrot fish Parrotfish (named for their mouths, which resemble a parrot's beak) are a clade of fish placed in the tribe Scarini of the wrasse family (Labridae). Traditionally treated as their own family (Scaridae), genetic studies have found them to be dee ...

. In winter fish species including

Spanish mackerel Scomberomorini is a tribe of ray-finned, saltwater, bony fishes that is commonly known as Spanish mackerels, seerfishes, or seer fish. This tribe is a subset of the mackerel family (Scombridae), which it shares with four sister tribes, the tu ...

, grey mackerel,

giant trevally The giant trevally (''Caranx ignobilis''), also known as the lowly trevally, barrier trevally, ronin jack, giant kingfish, or ''ulua'', is a species of large ocean, marine fish classified in the jack Family (biology), family, Carangidae. The gian ...

, giant leatherskin, queenfish, northern bluefin tuna, and

cobia The cobia (''Rachycentron canadum'') (, ) is a species of marine carangiform ray-finned fish, the only extant representative of the genus '' Rachycentron'' and the family Rachycentridae. Its other common names include black kingfish, black ...

can be caught. Fishing experiences including accommodation, meals and boat hire are available a
Sweers Island Resort

Transport

The island has a all-weather gravel airstrip, owned b
Sweers Island Resort

References

External links

{{commons category-inline, Sweers Island
Museum entry for The Investigator Tree with photo
Islands of Queensland Shire of Mornington (Queensland) Gulf of Carpentaria