Lizard Island

Lizard Island was known as Dyiigurra to the Dingaal Aboriginal people and was regarded as a sacred place. It was used by the people for the initiation of young males and for the harvesting of shellfish, turtles, dugongs and fish. The Dingaal believed that the Lizard group of islands had been created in the Dreamtime. They saw it as a stingray with Lizard Island being the body and the other islands in the group forming the tail. The local Dingiil Aboriginal people call the island Jiigurru.

The name Lizard Island was given to it by Captain Cook when he passed it on 12 August 1770. He commented, "The only land Animals we saw here were Lizards, and these seem'd to be pretty Plenty, which occasioned my naming the Island Lizard Island."[2] Cook climbed the peak on Lizard Island to chart a course out to sea through the maze of reefs which confronted him and the island's summit has since been called 'Cook's Look'.

By the 1860s the island was being used by sea cucumber fishermen who found that the waters contained substantial quantities of the creature which was a popular delicacy in Asia.[3]

Portrait of Mary Beatrice Watson

In 1879, Captain Robert Watson with his wife Mary Watson, two servants and baby son, modified an abandoned cottage left on the island by the crew of the Julia Percy. The ruins are still visible. Captain Watson was a sea cucumber fisherman and during one of his absences, Aboriginal people from the mainland killed one of the servants. Mrs. Watson was only 21 when she arrived at Lizard Island and is famed for her courage and endurance. After the attack, accompanied by her child and the other Chinese servant, she attempted to flee to the mainland in an iron boiling tank (it can be seen in the Queensland Museum – it is a large rectangular tub) used for boiling sea cucumber. The vessel floated away from the coast and all three died of thirst nine days later on the waterless No 5 Howick Island. Their bodies were found three months later along with Mrs Watson's diary. The State Library of Queensland holds two diaries by Mrs Watson.[4] One is about her last 9 months on Lizard Island and the other is notes documenting her last days. In retaliation to the attack, a punitive expedition was mounted against Aboriginal peoples.[5]

In 1939, all of the islands in the group were declared a national park, which is now administered by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. The island is also part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, administered jointly by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency. Permits are required for all manipulative research in the Lizard Island Group and the waters surrounding it.

Site 17 is a site on Mangrove Beach in Lizard Island where archaeologists found pottery sherds in an intertidal context. The pottery sherds were identified to contain granite derived, quartz sand temper. The midden is located on the south side of lizard island and is quite large, covering a total area of 7000m² . Site 17 was first observed by Jim Specht in 1978-9, then excavated by Robynne Mills in 1992, and further excavated by a team including Specht in 2009. [7]

Mills excavation site on Mangrove Beach was a 100cm X 50cm x 150cm trench and identified 6 stratigraphic layers. It was observed through Radiocarbon dating that the basal layer 6 produced a range of 3358-2929 cal BP on charcoal found at the 120-130 cm depth.  [7]

In October of 2009 Lentfer, Specht, and a representative of the Dingaal people, Johnathan Charlie, began excavating a new trench two meters east of Mills trench. This new trench was 60cm x 40cm x 140cm, and showed six layers of stratigraphy similar to Mills trench. There were recovered pieces of Quartz, granite and Pumice discovered from the basal levels of layer number 6 which using radiocarbon dating were dated to be from 3815-3571 cal BP to 3206-2959 cal BP. [7]

There are 11 species of lizards on the island.[8] The most commonly found lizard is the yellow-spotted monitor (Varanus panoptes).[9] Skinks and geckos are among some of the other reptiles roaming Lizard Island. The lowlands bar-lipped skink (Eremiascincus pardalis) and the sandy rainbow-skink (Carlia dogare) are endemic species of Queensland found on this island.[10] The Chevert gecko (Nactus cheverti) is the only gecko on the island that's only endemic to Queensland. Pythons and tree snakes are common while the most dangerous snake on the island, the brown-headed snake (Furina tristis), is rarely seen.[8] Green marine turtles (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead marine turtles (Caretta caretta) can be seen nesting on the island in the summer and are often spotted in the shallow water.

There are over 40 species of birds that reside on or visit Lizard Island.[8] Only about 20 species nest on the island, including terns.[8] The island is home to many land and sea birds including the bar-shouldered dove (Geopelia humeralis), pheasant coucal (Centropus phasianinus), yellow-bellied sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis), white-bellied sea-eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster), and osprey (Pandion cristatus). Seasonal birds such as white-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) and dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis) also appear on the island.

Lizard Island is home to a few bat species but the most common is the Black flying-foxes (Pteropus alecto).[8] They typically roam around the island and congregate in the mangroves. Black flying-foxes will fly to the mainland when flowering is poor. Eastern Dusky Leaf-nosed Bat (Hipposideros ater) have also been spotted on the island.[11]

Until 2009, Lizard Island had no native rodents recorded. In October 2009, water rats (Hydromys chrysogaster) were spotted on the island and steadily increased in population until 2012.[12] In 2010, Cape York mosaic-tailed rat (Melomys capensis) were spotted in South Island, marked as the first native rodent to the island chain.

Situated on Lizard Island's most westerly point, the research station is operated by the Australian Museum, providing research and education facilities for those interested in studying coral reefs. As a result of research conducted at the station, about 1,000 scientific publications have been produced by Australian and international researchers since the station was set up in 1973.[13]

On the island's north western side is an ultra luxury resort owned by Hong Kong listed property company Sea Holdings and operated by Voyages Hotels & Resorts until November 2009, the resort is now operated by Delaware North.[14] The 40 villa resort focuses on providing seclusion and watersport activities that take advantage of the island's location on the Great Barrier Reef, including diving trips to the nearby Cod Hole.[15]