17°06′04″S139°37′10″E / 17.101131°S 139.619398°E /-17.101131; 139.619398
Sweers Island is an island in theSouth Wellesley Islands in theGulf of Carpentaria,Queensland, 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 inQueensland Museum.
Kayardild (also known as Kaiadilt and Gayadilta) is a language of theGulf of Carpentaria, once spoken by theKaiadilt people. The Kayardild language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of theMornington Shire Council.[1]
The island was given its European name by explorerMatthew Flinders on 16 November 1802 afterSalomon Sweers, a council member of theEast India Company atBatavia who was one of those who instructedAbel Tasman to explore the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1644. Flinders was circumnavigating the Australian continent in the sloopHMSInvestigator 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 theGreat Australian Bight were suspected to be the entrances to straits between the islands).[2]
Robert Towns establishedBurketown in 1865 as a base for his extensive holdings in theGulf Country. Burketown's development was limited due to the extent oftropical diseases suffered by its inhabitants. When the shipMargaret and Mary arrived in Burketown fromSydney carrying a fever (possiblymalaria), the majority of those on board died at Burketown. In the belief that Burketown was inherently unhealthy,William Landsborough 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.[3]
Thomas ("Tex") and Lyn Battle, along with Ray and Salme Atherinos, established a low-key fishing lodge on the island in 1987.
In 1841, the island was visited byJohn Lort Stokes, commander of theBeagle on an exploration of northern Australia. Stokes discovered a tree (Celtis paniculata) 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 fromAugustus Charles Gregory's expedition in 1856 and Landsborough's search for theBurke and Wills expedition in 1861. A cyclone on 5 March 1887 severely damaged the tree, so part of the trunk was removed to theQueensland Museum in 1889.[4]
Sweers Island is approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) long. It is located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) east ofBentinck Island (the largest island in the South Wellesley Islands) and 70 kilometres (43 mi) north fromBurketown on the Queensland mainland.[5]
The island lies within theShire of Mornington.[2]
Sweers Island has atropical savanna climate (Köppen: Aw), with a sultrywet season from November to March, and a longdry season from April to October, with cooler temperatures. Average daily maxima remain warm to hot year-round: from 25.5 °C (77.9 °F) in July to 33.6 °C (92.5 °F) in December. Average annual rainfall is 1,202.8 mm (47.35 in), and the highest daily rainfall recorded was 251.0 millimetres (9.88 in) on 1 March 2011. Extreme temperatures have ranged from 9.1 °C (48.4 °F) on 1 July 2002 to 39.5 °C (103.1 °F) on 6 December 2012.[6]
| Climate data for Sweer Island (17º06'36"S, 139º36'00"E, 4 m AMSL) (2001-2024 normals and extremes, rainfall to 1893) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 39.0 (102.2) | 38.1 (100.6) | 37.9 (100.2) | 36.0 (96.8) | 33.7 (92.7) | 32.0 (89.6) | 30.7 (87.3) | 32.8 (91.0) | 35.8 (96.4) | 38.5 (101.3) | 39.2 (102.6) | 39.5 (103.1) | 39.5 (103.1) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 32.5 (90.5) | 32.4 (90.3) | 32.3 (90.1) | 31.5 (88.7) | 28.6 (83.5) | 26.0 (78.8) | 25.5 (77.9) | 27.9 (82.2) | 29.6 (85.3) | 32.0 (89.6) | 33.2 (91.8) | 33.6 (92.5) | 30.4 (86.8) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 26.5 (79.7) | 26.3 (79.3) | 26.2 (79.2) | 25.0 (77.0) | 21.8 (71.2) | 18.8 (65.8) | 17.9 (64.2) | 18.9 (66.0) | 22.1 (71.8) | 25.1 (77.2) | 26.6 (79.9) | 27.1 (80.8) | 23.5 (74.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 17.5 (63.5) | 20.6 (69.1) | 19.5 (67.1) | 17.3 (63.1) | 12.9 (55.2) | 11.2 (52.2) | 9.1 (48.4) | 10.7 (51.3) | 14.0 (57.2) | 18.9 (66.0) | 18.0 (64.4) | 21.5 (70.7) | 9.1 (48.4) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 335.8 (13.22) | 342.0 (13.46) | 228.0 (8.98) | 48.3 (1.90) | 5.9 (0.23) | 3.9 (0.15) | 3.1 (0.12) | 1.5 (0.06) | 4.3 (0.17) | 10.3 (0.41) | 69.6 (2.74) | 146.0 (5.75) | 1,202.8 (47.35) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 11.3 | 11.0 | 8.3 | 2.5 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 3.5 | 7.1 | 46.3 |
| Source:Bureau of Meteorology (2001-2024 normals and extremes, rainfall to 1893)[7] | |||||||||||||
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,golden snapper,nannygai andparrot fish. In winter fish species includingSpanish mackerel,grey mackerel,giant trevally,giant leatherskin,queenfish,northern bluefin tuna, andcobia can be caught.[8]
Fishing experiences including accommodation, meals and boat hire are available atSweers Island Resort.[9]
The island has a 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) all-weather gravel airstrip,[10] owned bySweers Island Resort.[11]
This Wikipedia article incorporatesCC BY 4.0licensed text from:"Indigenous languages map of Queensland".State Library of Queensland.State Library of Queensland. Retrieved5 February 2020.
Media related toSweers Island at Wikimedia Commons
