Whitsunday Islands

The Whitsunday Islands is a collection of continental islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, Australia, approximately 560mi north of Brisbane. The northernmost of the islands are situated off the coast by the town of Bowen while the southernmost islands are off the coast by Proserpine. The island group is centered on Whitsunday Island, while the group's commercial center is Hamilton Island. The traditional owners of the area are the Ngaro people and the Gia people (Birri Gubba language group) whose Juru Clan has the only legally recognized native title in the region.In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Whitsunday Islands was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "Natural attraction".NamingThe term is a misnomer as it is based on Captain Cook’s date for the naming of Whitsunday Passage, or as Cook spelled it in his HMS Endeavour journal, Whitsunday’s Passage. Based on his journal date, Cook believed that the passage was discovered on Whitsunday, the Sunday of the feast of WhitsunPentecost in the Christian liturgical yearwhich is observed 7 weeks after Easter. As the International Date Line had not yet been established, the day of discovery was actually Whit Monday.