Nature, culture and history

Culture and history

The islands and surrounding reefs and waters are important to the Traditional Owners of the area for not only providing food and materials but sustaining their spirituality. Today their connection to country remains.

Shared-history culture

Lieutenant (later Captain) James Cook RN, navigator of the HM Bark Endeavour named the Three Islands sub-group on 10 August 1770. Members of HMB Endeavour’s crew sailed to the islands while the Endeavour was being repaired at what is now Cooktown.

A beche-de-mer (sea cucumber) station was once located on Rocky Islet (a). Gravesites on Two Islands (a), presumed to be of European origin, are thought to be linked to the beche-de-mer trade of the late 1800s and early 1900s.