Whitsunday Island

Whitsunday Island is the largest island in the Whitsunday group of islands located off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Whitsunday Island is located at coord|20|15|S|148|58|E|. The island contains many popular destinations for both day visitors and overnight sailors, including the magnificent pure-white sands of Whitehaven Beach and Hill Inlet, the secure anchorage of Cid Harbour, and the sheltered waterway of Gulnare Inlet. The island is accessible by boat from the mainland tourist ports of Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour. Whitsunday island is famous for its world known whitehaven beach. all of the whitsundays are made up of coral from the great barrier reef, when coral broke off in storms it turned white as it died than was deposited on a small mound under the waves. Over millions of years, more dead coral piled up and rose above the sea creating an island, the islands became bigger and bigger and the coral was crushed by the wind and waves and turned into some of the purest white sand. Plant seeds were carried across the ocean and landed on the islands and the trees grew into forests that are stll there today. This is where whitehaven beach got its name and why the whitsunday island's beaches are so white.

This island should not be confused with Pinaki in the Tuamotu group which was named "Whitsunday Island" by Samuel Wallis in 1767.

ee also

* Whitsunday Islands