page_title: Capricorn and Bunker Group
section_title: Charting of the Groups
hierarchical_section_title: Capricorn and Bunker Group / History / Charting of the Groups
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the explorer's route in Australia. Español: Mapa de las rutas de exploración de Phillip Parker King en Australia.
context_page_description: The islands and reefs of the Capricorn and Bunker Group are situated astride the Tropic of Capricorn at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, approximately 80 kilometres east of Gladstone, which is situated on the central coast of the Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia.
  Many of these islands form part of the Capricornia Cays National Park and are part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
context_section_description: The southern cays and reefs were first chartered between 1819 and 1821 by Lieutenant Phillip Parker King Royal Navy initially in Mermaid and later in Bathurst.
  
  July 19, 1820 we steered on, and, a ten o’clock discovered a group of low woody islets. They were named Bunker Isles
  The main charting exercise for all the islands and reefs was carried out in 1843 under the command of Captain Francis Price Blackwood in HMS Fly which was accompanied by Bramble.
  In 1841 Blackwood was appointed to command the corvette HMS Flyin the first hydrographic survey commissioned by the Admiralty for exploring and charting the north-east Australian coast. Fly, fitted with costly instruments, and carrying two scientists, Joseph Jukes, geologist, and John MacGillivray, zoologist, sailed from Falmouth in April 1842 with the cutter Bramble, under the charge of Lieutenant Charles Yule. After a stop in Hobart Town from August to October, the two ships called at Sydney and began the survey in December 1842.
  In the next three years Fly charted from Sandy Cape to Whitsunday Island, including Swain Reefs and Capricorn Islands and the broad passages between. On 7 January 1843, was the first time that the crew of Fly set foot on the First Bunker Island (Lady Elliot Island). Fly then carried on and on 10 January 1843, anchored off One Tree Island and gave the island its name. The crew of Fly landed on this island the following day
  The single tree (which was in fact a small clump of common pandanus of these seas, with its roots exposed above ground).......
  
  On January the 12th We anchored a few miles farther to the N.W. in the centre of a group of reefs and islands, under one thickly wooded island that afterwoods obtained the name if Heron Island......
  
  Jan 13 to 18 - The Fly, the Bramble and the boats were engaged in surveying the group of islands and reefs about, which, from the tropic of Capricorn running through them, have been called the Capricorn Group......
  
  Jan 18 - Landed with Captain Blackwood on Wreck Island. This was so named for part of a vessel 6 or 700 tons. The island was about a quarter of a mile long and not more than 100 yards broad; a pile of sand covered by thick bushes.
  
  Jan 21 Captain Blackwood and Mr Evans being ashore to "take sights" for the chronometers, found on the island some traces of the wrecked crew. On one tree was cut "The America, June 1831;" on another "Mary Ann Broughton;" on another "Capt. E. David;" and "Nelson November, 1831." There were likewise the soles of a pair of child’s shoes, some bottles, some broken dishes, and an old cask. I believe the wreck was that of a whaler, and that the crew were taken off by another whaler, as there were no signs of either graves or bones.
  The naturalist, Professor J. Beete Jukes, was on board HMS Fly and his published journal provides valuable information on some of the cays.
caption: Voyages of King
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