Frankland Islands National Park 

Halfway between Cairns and Innisfail is the Frankland Islands, a group of five continental islands — High, Normanby, Mabel, Round and Russell Islands. Russell Island is a lighthouse reserve and the others are protected in Frankland Group National Park.

Continental islands off Russell Heads with rainforest vegetation, white sandy beaches and fringing coral reefs. Camp on Russell and High Islands. Take a fuel stove. Boat access from Deeral. Rocky outcrops, dense rainforest, mangroves, coastal vegetation and surrounding fringing reefs make the Franklands a haven for wildlife.

The Franklands have special significance for Aboriginal people who fished, hunted and gathered foods on these islands and the adjacent sea country. Cook named the islands in 1770. The Franklands became a park in 1936 and the surrounding waters were protected in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 1983.

Further Information

Various species of birds have been recorded including the little tern and the vulnerable beach stone-curlew, black-naped and bridled terns, ruddy turnstones, grey-tailed tattlers, white-breasted woodswallows, rose-crowned fruit dove, sacred and forest kingfishers and a variety of honeyeaters and large raptors. The islands are very important nesting locations for a number of species of birds which are increasingly threatened by disturbance and habitat destruction elsewhere. Normanby and Russell islands host nesting colonies of pied imperial-pigeons.

Further Information

These white and black birds migrate to Australia from New Guinea each summer to breed and nest on the islands. They feed on soft rainforest fruits on the adjacent mainland and are an important link in the island’s ecosystem because they provide essential nutrients from their droppings to the islands vegetation communities and aid in seed disposal of rainforest trees.