Editing Brook Islands National Park

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Use Australian English|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox Australian place
| type                   = protected
| name                   = Brook Islands National Park
| state                  = qld
| iucn_category          = II
| image                  = Pied Imperial-pigeon - melbourne zoo.jpg
| caption                = Torresian imperial pigeon
| image_alt              =
| coordinates            = {{coord|18|8|29|S|146|16|56|E|display=inline,title}}
| force_national_map     =
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| area                   = {{Convert|0.9|km2|sqmi|2|abbr=on}}<!-- If the area is greater than 100ha (1km2) a conversion template is not required. -->
| area_footnotes         =
| established            = 1994
| established_footnotes  =
| visitation_num         =
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| managing_authorities   = [[Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service]]
| url                    =
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The '''Brook Islands National Park''' is a national park in [[Cassowary Coast Region]], Queensland, Australia,<ref>{{Cite QPN|39390|Brook Islands National Park|access-date=25 June 2017}}</ref> 1246&nbsp;km northwest of [[Brisbane]], with an area of 0.9&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>.  It was established in 1994 and comprises three islands (North, Tween and Middle) which lie off the coast 7&nbsp;km north-east of Cape Richards on [[Hinchinbrook Island]] and 30&nbsp;km east of the nearest mainland town of [[Cardwell, Queensland|Cardwell]]. The fourth island of the Brooks group, South Island, is not part of the national park but is protected by the [[Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority]].  Public access to the three islands in the national park is prohibited in order to protect breeding birds, especially the [[Torresian imperial-pigeon]]. The islands have no roads, walking tracks or other facilities.  Popular activities in the waters around the islands are boating, snorkelling and fishing.  The islands are managed by the [[Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service]]. The Park's [[World Conservation Union|IUCN]] category is II.<ref name=BrookMP>Lavarack, P.; & Muldoon, J.W. (1999). ''Management Plans - Brook Islands National Park and Goold Island National Park''. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service: Brisbane. {{ISBN|0-7242-4842-0}} [http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/publications?id=188 PDF download] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080811034053/http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/publications?id=188 |date=11 August 2008 }}</ref>

==Fauna==
Up to 60,000 pied imperial-pigeons breed on the islands during summer, providing a spectacle to onlookers as they return to their nests each evening after foraging for rainforest fruits in the mainland and Hinchinbrook Island. Following regular illegal shooting of the birds there during the early and mid 20th Century, the population using the islands was subject to a long protection campaign and monitoring program by conservation activists [[Margaret Thorsborne|Margaret and Arthur Thorsborne]]. There are also breeding colonies of [[bridled tern|bridled]], [[black-naped tern|black-naped]], [[little tern|little]], [[lesser crested tern|lesser crested]] and [[roseate tern]]s. [[Beach stone-curlew]]s breed on North Island beaches.<ref name=BrookMP/> The islands have been classified by [[BirdLife International]] as an [[Important Bird Area]] because of the global importance of the site for pied imperial-pigeons and lesser crested terns.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.birdata.com.au/iba.vm |title=IBA: Brook Islands |access-date=2011-06-06 |work=Birdata |publisher=Birds Australia |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706102341/http://www.birdata.com.au/iba.vm |archive-date=6 July 2011 |df=dmy }}</ref>

== Flora ==
The plants of the Brook Islands are only partly known. North Brook Island’s predominant vegetation is a lush, well-developed rainforest with many vines (notophyll vine forest), likely to include some rare and interesting species. Humans, feral animals, and weeds and fires have had less effect on the islands than on the mainland. This has ensured the islands remain as important representative samples of island ecosystems. North Brook’s vine forests feature some very dense areas of the rare palm ''[[Arenga australasica]]''. Although this palm is abundant on these small islands, it is rare on the mainland. Golden orchids ''[[Dendrobium discolor]]'' are abundant on the rocks near the shoreline. The vine forests are poorly known but appear not to have been subject to fire for a long time and are likely to prove botanically interesting when fully investigated. Many of the plants appear to indicate a relationship to the pied imperial-pigeons which regularly transport seed considerable distances and thus, it would appear, enrich the islands’ species diversity. Common canopy species include ''[[Semecarpus australiensis]]'' (tar tree), ''[[Palaquium galactoxylum]]'', ''[[Myristica insipida]]'' and ''[[Alstonia scholaris]].'' The vegetation on the sandspit of North Brook Island is particularly well-developed compared with similar locations in the area.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Brook Islands National Park and Goold Island National Park Management Plan |url=https://parks.desi.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/168605/brook-island-and-goold-island-national-parks-1999.pdf |access-date=2024-07-25 |website=Queensland Government parks and forests}}</ref>

==History==
North Brook Island, the largest in the group, was in 1944 the venue for a series of British and American tests on the military uses of [[mustard gas]]. Pits were dug and Japanese-style dugouts were constructed to aid this testing.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodwin |first=Bridget |title=Keen as mustard: Britain's horrific chemical warfare experiments in Australia |date=1998 |publisher=University of Queensland Press |isbn=978-0-7022-2941-1 |edition=1. publ |location=St. Lucia}}</ref> Virtually no trace of this remains.<ref name=":0" /> A documentary film relating to these and other tests, was released by [[Film Australia]] in 1989.<gallery>
File:Aerial view of the island with smoke rising from where an aircraft has dropped a high explosive.jpg|Aerial view of North Brook Island with smoke rising from a bomb test
File:BROOK ISLAND, QLD. 1944-03-01. MEMBERS OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHEMICAL WARFARE RESEARCH.jpg|Australian Army staff bringing goats onto the island for mustard gas chemical weapon testing
File:BROOK ISLAND, QLD. c. 1944-03-03. 252099 FLIGHT LIEUTENANT A.H. TREWIN RAAF TAKING SAMPLES.jpg|Australian Army staff preparing mustard gas with goat waiting in Japanese-style dugout
File:Jack Legge & Olive Lucas checking goats in weapons pit prior to mustard gas experiment Brook Island 3 March 1944.jpg|Army staff preparing for mustard gas test
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal|Queensland}}
* [[Keen as Mustard (film)|Keen as Mustard]]
* [[Protected areas of Queensland]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Attribution ==
{{Creative Commons text attribution notice|cc=by4|url=https://parks.desi.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/168605/brook-island-and-goold-island-national-parks-1999.pdf|author(s)=the Queensland Government}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110707181406/http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/parks/brook-islands/index.html Brook Islands National Park]

{{National Parks of Queensland}}
{{North Queensland}}


{{authority control}}

[[Category:National parks of Queensland]]
[[Category:Islands of Queensland]]
[[Category:Protected areas established in 1994]]
[[Category:Important Bird Areas of Queensland]]
[[Category:North Queensland]]
[[Category:Islands of Far North Queensland]]
[[Category:Parks established in the 1990s]]
[[Category:1994 establishments in Australia]]


{{Queensland-national-park-stub}}