Stanley Island (Queensland)

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Stanley Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park at the tip of Cape Melville, Queensland in Bathurst Bay.

It is located North of Denham Island and Flinders Island in the Flinders Group National Park in Princess Charlotte Bay.

Stanley island is an integral part of the mythological complex of the Flinders Group. There are several spectacular art sites on Stanley Island, the best known being the huge Yintayin rock shelter (Tindale's "Endaen")known as the “Ship” rock shelter.

The art covering the walls of the Ship shelter shows ships of all nations, painted in red and white ochre on the red sandstone: sailing ships rigged in the distinctive styles of the European lugger and the Macassan (Indonesian) prau; a dugout canoe with a figure standing upright in it, hands outstretched. Some construe the images of European vessels with high sterns to be 16th or 17th century (Portuguese) ships.

In shelters on nearby Castle Peak there are similar paintings: of a steam ship, and a detailed image of a lugger, identifiable as the Mildred, towing a dinghy. An important mythological site occurs at Muyu-Walin figuring in the major Itjibiya mythic cycle.

The island is a popular tourist destination with fine anchorage between the islands and along various coastal stretches.

Cape Flinders is the name of the northern tip of Stanley Island and the ship Frederick was wrecked there in 1818.