Avoid Island

It is thought that either Captain James Cook or Matthew Flinders named the island, based on the level of difficulty for sailors, being tough to navigate around the nearby sandbars. Aboriginal use is not known specifically for Avoid Island, but it is known that Aboriginal people came in bark canoes around the Flat Isles and fished for various forms of marine life. It was then purchased by a family who used it for farming in 1933, at which time there was a freshwater swamp, which was used by freshwater turtles. In the 1970s, the island was used for growing drug crops, before being acquired by the Queensland Government as proceeds of crime. QTFN purchased the island in 2006 in order to turn it into a nature refuge. ==Geography==

Avoid island is one of the group known as the Flat Isles, within the larger group called the Northumberland Islands. It lies off the eastern coast of Queensland, approximately south of Mackay. ==Ecology, flora and fauna==

It lies in the Proserpine-Sarina Lowlands subregion of the IBRA interim bioregion of the Central Mackay Coast, and within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The island has great importance as a breeding ground for the vulnerable flatback turtle, which is only found in the reef waters. Crocodiles and death adders (also a vulnerable species) also live on the island, and at least 84 species of birds visit it, including the critically endangered eastern curlew. There are no introduced pests, but there are weeds. ==Conservation efforts==

Avoid Island is only privately owned permanent nature refuge in the southern Great Barrier Reef, and is mainly concerned with protecting the habitat of flatback turtles. Since 2021 the island is being restored by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation in partnership with QTFN, the Koinmerburra Aboriginal Corporation and other groups as a climate change refuge for the flatback turtle, avulnerable species. Around 80 per cent of the turtle eggs laid on the island hatch, although numbers returning to nest are as low as one per cent. Other organisations, including universities, come to the island and use QTFN facilities to study and research the turtles and other aspects of conservation. Biosecurity is taken very seriously, and visitors are carefully controlled, but there are volunteering opportunities to help with weed eradication. The island is protected as a nature refuge. ==References==