Sandy Cape is the most northern point on Fraser Island off the coast of Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

, Australia. The place was named by James Cook

James Cook

Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...

 during his 1770 voyage

First voyage of James Cook

The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771...

 up the eastern coast of Australia aboard the Endeavour

HM Bark Endeavour

HMS Endeavour, also known as HM Bark Endeavour, was a British Royal Navy research vessel commanded by Lieutenant James Cook on his first voyage of discovery, to Australia and New Zealand from 1769 to 1771....

. To the south the next two ocean headlands are Waddy Point and Indian Head which was also named by Cook.

The cape is protected within the Fraser Island section of the Great Sandy National Park

Great Sandy National Park

Great Sandy is a coastal national park and suburb in Queensland, Australia. The park features untouched beaches, large sand dunes, heathlands, rainforests, swamps, creeks, freshwater lakes and mangrove forests....

. BreakSea Spit extends about 30 km north of Sandy Cape. Nesting loggerhead and green turtles use the remote, sandy location as a rookery

Rookery

A rookery is a colony of breeding animals, generally birds. A rook is a Northern European and Central Asian member of the crow family, which nest in prominent colonies at the tops of trees. The term is applied to the nesting place of birds, such as crows and rooks, the source of the term...

. Nighttime driving along the beach at Sandy Cape is banned during the nesting season. The vegetation at the cape is stunted and windswept. The foredunes are lightly covered by spinifex grass

Spinifex (genus)

Spinifex is a genus of perennial coastal grasses. They are one of the most common plants that grow in sand dunes along the coasts of Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia.. As they help stabilise the sand, these grasses are an important part of the entire sand dune ecosystem. Of the four species...

.

Vehicle access to Sandy Cape is only available by the eastern beach at low tide. Camping is permitted in the area and it is a popular location with anglers.

History

Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders

Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...

, traveling aboard the Investigator, landed at Sandy Cape in 1802 and noted the desolate landscape. In August 1803, the ships Cato

Cato (ship)

The Cato was a ship of 430 tons constructed at Stockton in England and registered in London to Reeve & Green. It was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, in 1804....

and Porpoise

HMS Porpoise (1799)

HMS Porpoise was a 10-gun sloop originally built in Bilbao, Spain, as the packet ship Infanta Amelia. She was 308 tons, 93ft long on the gun deck and a beam of 27ft, 11 inches. On 6 August 1799 HMS Argo captured her off the coast of Portugal...

were both sunk off the cape in bad weather. The Seabelle was wrecked in 1857 and the Chang Chow in 1884 in waters closer to the cape which may contain hidden sandbars. Because of the number of shipwrecks in the vicinity the Sandy Cape Light

Sandy Cape Light

Sandy Cape Light is an active lighthouse located on Sandy Cape, the most northern point on Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia. It stands about southwest of the northeastern tip of the island. It is the tallest lighthouse in Queensland. Built in 1870, it is the second major lighthouse to be built...

 was constructed in 1870. This marked the first permanent European settlement on Fraser Island.

Clement Lindley Wragge

Clement Lindley Wragge

Clement Lindley Wragge was a meteorologist born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, England. After training in law, Wragge became renowned in the field of meteorology, winning the Scottish Meteorological Society's Gold Medal and starting the trend of using people's names for cyclones...

 set up an extensive network of weather stations around Queensland, including one at Sandy Cape. The cape is still used a reference point for weather forecasting today.

See also

• Double Island Point
  Double Island Point
  Double Island Point is a coastal headland in Queensland, Australia. It's the next headland north of Noosa and is within the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park, at the southern end of Wide Bay....
  
  
• List of lighthouses and lightvessels in Australia