Wedding Cake Island is an island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 off Coogee Beach

Coogee, New South Wales

Coogee is a beachside suburb of local government area City of Randwick. It is located 8 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is also a part of the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney....

, Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, which protects the beach from most swells. It is also known as Lemo's Island.

The most probable source of the name is the shape of the island - it resembles a wedding cake. Another theory is that bird droppings on the island gave the appearance of icing on a cake. Apparently the island was also formerly called Gingerbread Island.

In 1975, "Wedding Cake Island" was the title of a popular surf music

Surf music

Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music...

 instrumental single by Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n rock music

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band Midnight Oil

Midnight Oil

Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...

, lead singer, Peter Garrett

Peter Garrett

Peter Robert Garrett, AM, MP , is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002...

 a local resident. The track was re-released in 1980 on the EP Bird Noises

Bird Noises

Bird Noises is an EP by Midnight Oil that was released in 1980 under Midnight Oil's Sprint Music independent label, and manufactured & distributed by the CBS record label.-Track listing:# "No Time for Games"...

. It was also covered by the Australian surf group The Atlantics

The Atlantics

This article refers to the Australian Surf rock band. See paragraph at the end of this page for information on other bands called The Atlantics....

on the album Delightful Rain in 2006. The Atlantics often include it as part of their live set, with Midnight Oil's blessing.