Dunk Island is also one of the most famous islands. It is located 4 km from the coast. Its area is 2471 acres. The maximum length/width is 5.8km with 2.3km. The highest altitude is Mount Kootaloo 271m. About a third of the island, 730 ha is under state protection, part of the Family Islands National Park. Over 100 species of birds are found on Dunk Island, and with many snakes, lizards, and crabs. It is also surrounded by a quality reef since it is located between the coast and the Reef Barrier.
On June 9, 1770, Captain James Cook sailed past the island and viewed the island as a “tolerant high island.” Cook named the island after the Earl of Halifax, George Montagu Dunk. The island was bought in 1934, and the resort started in 1936. During World War 2 (1939-1945), Dunk Island was used by the Royal Australian Air Force. They built its airstrip in 1941 and installed a radar station on the island’s highest point a year later. After the war, they dismounted radar, and owners returned to the island.
The island has a large resort with 160 rooms. In 2011, the island was severely damaged by Cyclone Iasi. And since then it has not been opened anymore, because the damage was huge. It was for sale for about 20 million $. By the way, Dunk’s previous owner, Peter Bond (a multimillionaire weighing about half a billion dollars) had legal problems. His company Lync Energy had to pay $ 4.8 million in 2018 due to nature damage! Plus, Peter Bond still had reports of endangering the environment. In 2016, the company was in debt of $ 230 million. More about this issue can be read here, in our post https://tropicalislands.net/poisoner-immoral-man-whose-owned-dunk-island-for-years/
In 2019 it has almost been sold to one Australian company ,,Mayfair 101″, and said it would rebuild the resort, and add new infrastructure. But in August 2020, after the owners Mayfair 101 failed to meet their payment obligations, the previous owners of the island, the Bond family got ownership back, and the island went on sale again. Since then, there are no news regarding this, although there are reports that someone bought the island recently https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/annie-cannon-brookes-snaps-up-dunk-island-for-24-million-20220712-p5b127.html
By the way, the island is perfect, one of the best in Australia, and even in the world, because it has a lot of diversity and possibilities: it has a hotel infrastructure; has a runway; a ship dock; plains with vegetation similar to flat islands; hills with rainforest vegetation typical of the Australian rainforest; granite stones; plenty of white beaches; a natural sandy beach of about 300 meters which makes it a peninsula (surrounded on three sides by water) which is rare; two small ponds; roads, surrounded by coral reefs …
Dunk Island served as a filming location for some movies. It was the location for the 1969 film Age of Consent, one of the final scenes in James Cameron’s movie Sanctum 2011 was also filmed there.
Here we see the master plan on offer because the island is for sale, to be available part to the maximum use and convert into a tourist complex. They planned to add a lot of things and repair damages. We see a lot of planned villas from the beach and airport scattered around flatter part of the island, and even ,,hillside” villas. They also planned some lakes and pools to add.
In the left picture we see the destroyed infrastructure, in the right we see a comparison of what it used to look like and how it did after the cyclone. It was dangerous.
Map where is Dunk Island located (red marker). Due to its big size (for the private island) it can be seen from the distance. Now, you will get two Dunk island videos and a link to our very large gallery with over 200 pictures! (post updated in 25 July 2022)
>> HERE IS OUR HUGE DUNK ISLAND GALLERY (OVER 200 IMAGES) https://tropicalislands.net/dunk-island-gallery/ <<
