Messrs Davidson and Deering proceeding to view Turtle Spearing Demonstration near Lindeman Island, c 1931

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The first European to explore the area was Captain James Cook who travelled through the area on his journey up the eastern coast of Australia in 1770. He passed through Whitsunday passage, a narrow channel which lies between the mainland coast, South Molle and Daydream Islands to the west and Dent, Whitsunday, Hook and Hayman Islands to the east, on Sunday 4 June which happened to be Whit Sunday (the seventh Sunday after easter) – hence the name of the area.

Cook probably sighted Lindeman but he certainly didn’t name it. It wasn’t until the 1870s that Captain Bedwell, charting the Whitsunday waters in the Royal Navy HMS Virago, named the island after his sub-lieutenant, George Sidney Lindeman. Although other islands in the Whitsundays were settled during the 19th century, Lindeman remained unsettled because the local Aborigines saw it as a vital part of their fishing

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