About Claremont Isles
Park features
Claremont Isles National Park consists of Fife, Pelican and Burkitt islands. The park is highly significant as a roosting and breeding site for birds. Going ashore on these islands should be avoided. Nesting birds are easily alarmed and will leave their nests if disturbed. Eggs and chicks are then vulnerable to heat, cold and predators and can die quickly.
All the islands have breeding populations of terns. Large numbers of pied imperial-pigeons roost and breed on Burkitt Island and the island’s extensive sand flats and drying lagoonal areas provide habitat for migratory waders such as beach stone-curlews. Pelican Island is named for its breeding population of Australian pelicans and Fife Island provides important habitat for wedge-tailed shearwaters.
The fringing reefs and extensive seagrass beds which surround the islands provide habitat for a wide variety of sea life including dolphins, dugongs and turtles. Estuarine crocodiles pull out on the islands occasionally and Pelican Island is a minor breeding site for hawksbill turtles.
The Umpila and Lama Lama people are the Traditional Owners of the Claremont Isles. The islands are a living cultural landscape, rich in traditional and contemporary significance.
Park management
Claremont Isles National Park was established in 1989 and is managed by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) to protect cultural values, species of conservation significance and regional ecosystems representative of the East Cape York Marine Bioregion. A management framework is provided by the Nature Conservation Act 1992, Cape York Peninsula Heritage Act 2007, and the Aboriginal Land Act 1991. The park has been identified for future joint management negotiations.
The reef and waters surrounding the Claremont Isles National Park are protected within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Great Barrier Reef Coast Marine Park and the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
Looking after the park
Be pest-free!
Our precious Great Barrier Reef World Heritage islands are among the most pest-free islands in the world. They need your help to stay this way. Please Be pest-free! before your visit.
Before you boat around the Claremont Isles National Park
- Please check that your boat, clothing, footwear and gear are free of soil, seeds, parts of plants, eggs, ants and insects (and their eggs), spiders, lizards, toads, rats and mice.
- Clean soil from footwear and gear as invisible killers such as viruses, bacteria and fungi are carried in soil.
- Check for seeds in pockets, cuffs and hook and loop fastening strips, such as Velcro.
Everyone in Queensland has a General Biosecurity Obligation to minimise the biosecurity risk posed by their activities. This includes the risk of introducing and spreading weeds and pests to island national parks.
See the guidelines on caring for parks for more information about protecting our environment and heritage in parks.
Tourism information links
For tourism information for all regions in Queensland see Queensland Holidays.
- There are currently no park alerts for this park.