Maʼalpiku Island National Park

Maʼalpiku Island National Park is a national park at Iron Range in the Shire of Cook in Far North Queensland, Australia.^[1] It lies 1,928 km (1,198 mi) northwest of Brisbane and a few hundred metres (yards) from Cape Weymouth and the Kutini-Payamu National Park. The park includes part of Maʼalpiku Island, also known as Restoration Island, and nearby Restoration Rock. The traditional owners of the park are the Kuuku Ya’u people.

The continental island rises to 116 m (380'). The landscape features granite boulders, closed scrub, open paperbark scrub and wind-sheared heath.^[2]

On 29 May 1789, after the mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Bligh and the men who remained loyal to him arrived on the island in the ship's boat. This was the first Australian island they came to, and he named it Restoration Island because the food they found (oysters and native fruits) greatly restored their spirits^[2][3] and because that date was Oak Apple Day, the anniversary of the restoration of King Charles II (in 1660).^[4]

Bligh saw evidence of the local Aboriginal people using the island. He also saw kangaroo tracks and wondered if the Aboriginal people brought them from the mainland to breed, since they would be easier to catch later in the confined space of an island.

In 2024, the national park was one of a number of sites on Cape York Peninsula to be proposed to be listed as UNESCO World Heritage.^[5]

Until his death in 2025,^[6] one third of Restoration Island was leased to David Glasheen, a former mining tycoon, who, after losing his fortune during the 1987 stock market crash, decided to live a solitary existence on the island.^[7][8]

Glasheen vivía en un puesto de avanzada renovado de la Segunda Guerra Mundial en la isla Ma'alpiku, con acceso a internet mediante energía solar y un teléfono móvil. También tenía una pequeña embarcación para llegar al continente cuando fuera necesario y varias veces al año viajaba allí para comprar víveres. Recolectaba plátanos y cocos en la isla; pescaba cangrejos, peces y ostras; y tenía un huerto de frutas y verduras. ^{[ 9 ] [ 8 ]}

En julio de 2019, Glasheen y Neil Bramwell publicaron The Millionaire Castaway , editado por Affirm Press, que detalla las experiencias de Glasheen como náufrago en Restoration Island durante 22 años. ^{[ 10 ]}

La isla contiene lugares de importancia cultural para los propietarios tradicionales . En 2009, se otorgó el título nativo formal sobre la isla al pueblo Kuuku Ya'u . ^{[ 2 ]} El parque ahora es administrado conjuntamente entre el Northern Kuuku Ya'u Kanthanampu Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC Land Trust y el Gobierno de Queensland . ^{[ 11 ]}

El acceso al parque nacional solo se realiza en barco privado.

• Áreas protegidas de Queensland

• Sitio web oficial
• Más información sobre Restoration Island y David Glasheen.
• Abrazando la soledad , artículo del New York Times de 2010