Maria Island, Gulf of Carpentaria

Maria Island, in the Marra language known as Gurrululinya,^[1][2] is located in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and comes under the jurisdiction of the Northern Territory. It is sacred to local indigenous Australian people, an important ecological niche for various species of wildlife, and the object of interest to mining companies. The first Europeans to sight the island were the Dutch, who mapped it as a cape, and its status as an island was only thereafter determined when Matthew Flinders sailed around it in late December 1802.^[3]