5 km offshore, 20 km south of Mission Beach. Dunk Island is famous as the spot which featured in The Confessions of a Beachcomber by Edmund Banfield. Just before the turn of the century, Banfield found he had a progressive nervous disease and was given only a few months to live. He chucked in his job as a journalist in Townsville and set off to live on Dunk Island. Before this, no European had ever lived on the island. Life in his tropical paradise so agreed with Banfield that he was to live out another 25 years, even finding the time and energy to write his book.

In many ways, the island is still recognizable as the island described by Banfield in the early years of the century. Though an expensive resort and a campsite slightly ruined the island paradise Banfield wrote of in recent years the island has been ravaged by Cyclone Larry and Cyclone Yasi, so the resort is now closed, though day trips are still available. 

But the beaches remain as superb as ever. There’s also an exhilarating (but hard) 10-km walk up to the island’s peak, through the rainforest, and back along the shore. As you pass by, the wildlife is polite enough to ignore your gaudy plumage and scarlet-hued features – which in no way come up to the standard of theirs.

South of Dunk Island are the tiny Family Islands. All but one of these remain completely undeveloped. The one called Bedarra has been turned into a resort for millionaire couples who can’t afford their own island, and have to make up for this social gaffe by paying A$l,000 – $2,000 a day to share one.