MAGNETIC ISLAND

island in the Cumberland Islands, off the coast of northeastern Queensland, Australia, in Halifax Bay, an inlet of the Coral Sea. It is one of the most easily accessible islands of the Great Barrier Reef, being only 5 mi (8 km) offshore from Townsville. Coral-fringed, wooded, and hilly, it is a fragment of a drowned coastal mountain rising to 1,631 ft (497 m) above sea level at Mt. Cook. It has an area of 19 sq mi (49 sq km). The island was sighted in 1770 by the British navigator Capt. James Cook, who named it Magnetical because he believed, wrongly, that iron deposits in its hills affected his ship's compass. Now a national park, popular resort, and growing ferry-commuter suburb of Townsville, its principal communities are Arcadia, Nelly, and Picnic bays. Some pawpaws and pineapples are grown there commercially. Pop. (1981) 3,814.