The Wellesley Islands, also known as the North Wellesley Islands, is a group of islands off the coast of Far North Queensland, Australia, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is a locality within the Shire of Mornington local government area. The traditional owners of the islands are the Lardil people. In the , the Wellesley Islands had a population of 1,136 people, all living on the largest island, Mornington Island. Geography The Wellesley Islands, also known as the North Wellesley Islands, is located in the Gulf of Carpentaria, on the eastern (Queensland) side of the gulf. The largest island in the group is Mornington Island, with most people living in the town of Gununa. Two small islands in the group, north of Mornington Island, are designated as the Manowar and Rocky Islands Important Bird Area, because of their importance for breeding seabirds, in particular the brown booby and lesser frigatebird. Other islands in the group include (from north to south): Moondalbee Island Lingnoonganee Island Pisonia Island Lingeleah Island Beahgoo Island Jinke Island Sydney Island Tulburrerr Island Denham Island Andrew Island Immediately to the south is a group known as the West Wellesley Islands or Forsyth Islands, and to the south-east of them are the South Wellesley Islands, while the Bountiful Islands lie to the east of Mornington Island. Politically, all 26 islands in these groups are within the local government area of the Shire of Mornington. Ecologically, they constitute subregion GUP10 of the IBRA-defined Gulf Plains bioregion of Australia. History According to Indigenous lore, possibly mixed with fact, the islands were once part of mainland Australia: The Lardil people, who prefer to be known as Kunhanaamendaa (meaning people of Kunhanhaa, their name for Mornington Island), are an Aboriginal Australian people and the traditional owners of Mornington Island. The Lardil language (also known as Gununa, Ladil), is spoken on Mornington Island and on the northern Wellesley Islands. The islands were charted by Matthew Flinders on 6 December 1802, and named by him some years later. He probably did not name them until sometime between 1803 and 1810, when he was in French captivity on Mauritius Island; he devoted that time to working on his charts and journals). Flinders probably named the island group in honour of Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, Governor of Madras and Governor-General of Bengal from 1797 to 1805. Wellesley, along with Lord William Bentinck, Governor of Madras,