Heron Island is a coral cay located near the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern Great Barrier Reef.

It is 87 kilometres (54 miles) north-east of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, and 460 km (290 mi) north-north-west of the state capital Brisbane.

[3] Heron Island and an extrapolated version of the research station are the scene of much of the first part of Arthur C. Clarke's The Deep Range.

[5] The island was discovered on 12 January 1843 by a Royal Navy expedition comprising the corvette HMS Fly and the cutter Bramble.

In 1932 Captain Christian Poulsen, engaged in bringing fishing parties to the reef, realized the potential of the island as a tourist attraction.

[9] In March 2012 Heron Island Resort was featured in the BBC's nature TV series, Great Barrier Reef.

[17] The eastern half of the island is protected and forms part of the Capricornia Cays National Park, with a permanent ranger's station onsite.

The rusted wreck of HMCS Protector lies at the entrance to the channel, and was towed to there in 1945 to form a breakwater for visiting vessels.

A small desalination plant on the island uses reverse osmosis technology to supply water for human consumption.

Heron Island has notably rich soil for a tropical coral cay, particularly in the dense southern forest.

Towards the eastern and north-western ends, the forest is readily accessible, but its heart is a dense tangle, interrupted only by a few trails.

[3] North of the Pisonia forest, a band of open shrubland with some trees extends from the resort to the island's eastern tip.

[3] East of the resort in the north-western part of Heron Island there is another type of forest, more open than the central wood.

Consequently, though the usual tree species are found in isolated individuals, the sand is overgrown with herbs and small shrubs, mainly Cakile, Cassytha, Euphorbia eremophila, Lepturus and Melanthera.

[3] Around the western end there is an abundance of plants introduced by the research and resort activity, some deliberately as ornamentals, others accidentally.

[3] Other marine life includes the inhabitants of the coral reef, and around early October, cetaceans (e.g. humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae) pass Heron Island on their migration to their summer quarters in subantarctic waters.

Feeding on beach rock at a specific height over the average low tide level, the snails slowly move about in their clusters, preserving the precious moisture that allows them to breathe overwater.

The vessel was a two-mast schooner which departed from Sydney with general cargo for Broadsound and ran aground at an uncertain location - originally stated as on Lady Musgrave reef (most unlikely), later news reports claimed a wreck on Heron Island, with some other reports mentioning the wreck on either One Tree Island or Mast Head.

[25] From the original reports One of the boats dispatched to the wreck of the Jane Lockhart, schooner, has returned with the sails and a portion of the running and standing gear.

Captain Norris, who went down in charge of the boat, unbent the sails, so that the position of the vessel might as much as possible remain unaltered; he left the yards and masts standing.

[26] and 6 months later it was reported as The Rose, schooner, has returned from the wreck of the Jane Lockhart, on Masthead Reef, whither she went on 15 June Captain Dwyer informs us that the Jane Lockhart still lies in a very snug position, and he has no doubt but that himself, and Mr Norris, the purchaser of the wreck, will be able, ultimately, to raise the vessel and bring her safely to Rockhampton Nearly the whole of the period that they were at the reef, very heavy weather prevailed, staving operations towards the recovery of the cargo, but luckily the strong SE winds lulled for about three days Captain Dwyer availed himself of the occasion, set to work, rigged up a staging between the masts of the Lockhart, schooner, and by means of a rope and a South Sea Island diver, managed to bring up from eighty to ninety large iron pulley wheels, besides a quantity of machinery and sundries, comprising Ale, porter, liqueur brandy, cutlery, ironmongery, etc Unfortunately the Roses water ran out, much to the chagrin of the crew, who would have raised a great deal more, only having to run into port for supplies.