Mrs Watson's Cottage is a heritage-listed house ruin at Lizard Island National Park, Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia.

The island is thought to have been used for ceremonial purposes and Captain James Cook recorded observing several frames of huts and large middens during his voyage along the coast in 1770.

[1] The harvesting of beche-de-mer, prized by Chinese as a culinary delicacy, was carried out along the north Australian coast from about 1700 by fishermen from the south of Sulawesi, who made regular trips to catch and process the creatures.

On 27 September, a group of Aborigines from Starke and Point Lookout arrived at Lizard Island, which, according to oral tradition, contained a sacred site in the approximate vicinity of the beche-de-mer station.

The next day they gathered on the beach below the house, dispersed when Watson fired a rifle and revolver, but returned on 1 October and speared Ah Sam, severely wounding him.

[1] Fearing a further attack and lacking other means of escape, Watson packed a few belongings, food, water and two paddles into a cut-down iron ship's tank used for boiling the beche-de-mer, and set off with Ah Sam and the baby on 2 October.

[1] The crew of a passing fishing vessel found the remains of Watson, Ah Sam and baby Ferrier on 19 January 1882 and they were accorded a huge public funeral in Cooktown.

The story has continued to stir the public imagination and the site of the ruins generally believed to be Watson's cottage remains a focus for the memory this tragic incident in the European settlement of the North.

[1] The ruins consist of footings and sections of wall of what was a five- roomed building measuring approximately 14 by 10 metres (46 by 33 ft) and which appears to have been built in several stages.

It is aligned parallel with the beach and has substantially collapsed with only the northwestern corner surviving to its full height, which is approximately two metres above the existing ground level.

Whether or not Watson inhabited the ruins, which is in some doubt, they symbolize the intrusion of Europeans into areas long used by Aboriginal people and the often tragic confrontations that took place in the subsequent competition for land and resources.

The age, origin and use of the building is unproven and the ruins and surrounding area have the potential to provide information about this and possibly about the late 19th beche-de-mer industry in north Queensland.