After Airlie Beach we headed back into the Whitsundays. Hook island has deep fiord like inlets to the South. At the end of the inlet you can take a path up to some caves where there was once an aboriginal settlement. The national parks have put up some sympathetic signposting. The cave is defended somewhat incongruously by an electric fence. There is a goat problem. Inside the cave you can see drawings which appear to depict fish nets and boats. The people who lived here were sea going. It looked as if there had once been a village here of which this cave was one example. The implication of the signage was that the people had been forcibly moved away.

One of the strange things about Australia is the absence of Aboriginal people. In the Mackay you do see black skins but these are mostly Pacific islanders. Pacific islanders were kidnapped to work on the sugar plantations in the late 19th century. The practice was called black birding. The contrast with the strong Maori presence in NZ culture is remarkable. Here the original inhabitants are generally out of sight and out of mind.