It's a turtle-nesting oasis with a healthy population of death adders, a haven for critically endangered curlews and a somewhat apt name.
Welcome to Avoid Island.
Roughly 20 kilometres off the coast south of Mackay, the privately-owned island is one of the state's largest flatback turtle rookeries.
This month, with the hatching season underway, it's seen the annual flurry of tiny flatbacks embarking seaward.
"It's almost it's like an island ark for some of these species that might be being affected on the mainland by predation or development," Queensland Trust for Nature's Liz O'Brien said.
The trust purchased the island in 2006 and have turned it into a nature refuge.
Volunteers from the Mackay and District Turtle Watch have joined officers from the trust to monitor nesting and hatching.
"This is our 10th year of monitoring these populations," Ms O'Brien said.
She said it was too early to say exactly how successful this hatching season was, but officers recorded more than 70 nests along one beach over four days.
"The way turtles work is whatever beach they're born on, they tend to come back to," Ms O'Brien said.
Free from artificial light, development and predators — such as foxes, cats and dogs — the island has given rise to a thriving population of returning turtles.
The trust said Avoid Island flatbacks lay close to 10,000 eggs each season with an 80 to 90 per cent hatching success rate.
Benchmark for mainland environments
Trained and authorised volunteers and staff monitor the number of hatchlings, count any unhatched or undeveloped eggs and manage weeds.
With development increasing along Queensland's coast and threats to turtles increasing, the island offers an important opportunity to check the pulse of turtle populations in a relatively pristine environment.
"It can act as a sort of reference site," Ms O'Brien said.
"It's an indication if something larger scale is going on … if we look at what might be happening with climate change as the temperature increases."
Mackay and District Turtle Watch vice-president Sally Stutsel said the island is a significant part of the region's turtle ecosystem.
"It is significant because it gives baseline data. It gives a really good snapshot of what is happening in turtle populations by maintaining that data set for an ongoing period," she said.
Data collected feeds into a long-term turtle monitoring program run by Queensland's Department of Environment and Science.
Understanding a unique ecosystem
The island is also used by at least 84 species of birds, including the critically endangered eastern curlew.
The Queensland Trust for Nature said surveys have suggested the island also has some of the highest population densities of the vulnerable death adder along the Central Queensland coast.
Ms O'Brien said there was a lot to still learn about this unique ecosystem.
"We do want to start answering some of those questions."
