Coffs Island

Coffs Island, also known locally as Wreck Island, is one of the two main islands that form the Elizabeth Islands.

It is the biggest of the Elizabeth Islands, and it has no permanent inhabitants. The largest city of the Elizabeth Islands, Coffs Harbour, used to be located in the island.

Etymology
Coffs Harbour owes its name to John Korff, who named the area Korff's Harbour when he was forced to take shelter from a storm in the area in 1847. The name was accidentally changed by the surveyor for the crown when he reserved land in the area during 1861. The most popular informal name for this island: Wreck Island, takes its denomination because of the great amount of boats and vessels that collide in the island's old harbour and coral walls when they pass off its coasts.

Abandoning
The Elizabeth Islands were the last British islands that were annexed by Australia. In 1953, the phosphate mines of the islands started to close, and lots of workers had to leave the islands with their families and settle in the West Ring Islands. In 1956, the last mine of Coffs closed, and one year later, the island registered 0 inhabitants. In 1958, United Kingdom had lost all of their interest on building plantations or military bases in the islands, and therefore sold the archipelago to Australia.

Geography
The island has a singular shape, as its first arm is completely rect and the second arm, or the main island has a moon shape. Between the two arms, there is a small coral lagoon: the Coffs Lagoon. Coffs Island is the most elevated island of NSW as a whole. Its highest point is the Saint Anne Hill, situated on the south side of the island. Coffs' closest islands are Grafton Island and Little Grafton Island, a small coral atoll located south of Grafton.

Settlement
There were two settlements registered on the islands: Coffs Harbour and Corbridge.

Coffs Harbour was located on the west tip of the island. It had a bridge that connected it with Grafton. It also had a small highway and an airport that closed in 1955. It had 103 inhabitants, and most of them worked in the nearby Cobridge Mines.

Cobridge was situated next to the Cobridge Mines, on the east tip of the island. It had 39 inhabitants, that had to move to Cotts Harbour because of settlement closing due to the contamination of the only sweet water body of the island, the Gull Inlet Lake, flooded by contaminated waters that came from the nearby mines.

Heritage listings
Home Island contains a number of heritage-listed sites, including: - RMS Elizabeth Memorial - Coffs Ship Cemetery