In 1848, while charting the inner barrier reef, Captain Owen Stanley of HMS Rattlesnake named Double Island, after the two mountainous peaks at either end of the tropical island. Prior to Stanley, Captain James Cook passed the island in the 1770s before running his ship into the Great Barrier Reef at Cape Tribulation. Captain Stanley later established a survey centre on the island. Aborigines are said to have inhabited Double Island for thousands of years and legend has it that Double Island is the resting place of the mythical Rainbow Serpent an aboriginal meta-physical being who controlled the world’s most precious resource; water.

Years later Double Island became a retreat for miners who had struck it rich on the far northern goldfields and today the luxurious island operates as an exclusive tropical island retreat that caters for guests from around the world who desire a superior degree of luxury, discretion and opulence.