Melville Island (Tiwi: Yermalner), known in the Tiwi language as Yermalner, is an island in the eastern Timor Sea, off the coast of the Northern Territory, Australia. It has a tropical climate, being west of the Cobourg Peninsula in Arnhem Land and north of Darwin. The largest settlement on the island is Milikapiti, with a population of 559. The second largest is Pirlangimpi (Pularumpi, formerly Garden Point), with a population of 440, located west of Milikapiti, on the west coast of Melville Island. About 30 more people live in five family outstations. At 5786km2 it is just outside the 100 largest islands in the world, but is the second biggest island in Australia, after Tasmania (and excluding the continental landmass). Only 55m south of its southern tip is Irrititu Island, with an area of 1.60km2. Together, Melville Island, Bathurst Island and nine smaller uninhabited islands are known as the Tiwi Islands. It is said that the first European to sight the island was Abel Tasman in 1644. Explorer Phillip Parker King (son of governor of New South Wales Philip Gidley King) named it for Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville, first lord of the Admiralty, who is also commemorated by the much larger Melville Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Shortly after this, the British made the first attempt to settle Australia's north coast, at the short-lived Fort Dundas. During World War II the small Snake Bay Patrol manned by local Indigenous Australians was established as part of the military forces deployed to protect the island against any Japanese landings.
