This island was bought from the Crown by the farmer and ex-whaler Arthur Elmslie in 1865. He sold it to Thomas Milburn Hamilton in 1868 after whom it is named in English.
The island was eventually sold back to the Crown in 1905 for use as a cemetery although there is no record of it being used for this purpose.
The island is now a recreation reserve. It has a small shingle beach and has many native trees including karaka, after which the island receives its Māori name.1
1. Olive Baldwin, Story of New Zealand’s French Pass and d’Urville Island (Plimmerton: Fields Publishing House, 1979) 134.
