The 2.8 km St John’s Island Trail comprises 15 stations marked with signboards that serve as both station markers and educational resources, highlighting the diversity of flora and fauna as well as the island’s colourful history.
The first curated trail on St John’s Island was developed to encourage appreciation for the rich biodiversity and history of St John’s Island and Sisters’ Islands Marine Park.
You can explore St John’s Island on your own. Download this PDF guide from National Parks as a reference. Or, you can join the free 90-minute guided tour, which will be held on the first Sunday of every month. For now, each person can register for a maximum of 5 pax.
You can search on Eventbrite “St John’s Island Trail Guided Walk” and make your booking.
How to go to St John’s Island
You can get to St John’s Island by ferry at Marina South Pier.
You can purchase your own ferry ticket at Marina South Pier and take the 9am ferry to St John’s Island.
About St John’s Island
St John’s Island was known to navigators even before modern Singapore was founded in 1819. Erédia, a PortugueseEurasian explorer, marked ‘Pulo Siquijan’ on a map he made in 1604. This was probably a misspelling of the island’s Malay name, Pulau Sekijang, which means ‘Barking Deer Island’.
European sailors later corrupted ‘Sekijang’ into ‘Sijang’ and finally, ‘St John’s’.
The British established a quarantine centre on St John’s Island in 1874. The quarantine centre, which closed in 1973, housed and treated passengers who arrived on ships with infectious diseases such as cholera, smallpox and plague.
In 1948, parts of the island were converted into a detention centre for political prisoners including C. V. Devan Nair, who later became Singapore’s third President. Between 1955 and 1975, St John’s Island also housed an Opium Treatment Centre.
In 1976, the island was converted into a holiday resort with swimming lagoons and campsites. Today, the island serves as a base for marine research with the establishment of the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory in 2002 and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore’s Marine Aquaculture Centre in 2003.
A small patch of mangroves, which are trees that have adapted to life in the sea, has established itself by the seawall at St John’s Island.
This patch is dominated by two species: Bakau Pasir, which has prominent prop roots, and Tumu, which has knee roots that protrude above the ground.
Both species produce long fruits called propagules, which begin to grow even before they fall off the parent tree. Once prized for their wood which makes excellent charcoal, mangroves today are increasingly valued as nurseries for young fish and as living ‘seawalls’ that protect coasts from storms.
Next to St John’s Island lies Pulau Sekijang Pelepah, which was renamed Lazarus Island in 1899 when a lazaretto (quarantine hospital) was built on it.
Today, the island, which was linked to St John’s Island in the early 2000s, is home to a rich coastal hill forest with plants such as the Delek Air, Common Rhu, and Sea Almond.
About Sisters’ Islands Marine Park
The Sisters’ Islands Marine Park, which spans about 40 hectares around Sisters’ Islands and along the western reefs of both St John’s Island and Pulau Tekukor, will be a platform for outreach, educational, conservation and research activities related to our native marine biodiversity.
The location was chosen due to its variety of habitats including coral reefs, sandy shores and seagrass areas.
The post St John’s Island Trail: DIY & guided tour, history, reviews appeared first on sgcGO.
