Anderson Island (Tasmania)
|
Anderson Island is the big island | |
  Anderson Island (Tasmania) (Tasmania) | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Bass Strait |
| Coordinates | 40°18′S 148°06′E / 40.300°S 148.100°ECoordinates: 40°18′S 148°06′E / 40.300°S 148.100°E |
| Archipelago | Furneaux Group |
| Country | |
|
Australia | |
| State | Tasmania |
Anderson Island, also known as Woody Island, is a granite island, with an area of 166 ha, in south-eastern Australia. It is part of Tasmania’s Tin Kettle Island Group, lying in eastern Bass Strait between Flinders and Cape Barren Islands in the Furneaux Group. It is partly a pastoral lease used for grazing sheep and cattle. The island is joined at low tide to nearby Little Anderson and Tin Kettle Islands by extensive intertidal mudflats.[1] The island is part of the Franklin Sound Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because it holds over 1% of the world populations of six bird species.[2]
Flora and fauna
Most of the island’s original vegetation has disappeared, replaced by pasture for livestock. There are a few remnant patches of Melaleuca and Stipa around the coast.
Recorded breeding seabird and wader species are little penguin, Pacific gull, sooty oystercatcher and pied oystercatcher. There used to be a large short-tailed shearwater colony on the western side of the island until the early 20th century, when it was destroyed though the introduction of pigs, which dug up the burrows and ate the eggs and chicks. The metallic skink is present.[1]
References
- 1 2 Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart. ISBN 0-7246-4816-X
- ↑ "IBA: Franklin Sound Islands". Birdata. Birds Australia. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-22.