Furneaux Group

Municipality of Flinders local government area
Furneaux Group

The Furneaux Group (indigenous name: Tayaritja) is a group of 78 islands at the eastern end of Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. The islands were named after British navigator Tobias Furneaux, who sighted the eastern side of these islands after leaving Adventure Bay in 1773 on his way to New Zealand to rejoin Captain James Cook. Navigator Matthew Flinders was the first Westerner to explore the Furneaux Islands group in the Francis in 1798, and later that year in the Norfolk.[1]

The largest islands in the group are Flinders Island, Cape Barren Island and Clarke Island. The group contains five settlements: Killiecrankie, Emita, Lady Barron, Cape Barren Island and Whitemark on Flinders Island, which serves as the administrative center of the Municipality of Flinders local government area. there are also some small populated ranches on the remote islands.

The Aboriginal woman Dolly Dalrymple was born in the area.[2]

King Island, at the western end of Bass Strait, is not a part of the group.

Administration

The Furneaux Group consists of approximately 100 islands. The major ones are: Anderson Island, Babel Island, Badger Island, Billy Goat Reefs, Big Green Island, Briggs Islet, Cat Island, Chalky Island, Cooties Reef, Doughboy Island, East Kangaroo Island, Fisher Island, Fisher Island Reef, Forsyth Island, Great Dog Island, Inner Sister Island, Outer Sister Island, Isabella Island, Little Anderson Island, Little Chalky Island, Little Dog Island, Little Green Island, Long Island, Low Islets, and another of the same name Low Islets, Middle Pasco Island, Mile Island, Moriarty Rocks, Mount Chappell Island, Neds Reef, Night Island, North Pasco Island, Passage Island (Tasmania), Pelican Island, Prime Seal Island, Puncheon Island, Puncheon Islets, Roydon Island, Rum Island, Samphire Island, Sentinel Island, South Pasco Island, Spences Reefs, Spike Island, Storehouse Island, Swan Island, Tin Kettle Island, Vansittart Island.

The Furneaux Group, together with the groups of islands to the north west Kent Group, Hogan Island Group, Curtis Group, Wilsons Promontory Islands (only Tasmanian part) form the Furneaux Islands Council.

Table of Islands

Island Capital Other Cities Area (km²) Population
Furneaux Group Whitemark Lady Barron, The Corner, Emita, Killiecrankie 2010.3795
Babel Island Group 5.010
Babel Island 4.40
Cat Island (Tasmania) 0.390
Fifty Foot Rock 0.020
Other 00
Storehouse Island 0.20
Badger Island Group Badger Island Mount Chappell Island 18.153
Badger Island South East Point 13.51
Goose Island (Tasmania) 1.090
Inner Little Goose Island 0.0450
Little Badger Island 0.0250
Little Goose Island 0.0360
Mount Chappell Island 3.452
Other Beagle Island North West Mount Chappell Islet 0.0040
Bass Pyramid Bass Pyramid 0.0250
Big Green Island Group Big Green Island East Kangaroo Island 4.16
Big Green Island 1.574
Chalky Island (Tasmania) 0.410
East Kangaroo Island 1.752
Isabella Island 0.140
Little Chalky Island 0.050
Mile Island 0.040
Other 0.140
Cape Barren Island The Corner 478.467
Clarke Island (Tasmania) 821
Craggy Island (Tasmania) Craggy Island 0.3890
Flinders Island Whitemark Lady Barron 1367700
Franklin Sound Islands Important Bird Area Great Dog Tin Kettle 21.36214
Anderson Island (Tasmania) 1.660
Boxen Island 0.130
Briggs Islet 0.0340
Doughboy Island (Tasmania) 0.170
Great Dog Island (Tasmania) Great Dog Island (Tasmania) 3.7510
Lady Barron Island 0.010
Little Anderson Island 0.130
Little Dog Island Little Dog Island 0.830
Little Green Island 0.870
Long Island (Tasmania) 3.130
Neds Reef 0.040
Other Spences Islands Big Black Reef, GVH Rock, Mid Woody Islet, Ram, Apple Orchard Point, Billy Goat Reefs, Fisher Island, Samphire Island 0.2530
Oyster Rocks East Oyster West Oyster 0.070
Pelican Island (Tasmania) 0.070
Puncheon Island Puncheon Island 0.1851
Tin Kettle Island Tin Kettle 1.862
Vansittart Island (Tasmania) Bates Bay House Bay 8.171
Inner Sister Island 7.480
Other Little Island Shag Rock 00
Outer Sister Island Outer Sister Island 5.450
Pasco Island Group Roydon Island 1.10
Marriott Reef 0.0340
Middle Pasco Islands 0.0840
North Pasco Island 0.280
Other 0.1220
Roydon Island 0.370
South Pasco Island 0.210
Passage Island Group Passage Island 4.472
Forsyth Island 1.670
Gull Island (Tasmania) 0.0850
Low Islets (Tasmania) 0.020
Moriarty Rocks 0.0250
Other Battery Island 0.0170
Passage Island (Tasmania) Passage Island 2.532
Spike Island (Tasmania) Spike Island Little Spike Island 0.1230
Preservation Island Group Preservation Island 2.372
Key Island 0.060
Night Island (Tasmania) 0.0260
Other 0.0070
Preservation Island Preservation Island Horseshoe Bay 2.082
Rum Island (Tasmania) 0.1970
Prime Seal Island Group Prime Seal Island 12.80
Bird Island (Prime Seal Group) 0.0150
Low Islets (Prime Seal Group) South low Middle low, North low 0.350
Other 0.0750
Prime Seal Island Peacock Bay South Bay 12.20
Wybalenna Island 0.160
Sentinel Island (Tasmania) 0.10
Wright Rock 0.0940
Furneaux Group Whitemark Lady Barron, The Corner, Emita, Killiecrankie 2010.3795

Geology

The islands contain granite from the Devonian period, as well as unconsolidated limestone and sand from Cenozoic periods. During the ice age, a land bridge joined Tasmania to the Australian mainland through this group of islands.

Notes

  1. Flinders, Matthew (1801). Observations on the coasts of Van Diemen’s, Land on Bass’s Strait and its islands, and on part of the coasts of New South Wales; intended to accompany the charts of the late discoveries in those countries.
  2. Ian McFarlane, Dalrymple, Dolly (c. 1808 - 1864), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplementary Volume, Melbourne University Press, 2005, p. 94.

References

External links

Coordinates: 40°10′S 148°05′E / 40.167°S 148.083°E / -40.167; 148.083

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 02, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.