 | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Shark Bay |
| Administration | |
Australia | |
| State | Western Australia |
| Region | Gascoyne |
Bernier Island is one of three islands that comprise the Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia. [1]
The island and the neighbouring Dorre Island were locations for a lock hospital in the early 1900s. [2] : 58–61 [3]
It is located at the north-western corner of the World Heritage area, almost due west of Carnarvon, Western Australia. The 2.6-hectare (6-acre) Koks Island is offshore from the lighthouse at its northern end. It is separated from Dorre Island to its south by a 500-metre (1,640 ft) gap with a depth of 4 metres (13 ft).
The island is home to one of the few remaining colonies of the Banded Hare-wallaby ( Lagostrophus fasciatus ) [4] and the endangered species of mouse Pseudomys fieldi , known as djoongari or the Shark Bay mouse, of which there are an estimated 5,000 to 9,000 individuals. [5]
In 1908 the Western Australian government created lock hospitals on Bernier and Dorre Islands, in order to forcibly incarcerate Aboriginal people suspected of having venereal disease. [6] : 59–61 Aboriginal men were mostly detained on Bernier; Aboriginal women and children, mostly on Dorre.
The facilities at the lock hospitals were inadequate, inmates had no contact with their families back home, and underwent experimental medical treatments. [7] It is conservatively estimated that 200 people died on the two islands, with their remains left in unmarked areas. [8] During the 2019 centenary commemoration, Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan described the Bernier and Dorre lock hospital era as "a really horrific piece of Western Australian history". [7]
In April 2019 the Lock Hospital Tragedy Memorial Don't look at the Islands was installed on the mainland at Carnarvon, near the place where Aboriginal detainees were taken by boat to Bernier and Dorre. [8]
Dirk Hartog Island is an island off the Gascoyne coast of Western Australia, within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. It is about 80 kilometres long and between 3 and 15 kilometres wide and is Western Australia's largest and westernmost island. It covers an area of 620 square kilometres and is approximately 850 kilometres north of Perth.
Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The 23,000-square-kilometre (8,900 sq mi) area is located approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi) north of Perth, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent.
The banded hare-wallaby, mernine, or munning is a marsupial currently found on the islands of Bernier and Dorre off western Australia. Reintroduced populations have recently been established on islands and fenced mainland sites, including Faure Island and Wadderin Sanctuary near Narembeen in the central wheatbelt.
Daisy May Bates, CBE was an Irish-Australian journalist, welfare worker and self-taught anthropologist who conducted fieldwork amongst several Indigenous nations in western and southern Australia.
The Gascoyne region is one of the nine administrative regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Gascoyne has about 600 km (370 mi) of Indian Ocean coastline; extends inland about 500 km (310 mi); and has an area of 135,073.8 km2 (52,152.3 sq mi), including islands.
Gould's mouse, also known as the Shark Bay mouse and djoongari in the Pintupi and Luritja languages, is a species of rodent in the murid family. Once ranging throughout Australia from Western Australia to New South Wales, its range has since been reduced to five islands off the coast of Western Australia.
The boodie, also known as the burrowing bettong or Lesueur's rat-kangaroo, is a small, furry, rat-like mammal native to Australia. Once common throughout the continent, it is now restricted to a few coastal islands. A member of the rat-kangaroo family (Potoroidae), it lives in burrows and is active at night when it forages for fungi, roots, and other plant matter. It is about the size of a rabbit and, like most marsupials, carries its young in a pouch.
The Western barred bandicoot, also known as the Shark Bay bandicoot or the Marl, is a small species of bandicoot; now extinct across most of its former range, the western barred bandicoot only survives on offshore islands and in fenced sanctuaries on the mainland.
The rufous hare-wallaby, also known as the mala, is a small macropod found in Australia. It was formerly widely distributed across the western half of the continent, but naturally occurring populations are now confined to Bernier Island and Dorre Island Islands off Western Australia.
The Shire of Carnarvon is a local government area in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia, located about 900 kilometres (560 mi) north of the state capital, Perth. The Shire covers an area of 46,664 square kilometres (18,017 sq mi), and its seat of government is the town of Carnarvon. The major industries in the area are wool, agriculture and, more recently, tourism.
Yalgoo is an interim Australian bioregion located in Western Australia. It has an area of 5,087,577 hectares. The bioregion, together with the Avon Wheatbelt and Geraldton Sandplains bioregions, is part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion as classified by the World Wildlife Fund.
Faure Island is a 58 km2 island pastoral lease and nature reserve, east of the Francois Peron National Park on the Peron Peninsula, in Shark Bay, Western Australia. It lies in line with the Monkey Mia resort to the west, and the Wooramel River on the eastern shore of Shark Bay. It is surrounded by the Shark Bay Marine Park and Shark Bay World Heritage Site and, as the Faure Island Sanctuary, is owned and managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC).
The ash-grey mouse is a rodent in the family Muridae. Larger and more robust than Mus musculus, the common house mouse, it is found only in Southwest Australia.
The Central Western Shelf Province, also known as the Shark Bay marine ecoregion, is a biogeographic region of Australia's continental shelf and coastal waters. It includes the subtropical coastal waters of Western Australia.
Peron Peninsula is a long narrow peninsula located in the Shark Bay World Heritage site in Western Australia, at about 25°51′S113°30′E. It is some 130 kilometres (81 mi) long, running north-northwesterly, located east of Henri Freycinet Harbour and west of Havre Hamelin and Faure Island. It is the largest of the Shark Bay peninsulas. Significant settlements include Denham and Monkey Mia. Shark Bay Airport is located there. It is the location of former Pastoral leases Peron and Nanga stations, and is the main location of land access to points within the World Heritage site. The northern area contains the Francois Peron National Park. It is surrounded by the Shark Bay Marine Park and its lower southeast part is adjacent to the Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve.
A lock hospital was an establishment that specialised in treating sexually transmitted diseases. They operated in Britain and its colonies and territories from the 18th century to the 20th.
Dorre Island is one of three islands that make up the Bernier and Dorre Island Nature Reserve in the Shark Bay World Heritage area in Western Australia. The island was named after Peter Dorre, the pilot of a Dutch vessel, the Eendracht, in 1616.
The Geographe Channel is an arm of the Indian Ocean between Bernier Island and Dorre Island and the mainland of Western Australia. It is the northern part of Shark Bay.
The Jawi people, also spelt Djaui, Djawi, and other alternative spellings, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley coast of Western Australia, who speak the Jawi dialect. They are sometimes grouped with the Bardi people and referred to as "Bardi Jawi", as the languages and culture are similar.
From 1908 to 1919, the Western Australian government created lock hospitals on Bernier and Dorre Islands, in order to forcibly incarcerate Aboriginal people suspected of having venereal disease.
