Furneaux Group

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Furneaux Group
Furneaux Group Map.svg
Relief Map of Tasmania.png
Red pog.svg
Furneaux Group
Etymology Tobias Furneaux
Geography
Location Bass Strait
Coordinates 40°06′54″S148°06′54″E / 40.11500°S 148.11500°E / -40.11500; 148.11500
Total islandsapprox. 100
Major islands Flinders Island, Cape Barren Island, and Clarke Island
Area2,010.3 km2 (776.2 sq mi)
Administration
State Tasmania
Local government Flinders Council
Demographics
Population795

The Furneaux Group is a group of approximately 100 islands located 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. [1] Navigator Matthew Flinders was the first European to explore the Furneaux Islands group, in the schooner Francis in 1798, and later that year in the sloop Norfolk. [2]

Contents

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 centre of the Flinders Council. There are also some small farming properties on the remote islands.

After seals were discovered there in 1798, the Furneaux Group of islands became the most intensively exploited sealing ground in Bass Strait. [3] A total of 29 islands in the Furneaux Group have been found to have some tangible link with sealing in the 19th century. [4]

The Aboriginal matriarch, Dolly Dalrymple, was born on the Furneaux Islands. Her mother was one of two Aboriginal women who had been kidnapped from northern Tasmania by the sealer George Briggs. [5]

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

Administration

Islands in the Group

IslandCapitalOther citiesAreaPopulation
km2 sq mi
Furneaux Group Whitemark Lady Barron, The Corner, Emita, Killiecrankie 2,010.3776.2795
Babel Island Group 5.011.930
Babel Island 4.41.70
Cat Island 0.390.150
Fifty Foot Rock 0.020.00770
Other000
Storehouse Island 0.20.0770
Badger Island Group Badger Island Mount Chappell Island 18.157.013
Badger Island South East Point 13.55.21
Goose Island 1.090.420
Inner Little Goose Island 0.0450.0170
Little Badger Island 0.0250.00970
Little Goose Island 0.0360.0140
Mount Chappell Island 3.451.332
Other Beagle Island North West Mount Chappell Islet 0.0040.00150
Bass Pyramid Bass Pyramid 0.0250.00970
Big Green Island Group Big Green Island East Kangaroo Island 4.11.66
Big Green Island 1.570.614
Chalky Island 0.410.160
East Kangaroo Island 1.570.612
Isabella Island 0.140.0540
Little Chalky Island 0.050.0190
Mile Island 0.040.0150
Other0.140.0540
Cape Barren Island The Corner 478.4184.767
Clarke Island 82321
Craggy Island Craggy Island 0.3890.1500
Flinders Island Whitemark Lady Barron 1,367528700
Franklin Sound Islands Important Bird Area Great Dog Tin Kettle 21.3628.24814
Anderson Island 1.660.640
Boxen Island 0.130.0500
Briggs Islet 0.0340.0130
Doughboy Island 0.170.0660
Great Dog Island Great Dog Island 3.751.4510
Lady Barron Island 0.010.00390
Little Anderson Island 0.130.0500
Little Dog Island Little Dog Island 0.830.320
Little Green Island 0.870.340
Long Island 3.131.210
Neds Reef 0.040.0150
Other Spences Islands Big Black Reef, GVH Rock, Mid Woody Islet, Ram, Apple Orchard Point, Billy Goat Reefs, Fisher Island, Samphire Island 0.2530.0980
Oyster Rocks East Oyster West Oyster 0.070.0270
Pelican Island 0.070.0270
Puncheon Island Puncheon Island 0.1850.0711
Tin Kettle Island Tin Kettle 1.860.722
Vansittart Island Bates Bay House Bay 8.173.151
Inner Sister Island 7.482.890
Other Little Island Shag Rock000
Outer Sister Island Outer Sister Island 5.452.100
Pasco Island Group Roydon Island 1.10.420
Marriott Reef 0.0340.0130
Middle Pasco Islands 0.0840.0320
North Pasco Island 0.280.110
Other0.1220.0470
Roydon Island 0.370.140
South Pasco Island 0.210.0810
Passage Island Group Passage Island4.471.732
Forsyth Island 1.670.640
Gull Island 0.0850.0330
Low Islets 0.020.00770
Moriarty Rocks 0.0250.00970
Other Battery Island 0.0170.00660
Passage Island Passage Island2.530.982
Spike Island Spike Island Little Spike Island 0.1230.0470
Preservation Island Group Preservation Island 2.370.922
Key Island 0.060.0230
Night Island 0.0260.0100
Other0.0070.00270
Preservation Island Preservation Island Horseshoe Bay2.080.802
Rum Island 0.1970.0760
Prime Seal Island Group Prime Seal Island 12.84.90
Bird Island 0.0150.00580
Low Islets South Low Middle Low, North Low 0.350.140
Other0.0750.0290
Prime Seal Island Peacock Bay South Bay12.24.70
Wybalenna Island 0.160.0620
Sentinel Island 0.10.0390
Wright Rock 0.0940.0360
Furneaux Group Whitemark Lady Barron, The Corner, Emita, Killiecrankie 2,010.3776.2795

Geology

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

See also

References

  1. Cumpston, J. S. (1973). First visitors to Bass Strait. Canberra: Roebuck Society. ISBN   0-9500858-8-X.
  2. 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.
  3. Kostoglou, Parry (1996). Sealing in Tasmania historical research project (First ed.). Hobart: Parks and Wildlife Service. pp. 90–1.
  4. Kostoglou, p.91.
  5. McFarlane, Ian (2005). "Dalrymple, Dolly (c. 1808 - 1864)". Australian Dictionary of Biography (Supplementary Volume ed.). National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. p. 94. ISBN   978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN   1833-7538. OCLC   70677943.