Bass Strait is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland. The strait provides the most direct waterway between the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea, and is also the only maritime route into the economically prominent Port Phillip Bay.
Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a 1,367-square-kilometre (528 sq mi) island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Today Flinders Island is part of the state of Tasmania, Australia. It is 54 kilometres (34 mi) from Cape Portland and is located on 40° south, a zone known as the Roaring Forties.
Western Port, commonly but unofficially known as Western Port Bay, is a large tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia, opening into Bass Strait. It is the second largest bay in the state. Geographically, it is dominated by two large islands; French Island and Phillip Island. At the time it was renamed, its position was west of other known ports and bays, but Western Port has become something of a misnomer as it lies just to the east of the larger Port Phillip and the city of Melbourne. It is visited by Australian fur seals, whales and dolphins, as well as many migratory waders and seabirds. It is listed under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international significance.
A sheep station is a large property in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or south-west of the country. In New Zealand the Merinos are usually in the high country of the South Island. These properties may be thousands of square kilometres in size and run low stocking rates to be able to sustainably provide enough feed and water for the stock.
Muttonbirding is the seasonal harvesting of the chicks of petrels, especially shearwater species, for food, oil and feathers by recreational or commercial hunters. Such hunting of petrels and other seabirds has occurred in various locations since prehistoric times, and there is evidence that many island populations have become extinct as a result. More recently ‘muttonbirding’ usually refers to the regulated and sustainable harvesting of shearwaters in Australia and New Zealand. These include the short-tailed shearwater, also known as the yolla or Australian muttonbird, in Bass Strait, Tasmania, as well as the sooty shearwater, also known as the tītī or New Zealand muttonbird, on several small islands known as the Muttonbird Islands, scattered around Stewart Island in the far south of New Zealand.
The Hunter Island, the main island of the Hunter Island Group, is a 7,330-hectare (18,100-acre) island, located in Bass Strait, that lies between King Island and north-west Tasmania, Australia.
Steep Island, also known as Steep Head, is a 21.6 ha island in Bass Strait in south-eastern Australia. It is part of Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group and lies between north-west Tasmania and King Island. It was once used for grazing sheep but title has been transferred to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community; with an estimated 250,000 shearwater burrows present, it is principally used for muttonbirding.
Bears Island is a small island with an area of 0.34 ha, lying off the north-west tip of Three Hummock Island in Bass Strait, south-eastern Australia. It is part of Tasmania’s Hunter Island Group which lies between north-west Tasmania and King Island.
Trefoil Island , officially known as titima / Trefoil Island, is an island with an area of 115.79 ha, in south-eastern Australia. It is part of Tasmania’s Trefoil Island Group, lying close to Cape Grim, Tasmania's most north-westerly point, in Bass Strait. It is owned by the Trefoil Island Aboriginal Cooperative and is home to an estimated 1.5 million breeding pairs of short-tailed shearwaters, which are subject to annual muttonbirding activities. Approval is required to visit.
Hogan Island, the largest island of the Hogan Group, is a 232-hectare (570-acre) granite island, located in northern Bass Strait, that lies between the Furneaux Group in north-east Tasmania, and Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, Australia. The island has a maximum elevation of 116 metres (381 ft) AHD.
The Passage Island, part of the Passage Group within the Furneaux Group, is a 253-hectare (630-acre) granite and dolerite island, located in Bass Strait south of Cape Barren Island, in Tasmania, in south-eastern Australia.
Badger Island, part of the Badger Group within the Furneaux Group, is a 1,242-hectare (3,070-acre) unpopulated low-lying granite and limestone island, located in Bass Strait, lying west of the Flinders and Cape Barren islands, Tasmania, south of Victoria, in south-eastern Australia.
The Anderson Island, also known as Woody Island, part of the Tin Kettle Island Group of the Furneaux Group, is a 166-hectare (410-acre) granite island, located in Bass Strait, lying northeast of Tasmania, in south-eastern Australia. Anderson Island lies between Flinders and Cape Barren Islands and 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. The island is supposed to be named after John Anderson, a sealer living on the island by 1842.
The Babel Island, part of the Babel Group within the Furneaux Group, is a 440-hectare (1,100-acre) granite island, located in Bass Strait, lying off the east coast of Flinders Island, Tasmania, south of Victoria, Australia. The privately owned island was named by Matthew Flinders from the noises made by the seabirds there.
Inner Sister Island, part of the Sister Islands Conservation Area, is a granite and dolerite island, with an area of 748 hectares (2.89 sq mi), located in Bass Strait, Tasmania, Australia.
Prime Seal Island is a long island, with a high central ridge and an area of 1220 ha, in south-eastern Australia. It is part of Tasmania’s Prime Seal Island Group, lying in eastern Bass Strait west of Flinders in the Furneaux Group. Geologically, it is limestone overlying granite and has notable karst features, including caves. It is leased for farming and is extensively grazed by sheep and cattle as well as the native Tasmanian pademelons.
De Grey Station is a pastoral lease, formerly a sheep station and now a cattle station, approximately 80 kilometres (50 mi) east of Port Hedland on the mouth of the De Grey River in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The Nuyts Archipelago is an island group in South Australia in the Great Australian Bight, to the south of the town of Ceduna on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. It consists of mostly granitic islands and reefs that provide breeding sites for Australian sea lions and support colonies of short-tailed shearwater. It also includes the island group known as the Isles of St Francis. All the islands, with the exception of a part of Evans Island, are located within the protected areas of the Nuyts Archipelago Wilderness Protection Area and the Nuyts Archipelago Conservation Park.
Yuin Station is a pastoral lease and sheep station located in the Mid West region of Western Australia.
Etadunna is a pastoral lease in the Australian state of South Australia located in the gazetted locality of Etadunna and which is operating as a cattle station.
