Boston Island (South Australia)

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Boston Island
Boston Island from the north
Boston Island from the north
Waters Great Australian Bay
Geographical location 34 ° 42 ′  S , 135 ° 56 ′  E Coordinates: 34 ° 42 ′  S , 135 ° 56 ′  E
Boston Island (South Australia) (South Australia)
Boston Island (South Australia)
length 6.4 km
width 2.5 km
surface 809 hadep1
Highest elevation Boston Hill
97  m

Boston Iceland (in the language of the Aborigines Kerrillyilla or Kurilyelli ) is an island in the Spencer Gulf east of the Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia . The island is located in Boston Bay less than four kilometers east of Port Lincoln , between Point Boston in the north and Lincoln National Park in the south. The current name of the island goes back to the naming by Matthew Flinders on February 25, 1802 after the city of Boston in Lincolnshire , althoughNicolas Baudin called her La Grange on his expedition .

geography

The highest point is Boston Hill with a height of almost 98 meters. The northernmost point on the island is called Point Maria. To the southeast is Squeaky Beach. To the east is Cemetery Beach. The southernmost point of the island is Point Fanny in the southwest, the easternmost is Hayden Point in the southeast of the island. Picnic Beach Bay is north of Hayden Point. Hayden Point has the shortest distance to the mainland at 2.5 kilometers from Cape Colbert on the northern tip of Lincoln National Park .

There was a dispute in 2010 about the name of the bay in the south of the island between Point Fanny and Hayden Point. Some residents of Port Lincoln, including the local mayor and owner of the island Peter Davis, pushed for the name Rotten Bay , which had long been in use, to be replaced by what they thought was better-sounding. Instead, the name Rotten Bay was even officially recognized.

Flora and fauna

Matthew Flinders described the island as forested on his expedition in 1802. The forests mentioned have now been reduced to small parts surrounded by grass and pasture land .

Today, various bird species such as parrots , soot oystercatchers , house sparrows and the common starling can be found on the island. A pair of rare cap ringed plovers have also been sighted, and the east coast of the island is said to be home to a population of Australian white throated ducks . In 2017, a wind turbine on the island was converted into an eyrie for ospreys .

Tammar Wallabies were introduced from Kangaroo Island and are now so numerous that the residents have to fence off areas for reforestation . According to the Australian Department of the Environment, domestic goats and pigs have also been kept on Boston Island in the past . As on many islands in the Spencer Gulf, domestic sheep are kept to this day. Also are house mice available on the island.

history

On August 25, 1905, people transport a signal tower to Point Fanny.
Motor ship Minnipa run aground .

On the basis of archaeological finds, the archaeologist Ronald Lampert assumes that the island was visited by Australian natives a little less than 8,000 years ago after it was separated from the Australian continent , which seems plausible due to the small distance to the mainland.

In 1841 attempts were made to attract larger settlements, but this failed. It was not until four years later that Captain John Bishop, who had brought other settlers on the Dorset ship to Port Lincoln, settled on the island. Members of the Bishop family owned parts of the island for 114 years, and there is still a stone house on the island, which dates back to this first settlement in modern times .

In the early 1850s, Archdeacon Hale set up a missionary station for the indigenous population on Boston Island , which was later moved to the mainland to Poonindie near Port Lincoln, as the limited space the island offered was not for the Aboriginal lifestyle was appropriate.

The motor ship Minnipa of the Adelaide Steamship Company ran aground in 1928 in the southeast of the island, near Hayden Point, in thick fog. The 160 passengers were brought to the mainland by boat.

MK Bishop finally sold the island to Ralph Hogan in 1950. Boston Island was designated rabbit and fox free at the time , and sheep farming was noted on the island.

Four years later, on September 9, 1954, the island was sold to HP Davis at auction in Port Lincoln. The auction was held in front of 500 people in attendance, which is said to have represented the largest gathering of people at a land auction on the Eyre Peninsula at the time. In 2008 the island was still owned by a member of the Davis family. The owner, Peter Davis, was Mayor of Port Lincoln City at the time .

economy

To this day, the island is mainly used for agriculture , especially for sheep breeding . Tourists are brought to the island from Port Island in private and commercial ships.

In 2008, Peter Davis, whose family had owned agricultural land on Boston Island for 150 years, proposed a development plan to turn the island into a tourist destination modeled on Magnetic Island . He called for an investment of one billion Australian dollars . Although the reactions to the project were rather subdued, the island was designated as a tourist destination for this purpose a year later.

Alleged mine find

In 2014, a sea ​​mine was allegedly found a few hundred meters east of Boston Island at a depth of 20 meters . The population was warned by the police to stay away from the island. However, specialists from the Australian Navy were unable to find such an object on September 10, 2014.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Tony Robinson, Peter Canty, Trish Mooney, Penny Rudduck: South Australia's offshore islands . Australian Heritage Commission, 1996, ISBN 978-0-644-35011-2 , pp. 244–247 (English, gov.au [PDF; 33.3 MB ; accessed on August 19, 2019]).
  2. ^ Tony Robinson, Peter Canty, Trish Mooney, Penny Rudduck: South Australia's offshore islands . Australian Heritage Commission, 1996, ISBN 978-0-644-35011-2 , pp. 121 (English, gov.au [PDF; 33.3 MB ; accessed on August 19, 2019]).
  3. ^ A b Matthew Flinders: A voyage to Terra Australis . S. 140–154 (English, archive.org [accessed August 3, 2019]).
  4. ↑ Things get truly rotten off SA coast. In: ABC.net .au. September 23, 2010, accessed August 20, 2019 .
  5. ^ Boston Island. In: ABC.net .au. May 8, 2011, accessed on August 20, 2019 (English): "Rotten Bay now an official place at Boston Island"
  6. ^ Tony Robinson, Peter Canty, Trish Mooney, Penny Rudduck: South Australia's offshore islands . Australian Heritage Commission, 1996, ISBN 978-0-644-35011-2 , pp. 117 (English, gov.au [PDF; 33.3 MB ; accessed on August 19, 2019]).
  7. ↑ a b Feral animals on offshore islands database. (XLSX; 261 kB) Department of the Environment, February 2016, accessed on August 4, 2019 .
  8. ^ Jon Ovan: Windmill a home for ospreys. In: Port Lincoln Times. September 29, 2017, accessed August 19, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Ronald Lampert: The Great Kartan Mystery . In: Terra Australis . tape 5 . The Australian National University, Canberra 1981, ISBN 978-0-909596-62-0 , pp. 38; 175–177 (English, edu.au [PDF; 37.6 MB ; accessed on August 19, 2019]).
  10. ^ Tony Robinson, Peter Canty, Trish Mooney, Penny Rudduck: South Australia's offshore islands . Australian Heritage Commission, 1996, ISBN 978-0-644-35011-2 , pp. 120 (English, gov.au [PDF; 33.3 MB ; accessed on August 19, 2019]).
  11. ↑ a b Boston Island Sold . In: The Chronicle . Adelaide June 22, 1950, p. 11 (English, gov.au [accessed August 20, 2019]).
  12. ^ East End of Boston Island. Astray in the Fog. In: The Kadina and Wallaroo Times. May 30, 1928, accessed August 19, 2019 .
  13. ^ Boston Island Bought For £ 49,200 . In: The Chronicle . Adelaide September 9, 1954, p. 51 (English, gov.au [accessed August 20, 2019]).
  14. ^ A b Russell Emmerson: Little interest in Boston Island plan. In: The Advertiser . December 7, 2008, accessed August 24, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Boston Iceland rezoned as tourist destination. In: ABC.net .au. November 26, 2009, accessed August 19, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Steve Rice: Public warned to stay away from Boston Island near Port Lincoln after discovery of suspected sea mine. In: The Advertiser . September 8, 2014, accessed August 19, 2019 .
  17. ↑ No sea mine found in search. In: Port Lincoln Times. September 11, 2014, accessed August 19, 2019 .