Bramble Cay
| Bramble Cay (Naizab Kaur) | ||
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| Waters | Torres Street | |
| Archipelago | Torres Strait Islands | |
| Geographical location | 9 ° 8 '30 " S , 143 ° 52' 34" O | |
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| length | 425 m | |
| width | 240 m | |
| surface | 4 ha | |
| Highest elevation | unnamed 3 m |
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| Residents | uninhabited | |
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Bramble Cay , also called Naizab Kaur , Massaramcoer or Baramaki , is located at the northeast corner of the Torres Strait Islands ( Queensland ) and at the same time at the northwest end of the Great Barrier Reef and has the northernmost point of Australia .
geography
The sand island extends 425 meters east-west and is 240 meters wide, with an area of four hectares . The surrounding coral reef extends over an area of 1.92 km², mainly in the east of the island, up to about 1300 meters east. About half of the area inside is overgrown with grass. Bramble Cay Light, a lighthouse , is located on the island.
About five kilometers to the southwest are the Black Rocks, also called Rebes , protruding only one meter from the water . The Nautilus Reef is marked three kilometers to the northeast on various maps , but its existence is questionable.
Bramble Cay and the neighboring reefs and rocks are separated from the other reefs and islands further south by the Bligh Channel ( Bligh Entrance ). To the north, the Great North East Channel separates them from Parama Island off the coast of Papua New Guinea .
The closest island is the uninhabited Underdown Islet around 40 kilometers south. Parama Island , which is already part of Papua New Guinea , is 48 km WNW. The city of Daru , capital of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, is located around 70 km west of Bramble Cay.
Administration and tradition
Administratively, Bramble Cay belongs to the Torres Shire , specifically to the Eastern Islands region . Bramble Cay has traditionally been owned by the residents of Darnley Island , the nearest island 45 km southwest. The Darnley Islanders collect turtle and bird eggs on Bramble Cay during the breeding season, and allow residents of the Eastern Islands' neighboring islands, Stephens Island and Murray Island to do so . The owners of Darnley Island and thus also Bramble Cay are Meuram (Meaurem), one of the eight tribes of Murray Island, who settle on the north coast of Murray Island.
Bramble Cay is part of the Parish of Umaga , a lowest level cadastral district that includes Darnley Island , the Black Rocks, Anchor Cay and East Cay .
fauna
The island is a breeding site for green turtles . The sea is rich in algae , so fish such as unicornfish , wrasse and trumpet fish can be found in the area.
The island was home to the endemic Bramble Cay mosaic tail rat . This has been considered extinct on the island since 2016 and thus probably also worldwide, after the vegetation and plant diversity on Bramble-Cay had declined dramatically by 2014, probably as a result of more frequent floods on the island, which is only up to 3 m high. The climate change , which in the Torres Strait to a particularly high sea level rise of more than 6 mm per year since 1993 and changed weather conditions, such as increased cyclonic activity has led, was probably a major reason for the vegetation loss. Employees of the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection suspect that this could be the first known mammal species to become extinct due to climate change. Close relatives of the now extinct rat may live on the River Fly in Papua New Guinea.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Map of the marine region (English; PDF; 125 kB)
- ↑ Torres Strait Atlas
- ↑ List of names of the Torres Strait Islands (English; PDF; 72 kB)
- ↑ Map and information on the marine region (English; PDF; 366 kB)
- ^ JC Ellison: Natural history of Bramble Cay, Torres Strait . Atoll Research Bulletin 455 (1998) ( Memento June 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Wolfgang Laade: Notes on the clans, economy, trade and traditional law of the Murray Islanders, Torres Straits. In: Journal de la Société des océanistes. N ° 39, Tome 29, 1973. pp. 151-167 , here p. 153
- ↑ Ian Gynther, Natalie Waller and Luke K.-P. Leung: Confirmation of the extinction of the Bramble Cay melomys Melomys rubicola on Bramble Cay, Torres Strait: results and conclusions from a comprehensive survey in August – September 2014 . Ed .: Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Queensland Government, Brisbane. June 2016 ( PDF ).
- ↑ FEHU: Australian rat is extinct. Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 16, 2016, p. 16
Web links
- Website of the Torres Shire Council (English)