New Year Island Group

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New Year Island Group
Location of the largest islands in the broadly encompassing New Year Island group, including King Island
Location of the largest islands in the broadly encompassing New Year Island group, including King Island
Waters Indian Ocean , Great Australian Bay , Bass Strait
archipelago Tasmania
Geographical location 39 ° 40 ′  S , 143 ° 49 ′  E Coordinates: 39 ° 40 ′  S , 143 ° 49 ′  E
New Year Island Group (Australia)
New Year Island Group
Number of islands 2 (in the narrow sense) or 4 (in the broad sense)
Main island New Year Island (in the narrow sense) or King Island (in the broad sense)
Total land area 1.62 (in the narrow sense) or 1100 square kilometers (in the broad sense)
Satellite image with King Island in the center, in front of the significantly smaller New Year Island and Christmas Island in the northwest, and Councilor Island in the east
Satellite image with King Island in the center, in front of the significantly smaller New Year Island and Christmas Island in the northwest, and Councilor Island in the east

The New Year Island Group is a group of islands in southeast Australia that belongs to the state of Tasmania . During the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the archipelago gained notoriety through numerous ship accidents ; Today it is an important nature reserve ( game reserve , nature reserve ), especially for birds and seals .

Over the past two centuries the term has been used in different ways; in this respect there are different perspectives as to which islands are to be included in the group.

location

The archipelago lies in front of Tasmania, north-northwest in front of its north-western tip and the offshore island of Hunter Island . In direct extension further to the north-north-west is Cape Otway , a south-facing cape in the state of Victoria , which in turn is about 150 kilometers southwest of Melbourne .

The archipelago is located on the northern edge of the Roaring Forties , a region of west wind drift between 40 and 50  degrees south latitude . East is the Bass Strait (English: Bass Strait ), as Strait Tasmania separated from the Australian mainland, west of the Great Australian Bight (in a wider sense) or the Indian Ocean . The archipelago lies on the edge of the shelf of the Australian continent . Similar to the Furneaux Group on the northeastern tip of Tasmania, the islands form visible remains of the former Ice Age land bridge to the Australian mainland when the sea ​​level was up to 130 m lower.

Surname

New Year Group and New Year Islands are also used as alternative names for the New Year Island Group , and New Year Islets , New Year ('s) Isles and New Year's Islands in older publications .

The islands

The group in a narrow sense

The group is named after the island

The archipelago also includes
  • Christmas Island , about 1.5 kilometers south of New Year Island, 63.49 hectares in size and also uninhabited and made of granite.
Then there are the rocks
  • Diamond Rock west of New Year Island,
  • Saguenay Rock northeast of New Year Island,
  • Lizzy Rock southeast of New Year Island,
  • Elizabeth Rock southeast of Christmas Island and
  • Channel Rocks west of Christmas Island.

In 1877 the archipelago was mentioned in a reference work under the keyword "New Year's Islands" with a land area of ​​"about 800  acres " (about 324 hectares) and a location "northwest of 'King's Island'". Under the keyword "King's Island" it is called once "New Year Islands", once "New Year's Islands".

On a map of “King's Island” published in 1887, the “New Year Islands” appear in this narrow sense as a group of islands northwest of “King's Island”.

As part of a research trip, the Australian wildlife biologist Nigel Brothers visited Christmas Island and New Year Island in 1987. Together with D. Pemberton and N. Smith, he referred to the islands of New Year Island and Christmas Island in 1991 as the "New Year Island Group" and "New Year Islands", respectively. This geographical classification is based on the publications King Island and the sealing trade, 1802 by François Péron and Helen Mary Micco from 1971, and The Sealers of Bass Strait and the Cape Barren Island Community by Norman James Brian Plomley and Kristen Anne Henley from the year 1990. In a second place they also speak of "New Year Island Group" with reference to The King Island Story by Richard Henry Hooper from 1973.

The group in a broad sense

In addition, the term is used in a significantly broader sense, especially in more recent times. After that, the New Year Island group also includes other islands and rocks:

  • King Island , located south and east of the aforementioned islands and geologically more diverse; 1098  square kilometers surface is significantly larger and of 1585 inhabitants populated (as of 2016), which primarily in the agriculture , the fishery and the mining work, further
  • Councilor Island , east of King Island, an uninhabited 10.53 acre granite island on Bass Strait. There are also various rocks here:
  • Doughboy Rock, East Harbinger and Navarine Reef to the north of King Island,
  • Flying Squirrel Rock and Sea Elephant Reef in the west and northeast of Councilor Island, respectively,
  • Grassy Island, North Brig Rock, Stanley Rocks and Seal Rock and - further upstream - Reid Rocks and Bell Reef in the southeast of King Island, furthermore
  • Sunken Rocks, Johnson Rock and Waterwitch Reef to the west of King Island.

“New Year Island Group” in this broad sense is used primarily by the biologist Nigel Brothers and David Pemberton. Brothers worked for 28 years until 2001 for the government agency Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service , which is under the Tasmanian department, which administers the game reserve New Year Island and the nature reserves Christmas Island and Councilor Island. As the responsible expedition leader, he was not only responsible for recording fauna and flora, but also surveying, mapping and photographic documentation of the around 338, often uninhabited, little-documented islands of Tasmania.

Kris Carlyon, David Pemberton and Tim Rudman also use this broad perspective for the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE) ; they assigned King Island to the "New Year Island Group".

It is unusual that, according to this view, the archipelago is named after the small island New Year Island and not after King Island, which is around a thousand times larger. The reason for this is said to be that European seafarers in the 1790s first recorded the flat, spatially manageable granite rocks before they turned to the larger, uninhabited island of King Island; the latter did not get its name until 1801, was initially almost impenetrable due to dense bushes and trees and was not permanently settled until 1888. New Year Island, with its large populations of easy-to-kill fur seals and elephant seals, was particularly attractive from the start. A similar situation can be found in the south of Tasmania: There the small, uninhabited, only 2.5 hectare large rocky island Pedra Branca gives its name to a group of islands that includes the 13.1 hectare much larger island of Mewstone .

Flora and fauna

Elephant seals and seal hunters in a bay on King Island, Tasmania (Illustration by Charles-Alexandre Lesueur , 1807)

On the islands and rocks, and in the surrounding waters of New-Year-Iceland group numerous, partly rare animals, especially living marine and wading birds and seals. The archipelago plays an important role, especially in the breeding and rearing of young animals.

Large colonies of short-tailed shearwaters and little penguins live on King Island . The small, flat rocks in front of it are also sometimes of great importance, for example the nature reserve Reid Rocks: The rocks, which are regularly washed over by waves and therefore devoid of vegetation, have been the only breeding area for New Zealand fur seals in the western Bass Strait for a long time . On a long-term average, around 1500 young animals are born there each year.

Subfossil finds

In 1987, subfossil remains of living things were found on New Year Island . They allow conclusions to be drawn about the earlier fauna; Furthermore, they make it possible to determine which terrestrial animals were originally native there and which were introduced later, for example by seal hunters . Similar sites are also known from King Island. They are located in island regions where strong winds cause dunes to migrate, exposing the layers of earth below.

Ship accidents

Beaching of the Cataraqui in 1845 off King Island

When it comes to ship passages, the New Year Island group has been considered relatively dangerous since it was discovered by European seafarers from the late 18th to the early 20th century. The reasons were the frequent strong winds, the numerous rocks and coral reefs , the lack of lighthouses for a long time and the initially poor mapping . There were several ship accidents with many deaths and the loss of ships and goods.

In 1835 the convict ship Neva sank in the area of ​​the archipelago, killing 225 people. On the way to Melbourne, the British sailing ship Cataraqui ran into a reef in strong winds off King Island in August 1845 and struck a leak ; 360 passengers and crew members, mostly British emigrants , died according to other sources, 399 and 414 people respectively. In 1871 and 1874 the iron clipper Loch Leven sank with a displacement of 1,868 tons (one dead) and British Admiral (79 dead). The sinkings of the iron barque Blencathra (933 tons, 1875) and the full steel ship Carnarvon Bay (1932 tons, 1910) remained without deaths . The sometimes easily accessible shipwrecks off the coasts of the islands are now a popular destination for wreck divers .

Precautions for Oil Spills

A runway is maintained on King Island . In the event of oil spills in the area of ​​the New Year Island Group and generally in the western Bass Strait, a so-called Wildlife Oil Spill Response Kit can be flown in by express delivery together with a team of three, a package to combat such oil spills that affect wildlife could threaten. This is organized by the Resource Management and Conservation Division of the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industry, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE) in Hobart, roughly translates to the Department of Resource Management and Conservation of the Tasmanian Department of the primary sector , for national parks, water and the environment .

The precautions should be seen in particular against the background that a main route for ships runs north and east of the archipelago. Furthermore, to the west of the archipelago, still on the Australian shelf, there is a derrick for oil and natural gas .

literature

  • Nigel Brothers , David Pemberton: Tasmania's Offshore Islands: Seabirds and Other Natural Features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2001, ISBN 0-7246-4816-X , pp. 2 f., 45-55 and 606 (English).
  • Robert P. Whitworth: Bailliere's Tasmanian Gazetteer and Road Guide - Containing the Most Recent and Accurate Information as to Every Place in the Colony. FF Balliere, Melbourne 1877 (English) ( PDF ), p. 114 f. ("King's Island)" and 144 ("New Year's Islands").
  • Nigel Brothers, David Pemberton, N. Smith: A subfossil site on New Year Island. (PDF). In: The Victorian Naturalist . Volume 108, Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, Blackburn, Victoria, Australia 1991, p. 110 f. (English).
  • Norman James Brian Plomley, Kristen Anne Henley: The Sealers of Bass Strait and the Cape Barren Island Community. Blubber Head Press, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 1990, ISBN 978-0-908528-21-9 (English).
  • François Péron, Helen Mary Micco: King Island and the sealing trade, 1802. Roebuck Society, Canberra, ACT, Australia 1971 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Nigel Brothers, David Pemberton: Tasmania's Offshore Islands: Seabirds and Other Natural Features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2001, ISBN 0-7246-4816-X , pp. 2 f., 45-55 and 606 (English).
  2. ^ Nigel Brothers, David Pemberton: Tasmania's Offshore Islands: Seabirds and Other Natural Features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2001, ISBN 0-7246-4816-X , pp. 45 f. and 606 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Nigel Brothers, David Pemberton, N. Smith: A subfossil site on New Year Island . In: The Victorian Naturalist . Volume 108, Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, Blackburn, Victoria, Australia 1991, p. 110 f. (English).
  4. ^ A b c d Kris Carlyon, David Pemberton, Tim Rudman: Islands of the Hogan Group, Bass Strait: Biodiversity and Oil Response Survey. (PDF; 2.48 MB). Nature Conservation Report Series 11/03, Resource Management and Conservation Division, Tasmanian Department of Primary Industry, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2011, ISBN 978-0-7246-7001-7 , Appendix 6, P. 53 (English).
  5. ^ A b c d Robert P. Whitworth: Bailliere's Tasmanian Gazetteer and Road Guide Containing the Most Recent and Accurate Information as to Every Place in the Colony . FF Balliere, 1877, p. 115 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ^ A b R. N. Ross, James Rusden, WH Burgoyne: Report: Lighthouse on King's Island . Melbourne, September 15, 1855 (pdf) , accessed February 18, 2019.
  7. ↑ The South Australian Advertiser, Adelaide, Victoria, June 27, 1874, p. 2 , accessed February 18, 2019.
  8. ^ A Voyage to Terra Australis (South Coast, Encounter Bay) , page 191 (travel diary of April 9, 1802). In: Encounter 1802–2002: Celebrating Flinders 'and Baudins' expeditions in search of the “unkown” southern coast of Australia , accessed on February 18, 2019.
  9. ↑ The history of King Island on the web portal aussietowns.com , accessed on February 18, 2019 (English).
  10. ^ A b Robert P. Whitworth: Bailliere's Tasmanian Gazetteer and Road Guide Containing the Most Recent and Accurate Information as to Every Place in the Colony . FF Balliere, 1877, p. 144 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  11. ^ Nigel Brothers, David Pemberton: Tasmania's Offshore Islands: Seabirds and Other Natural Features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2001, ISBN 0-7246-4816-X , p. 46 f. and 50-52 (English).
  12. ^ Nigel Brothers, David Pemberton: Tasmania's Offshore Islands: Seabirds and Other Natural Features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2001, ISBN 0-7246-4816-X , pp. 47-49 (English).
  13. ↑ a b New Year Island in Tasmania with links to the other islands, rocks and reefs of the archipelago on the web portal mapcarta.com , accessed on December 30, 2018 (English).
  14. ↑ EWN Butcher: King's Island . Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, Melbourne 1887 , accessed February 1, 2019.
  15. ^ A b c Nigel Brothers, David Pemberton: Tasmania's Offshore Islands: Seabirds and Other Natural Features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2001, ISBN 0-7246-4816-X , pp. 2 and 46 (English).
  16. ^ Nigel Brothers, David Pemberton: Tasmania's Offshore Islands: Seabirds and Other Natural Features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2001, ISBN 0-7246-4816-X , pp. 3, 46 and 53-55 (English).
  17. ^ Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, Threatened Species Section (ed.): King Island Biodiversity Management Plan . Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2012, ISBN 978-0-7246-6794-9 , pp. 9 (English, gov.au [PDF; 2.5 MB ; accessed on February 1, 2019]).
  18. ^ Nigel Brothers, David Pemberton: Tasmania's Offshore Islands: Seabirds and Other Natural Features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2001, ISBN 0-7246-4816-X , p. 606 (English).
  19. ↑ Overview of shipwrecks around the archipelago , accessed on December 30, 2018 (English).
  20. ^ Kris Carlyon, David Pemberton, Tim Rudman: Islands of the Hogan Group, Bass Strait: Biodiversity and Oil Response Survey. Nature Conservation Report Series 11/03, Resource Management and Conservation Division, Tasmanian Department of Primary Industry, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2011, ISBN 978-0-7246-7001-7 , p. 30 (English).
  21. ^ Kris Carlyon, David Pemberton, Tim Rudman: Islands of the Hogan Group, Bass Strait: Biodiversity and Oil Response Survey. Nature Conservation Report Series 11/03, Resource Management and Conservation Division, Tasmanian Department of Primary Industry, Parks, Water and Environment (DPIPWE), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 2011, ISBN 978-0-7246-7001-7 , p. 12 (English).

Remarks

  1. ↑ This location description follows the International Hydrographic Organization , according to which the western border of the Bass Strait runs by definition from Cape Otway via King Island to Cape Grim in northwest Tasmania, International Hydrographic Organization: Limits of Oceans and Seas . 3rd edition 1953 (pdf) , accessed on February 18, 2019 (English). However, there are also divergent views, according to which the western border of the Bass Strait is seen further west, for example oriented towards the submarine Australian continental shelf; in this case the archipelago lies entirely in the (western) Bass Strait.