Preservation Island
| Preservation Island | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Bass Street | |
| Archipelago | Furneaux group | |
| Geographical location | 40 ° 29 ′ 0 ″ S , 148 ° 4 ′ 0 ″ E | |
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| surface | 2 km² | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
Preservation Island is a flat and only 207 hectare large island in the southeast of Australia .
The island is located in the eastern Bass Strait , southwest of the Cape Barren Iceland and is part of to Tasmania belonging Furneaux group of islands . The name "life raft" or "protection island" is based on the shipwreck of the sailing ship "Sydney Cove", which ran aground on February 8, 1797 on the way from Calcutta ( India ) to Port Jackson , the port of Sydney , before the island was not officially discovered until 1798 when the Bass Strait was discovered by George Bass and Matthew Flinders .
In the following years the island became the headquarters for sealers like James Munro , the "King of the Eastern Straits" , who lived there with some Aboriginal wives and their children.
The island is in the Roaring Forties .