Cape Barren Island (Tasmania)
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Cape Barren Island is located off the north east coast of Tasmania, Australia, and is one of the islands of the Furneaux Group in Bass Strait. The largest island of the group, Flinders Island, lies to the north, with the smaller Clarke Island to the south. Population of the island is approximately 80 persons. The highest point on the island is Mount Munro at 687 metres.
Australia's only native goose, the Cape Barren Goose, was first sighted on this island.
Most of the residents are descended from European whalers who kidnapped Aboriginal women on the Tasmanian mainland and then settled on Cape Barren Island.
On 10 May 2005, the government released Crown lands on Cape Barren and Clarke Island to be overseen by the local Aboriginal association. This marked the first official handover of Crown land to the Aboriginal community in Tasmania.
The island can be reached by taking a flight from either Melbourne, Victoria or Launceston, Tasmania to Flinders Island. From Flinders Island, Cape Barren island is only a short boat or plane trip away. Cape Barren, with the other islands in the Furneaux Group, are a popular destination for sea kayakers who try to cross the Bass Strait from the Australian mainland at Wilson's Promontory, Victoria to the Tasmanian mainland. The group used to form the Land bridge that linked these two mainlands together.
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