Anderson Island (Tasmania)

Anderson Island

Anderson Island is the big island
Location of Anderson Island in Bass Strait
Geography
Location Bass Strait
Coordinates 40°18′00″S 148°06′00″E / 40.30000°S 148.10000°E / -40.30000; 148.10000Coordinates: 40°18′00″S 148°06′00″E / 40.30000°S 148.10000°E / -40.30000; 148.10000
Archipelago Furneaux Group
Area 1.66 km2 (0.64 sq mi)
Administration
Australia
State Tasmania
LGA Municipality of Flinders Island

The Anderson Island, also known as Woody Island, part of the Tin Kettle Island Group of the Furneaux Group, is a 166-hectare (410-acre) granite island, located in Bass Strait, lying northwest of Tasmania, in south-eastern Australia.[1] Anderson Island lies between Flinders and Cape Barren Islands and is partly a pastoral lease used for grazing sheep and cattle. The island is joined at low tide to nearby Little Anderson and Tin Kettle Islands by extensive intertidal mudflats.[2]

The island is part of the Franklin Sound Islands Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because it holds over 1% of the world populations of six bird species.[3]

Flora and fauna

Most of the island’s original vegetation has disappeared, replaced by pasture for livestock. There are a few remnant patches of Melaleuca and Stipa around the coast.

Recorded breeding seabird and wader species are little penguin, Pacific gull, sooty oystercatcher and pied oystercatcher. There used to be a large short-tailed shearwater colony on the western side of the island until the early 20th century, when it was destroyed though the introduction of pigs, which dug up the burrows and ate the eggs and chicks. The metallic skink is present.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Anderson Island (TAS)". Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
  2. 1 2 Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart. ISBN 0-7246-4816-X
  3. ↑ "BirdLife Data Zone Franklin Sound Islands". BirdLife International. Retrieved 26 May 2017.


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