geo.wikisort.org - Island

Lady Julia Percy Island, known as Deen Maar or Dhinmar in the Gunditjmara language, lies 8.1 kilometres (5.0 mi) off the coast, in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia in Bass Strait. The island is an unincorporated area under the direct administration of the government of Victoria.

Lady Julia Percy Island

Native name: Deen Maar
Lady Julia Percy Island seen from the Yambuk Flora and Fauna Reserve
Lady Julia Percy Island Location off the coast near Shire of Moyne
Geography
Location	Bass Strait
Coordinates	38°25′30″S 142°00′00″E
Area	130 ha (320 acres)
Length	2.4 km (1.49 mi)[1]
Width	1.2 km (0.75 mi)[1]
Administration
Australia
State	Victoria

Description

It is 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south-south-west of Yambuk, and 21 kilometres (13 mi) south-west of Port Fairy. The island is about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in length by 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) in width, with an area of 1.33 square kilometres (0.51 sq mi), comprising a plateau, varying in height from 32–46 metres (105–151 ft) asl, surrounded by cliffs, rock platforms and reefs. It contains an important seal breeding colony. It has a long history of human exploitation, which has drastically affected its vegetation communities, though it is now protected as a State Faunal Reserve. It is listed on Australia's Register of the National Estate. It is best viewed from The Crags or Yambuk Lake, both of which are in the Yambuk area.

History

Deen Maar was well known to the Gunditjmara people; it is believed that the spirits of the dead were conveyed across the sea to the island from a cave called Tarnwirring ("the flowing of the wind") at the top of a rocky sea cliff.[2] The island was also known as Tirngoona, meaning "where the sun go away longa night".[3]

The island was given the name "Lady Julia’s Island" in 1800 by Lt James Grant[4][5][6] after either the wife[7] or daughter[8][9][10] of Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland. In 1802 Matthew Flinders expanded the name to Lady Julia Percy's Island as he sailed past on his ship the Investigator.[7] Also in 1802, Nicolas Baudin sailed past the island in his ship the Géographe, and recorded the island as Ile aux Alouettes,[7] a name that has not persisted.

During the early 19th century, sealing took place with sealing gangs living on the island often for months at a time. There are two graves on the island – one of a sealer buried in 1822, and one of a man named Hardman buried in 1828 by Captain Wishart of the Fairy.[11] Guano was mined on the island for fertiliser until 1861, being transported to Port Fairy in barges.[2]

In January 1936 a scientific expedition from Melbourne University's McCoy Society visited the island for six weeks and carried out a comprehensive ecological survey.[12]

In the waters on the western side of Lady Julia Percy Island lies pieces of a RAAF Avro Anson aircraft. On 15 February 1944, Avro Anson AW-878 of 2 Air Observer's School (2 A.O.S.) took off from Mount Gambier airfield in South Australia at 0800L hours on 15 February 1944 to carry out a radius of action navigation exercise. They were to fly from Mount Gambier to Douglas Point, radius of action to Lady Julia Percy Island, radius of action to Douglas Point and then back to Mount Gambier. At 1230L hours by which time the aircraft had not returned to base, overdue signals were sent out. At 1300L hours a search was carried out over the route of the exercise and at 1430L hours part of the main plane of the aircraft was sighted on Lady Julia Percy Island. A fishing boat searched in the vicinity of the island that evening and passed through small pieces of wreckage strewn over about 3 miles. A further search by boat was carried out the next morning in the same area which resulted in the recovery from the sea and the island of the port and starboard wingtips, the port aileron, the door to the gunner's cockpit, portion of a main spar, the top cover of a fuel tank bay and a Mae West. The top cover of the fuel tank bay had the number AW-878 in pencil on the underneath side and the Mae West was identified as having been drawn and signed for by Flight Sergeant MacLellan on 15 February 1944. The bodies of the 4 crew members were never located. Those crew members presumed to have lost their lives in this tragic accident were: Flight Sergeant James Henry MacLellan (410684) Pilot; Flight Sergeant Dennis Leslie Baulderstone (416712); LAC Norman Thomas Kruck (433368); and LAC Brian Carter Ladyman (436921).

Environment

Geology

Formed some seven million years ago, the island is much older than other volcanoes in the region, and is also unusual in being built by both submarine and terrestrial eruptions. It provides exposures of internal volcanic structure, including a volcanic vent. Six successive lava flows can be seen in the coastal cliffs.[13] It is Australia’s only off-shore volcano and the only large basalt island off the coast of western Victoria.[2] Lady Julia Percy Island is considered part of the Newer Volcanics Province — this polycyclic volcano erupted in two phases, at 7.80 ± 0.08 Ma and 6.22 ± 0.06 Ma[14]

Flora

With regard to the flora, Frederic Wood Jones said in 1936 of the island, following his leadership of the 1936 McCoy Society expedition:

"A century ago it was covered with a dense, almost impenetrable, growth of the mixed bushy scrub that characterizes certain parts of the coast of the adjacent mainland. Some sixty years ago this dense scrub was still standing over the major portion of the island; but to-day the whole of the plateau is devoid of any growth more majestic than bracken fern and thistles. The whole plateau is, at present, a windswept area, clothed only by vegetation knee-high at the best, and at the worst, by loose volcanic soil or bare rock. This denudation of forest cover is due to human interference, for pigs were at one time turned down on the island, rabbits were liberated and are still living in their thousands, and sealers, fishermen and guano workers have cut down and burned the stunted and wind-blown trees that formerly covered the island."[12]

The landscape of the island's plateau is now bleak and windswept. It lacks trees and is still largely covered with grasses and bracken on thin black soil. The dominant vegetation communities are grassland and closed fernland. The vulnerable Shore Spleenwort (Asplenium obtusatum) still survives there.[13]

Fauna

The island is one of four Australian fur seal breeding colonies in Victoria and, with an estimated 27,000 seals, is the largest such colony in Australia. It is occasionally visited by Australian sea lions and southern elephant seals. Pigs and rabbits were previously introduced but have since disappeared or been eradicated.

The island is home to breeding little penguins (2000 pairs), common diving-petrels (1000 pairs), fairy prions (1000 pairs), and short-tailed shearwaters (15,000 pairs). White's skink is the only reptile present. The surrounding waters are visited by great white sharks.[13][1]

Access

Access to Lady Julia Percy Island itself is restricted, and landing is by permit only. However, boat cruises from Port Fairy to the waters around the island are popular; they allow people to see the seal colony and watch whales and seabirds on the way.

References

Further reading

• "Lady Julia Percy Island (Place ID 3718)". Australian Heritage Database. Australian Government.
• Jones, Frederic Wood (28 November 1936). "The McCoy Society's Expedition to Lady Julia Percy Island" (PDF). Nature. 138 (3500): 906–908. Bibcode:1936Natur.138..906J. doi:10.1038/138906a0. S2CID 4130078.
• McCoy Society (1936). "Lady Julia Percy Island: reports of the expedition of the McCoy Society for field investigation and research". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 49: 327–427. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
• Moyne Shire Council: Lady Julia Percy Island
• Lady Julia Percy Island, Victorian Resources Online, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria. Accessed 2007-12-09.
• Lady Julia Percy Island State Faunal Reserve, Aussie Heritage. Accessed 2007-12-13.

External links

Media related to Lady Julia Percy Island at Wikimedia Commons

• Visit Lady Julia Percy Island By Boat Charter

На других языках

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- [en] Lady Julia Percy Island

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[it] Lady Julia Percy Island

Lady Julia Percy Island (conosciuta anche con il nome aborigeno di Deen Maar o Dhinmar) è un'isola situata a est di Portland, nello stato di Victoria, in Australia.

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