Boullanger Island () lies off the coast of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

and covers an area of about . The nearest settlement is the mainland town of Jurien Bay. The island is part of the

Jurien Bay Marine Park The Jurien Bay Marine Park is a protected marine park that is located north of Perth, off the coastal tip of the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The marine park was formally declared on and is situated along the Indian Ocean Drive th ...

which was declared in August 2003 – the park is located north of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, along the Indian Ocean Drive, and extends south from Green Head to the Southern boundary of

Nambung National Park Nambung National Park is a national park in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, 200 km northwest of Perth, Australia and 17 km south of the small coastal town of Cervantes. The park contains the Pinnacles Desert which is an are ...

, encompassing many of the islands located in this region. The Park protects an important section of Western Australia's central west coast, including Boullanger, Whitlock and Escape islands. Both Boullanger Island and Jurien Bay were named on 1 July 1801 by the French expedition led by Captain

Nicolas Baudin Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. Biography Early career Born a comm ...

aboard the Géographe. Boullanger Island honours the cartographer of the expedition, Charles-Pierre Boullanger. Jurien Bay honours Charles Marie Vicomte Jurien (1763–1836), a French naval administrator.

Fauna & flora

The island is inhabited by an endemic species of

marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a po ...

mouse, '' Sminthopsis boullangerensis'', the

Boullanger Island dunnart The Boullanger Island dunnart (''Sminthopsis boullangerensis'') is a species of dunnart found only on Boullanger Island, Western Australia. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the grey-bellied dunnart (''S. griseoventer''), for which rea ...

. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the

grey-bellied dunnart The grey-bellied dunnart (''Sminthopsis griseoventer''), alternately spelled gray-bellied dunnart, was described by the same people Kitchener, Stoddart and Henry along with the Kangaroo Island dunnart, Gilbert's dunnart and little long-tailed du ...

(''S. griseoventer''), for which reason it was not assessed by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

in 2008 (although it was classed as critically endangered in the 1996 list). The

EPBC Act The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cultu ...

classifies the Boullanger Island dunnart as vulnerable.

References

{{reflist Islands of the Mid West (Western Australia) Turquoise Coast (Western Australia) Landmarks in Western Australia Tourist attractions in Western Australia

Fauna & flora

See also

References