Broughton Island is an island 14 km north-east of Port Stephens,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. It is part of the Myall Lakes National Parkbr>(map)

History

Archaeology indicates that the certain ancestors of the Worimi people inhabited the island for an otherwise apparently indeterminate period of two-thousand years, and whatever name those people may have had for the island itself remains unknown. It lay within the territory of the Garrawerrigal branch (''nurra'') of the Woromi. "Garrawerrigal" meant "the people of the sea", from ''garoowa''=sea. ''Niritba'' was "the home of the mutton bird" in their language. Broughton Island was seen by James Cook commanding HM Bark ''Endeavour'' on 11 May 1770: he mistook it for a headland and called it Black Head. After its insularity was discovered, it was renamed Broughton Islands, and so appears on the 1852 Admiralty chart, ''Australia, East Coast. Broken Bay to Sugarloaf Point, from a

running survey A running survey is a rough survey made by a vessel while coasting. Bearings to landmarks are taken at intervals as the vessel sails offshore, and are used to fix features on the coast and further inland. Intervening coastal detail is sketched in. ...

by Captn. J. Lort Stokes, H.M.S. Acheron, 1851''. Providence Bay also appears for the first time on this chart. Nearby Port Stephens was surveyed by Commander William Broughton in HMS ''Providence'' in August 1795. Stokes appears to have named the island and bay after Broughton and his ship, perhaps on the advice of his friend,

Phillip Parker King Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King, FRS, RN (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts. Early life and education King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Ann ...

, who was then residing at

Tahlee Tahlee is a heritage-listed former pastoral property of in the suburb of Tahlee situated on the north side of Port Stephens near Karuah in New South Wales, Australia. It is the original site of the Australian Agricultural Company and more re ...

in Port Stephens and had surveyed the coast in a private capacity. The island was used between 1905 and 1907 in regards to testing of biological controls on

feral rabbits Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family (biology), family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order (biology), order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' i ...

, by French-based Polish biologist Jean Danysz (1860–1928).

National Park

Broughton Island has been part of the Myall Lakes National Park since it was declared in 1972.

Wedge-tailed shearwater The wedge-tailed shearwater (''Ardenna pacifica'') is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It is one of the shearwater species that is sometimes referred to as a muttonbird, like the sooty shearwater of New Zealand and ...

s, known locally as "muttonbirds", nest on the island, as well as little penguins, close to the northern limit of their range. In November 2009, the National Parks and Wildlife Service declared the island free from rabbits and rats.

References

{{Hunter Region places and items of interest Islands of New South Wales Mid-Coast Council Island restoration Seabird colonies Underwater diving sites in Australia Penguin colonies