Champagny Island, known to the
traditional owners as Nimenba, is an island off the
coast of the
Kimberley
Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to:
Places and historical events
Australia
* Kimberley (Western Australia)
** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley
* Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania
* Kimberley, Tasmania a small town
* County of Kimberley, a ...
region in
Western Australia.
Located on the western side of
Camden Sound and part of the Champagny Islands group within the
Bonaparte Archipelago, the island encompasses an area of .
The
Aboriginal Australian traditional owners of the area are the
Dambimangari peoples of the
Worrorran languages group, whose name for the island is Nimenba.
The island was named by
Nicholas 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 ...
in 1801 after the French diplomat and statesman,
Jean-Baptiste de Nompère de Champagny, 1st duc de Cadore.
[
Birds found on the island include the brown quail, eastern reef egret, ]brown falcon
The brown falcon (''Falco berigora'') is a relatively large falcon native to Australia and New Guinea.
A number of plumage morphs occur, with the primary distinction being between the pale morph and the dark morph. Both morphs usually have dark ...
, whimbrel, beach stone-curlew, sooty oystercatcher, bar-shouldered dove, Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo
Horsfield's bronze cuckoo (''Chrysococcyx basalis'') is a small cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. Its size averages 22g and is distinguished by its green and bronze iridescent colouring on its back and incomplete brown barring from neck to tail. Hor ...
, rainbow bee-eater and the red-capped plover.[
It lies within the Camden Sound Marine Park that was gazetted in 2012 and covers an area of . The park is the second largest in Western Australia after ]Shark Bay
Shark Bay (Malgana: ''Gathaagudu'', "two waters") is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay area is located approximately north of Perth, on the ...
and links to the Prince Regent National Park. The area also includes Montgomery Reef and St George Basin.
References
{{reflist
Islands of the Kimberley (Western Australia)