Faure Island is a 58 km² island pastoral lease and

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

, east of the

Francois Peron National Park Francois Peron National Park is a national park on the Peron Peninsula in Western Australia, 726 km north of Perth, and located within the boundary of the Shark Bay World Heritage area. The nearest towns to the park are Denham, which is f ...

on the Peron Peninsula, in Shark Bay,

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 ...

. It lies in line with the

Monkey Mia Monkey Mia is a popular tourist destination located about 900 km north of Perth, Western Australia. The reserve is 25 km northeast of the town of Denham in the Shark Bay Marine Park and World Heritage Site. The main attraction are t ...

resort to the west, and the

Wooramel River The Wooramel River is an ephemeral river in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The river rises near McLeod Pyramid and flows in a westerly direction, joined by six tributaries including the Wooramel River North, Bilung Creek, One Gum Cr ...

on the eastern shore of Shark Bay. It is surrounded by the Shark Bay Marine Park and Shark Bay World Heritage Site and, as the Faure Island Sanctuary, is owned and managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC).

History

The island was given its European name by French explorer

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 ...

in 1801, in honour of the geographer, Pierre Faure, aboard his ship '' Le Naturaliste''. Pastoral leases over the island were granted to Charles Broadhurst in 1873, and to WD Moore & Coy in 1883. For most of the 20th century, from 1905, the Hoult family of Denham ran

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

and

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

s on the island. In 1999 the Hoults sold the lease to the AWC, which removed more than 3400 sheep.

Landscape and climate

The landscape consists mostly of red and white sandy plains and dunes, with claypans in low-lying areas. The highest point is 26m above sea level. It has some limestone and red sand cliff shores, like Peron Peninsula. The vegetation is predominantly low shrubs of

Acacia ramulosa ''Acacia ramulosa'', commonly known as horse mulga or bowgada wattle, is a shrub belonging to the genus ''Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Juliflorae'' Endemism, endemic to arid areas of Australia. Description ''A. ramulosa'' is an erect, spreadi ...

. There are also mallee shrublands, spinifex grasslands,

samphire Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants ( halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies. *Rock samphire, ''Crithmum maritimum'' is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Uni ...

/'' Atriplex'' shrublands, and coastal

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

s. The climate is semi-arid to arid, with hot dry summers and mild winters. Rainfall is erratic, falling mainly in winter, with an annual average of 222 mm. Cyclones may sometimes bring rainfall in summer and autumn.

Wildlife

Birds

Faure Island is an important breeding area for many

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s, as well as being important for migratory

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

s using the East Asian - Australasian Flyway. With the neighbouring much smaller (5 ha) Pelican Island and their associated mudflats, it has been identified as a 5821 ha Important Bird Area (IBA). The Faure and Pelican Islands (Shark Bay) IBA supports breeding colonies of

fairy tern The fairy tern (''Sternula nereis'') is a small tern which is native to the southwestern Pacific. It is listed as " Vulnerable" by the IUCN and the New Zealand subspecies is " Critically Endangered". There are three subspecies: * Australian fai ...

s and over 1% of the world populations of

red-necked stint The red-necked stint (''Calidris ruficollis'') is a small migratory wader. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ''kalidris'' or ''skalidris'', a term used by Aristotle for some grey-coloured waterside birds. The specific ''ruficollis'' is from ...

and

pied oystercatcher The pied oystercatcher (''Haematopus longirostris'') is a species of oystercatcher. It is a wading bird native to Australia and commonly found on its coastline. The similar South Island pied oystercatcher (''H. finschi'') occurs in New Zealand. ...

. Together with the nearby

Quoin Bluff Quoin Bluff, also known as Quoin Bluff South, is an elevated limestone headland midway along the eastern side of Dirk Hartog Island, in Shark Bay, on the-west coast of Western Australia. It extends into Shark Bay between Herald Bay to the nort ...

and

Freycinet Island Freycinet Island is a small island () in Henri Freycinet Harbour, lying off the Carrarang peninsula in the southern part of Shark Bay, on the-west coast of Western Australia. It is an elevated limestone plateau with scree slopes, vegetated wi ...

IBA, it supports more than 1% of the world population of

pied cormorant The Australian pied cormorant (''Phalacrocorax varius''), also known as the pied cormorant, pied shag, or great pied cormorant, is a medium-sized member of the cormorant family. It is found around the coasts of Australasia. In New Zealand, it ...

Mammals

The original native mammal fauna of Faure Island did not survive the introduction of

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

and the presence of

feral cat A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...

s. However, sub-fossil evidence of the former presence of native mammals has brought reintroduction of the boodie,

Shark Bay mouse Gould's mouse (''Pseudomys gouldii''), also known as the Shark Bay mouse and djoongari in the Pintupi and Luritja languages, is a species of rodent in the murid family. Once ranging throughout Australia from Western Australia to New South Wale ...

, banded hare-wallaby and

western barred bandicoot The Western barred bandicoot (''Perameles bougainville''), also known as the Marl, is a small species of bandicoot; now extinct across most of its former range, the western barred bandicoot only survives on offshore islands and in fenced sanctuar ...

. An attempt to reintroduce the greater stick-nest rat failed.

Marine surrounds

The island is located within the Shark Bay Marine Park and is adjacent to both the Wooramel Seagrass Bank and the Faure Sill sandbank that is a major component in the creating of the conditions within the Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve.

References

External links

AWC
{{AusplacesnamedbyFrench , state=expanded Nature reserves in Western Australia Australian Wildlife Conservancy reserves Important Bird Areas of Western Australia 1999 establishments in Australia Islands of Shark Bay