The Furneaux Group is a group of approximately 100
islands located at the eastern end of
Bass Strait
Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
, between
Victoria and
Tasmania, Australia. The islands were named after British navigator
Tobias Furneaux, who sighted the eastern side of these islands after leaving
Adventure Bay in 1773 on his way to New Zealand to rejoin
Captain James Cook. Navigator
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...
was the first European to explore the Furneaux Islands group, in the in 1798, and later that year in the .
The largest islands in the group are
Flinders Island,
Cape Barren Island, and
Clarke Island. The group contains five settlements:
Killiecrankie, Emita,
Lady Barron, Cape Barren Island, and
Whitemark on Flinders Island, which serves as the administrative centre of the
Flinders Council. There are also some small farming properties on the remote islands.
After seals were discovered there in 1798, the Furneaux Group of islands became the most intensively exploited
sealing ground in Bass Strait. A total of 29 islands in the Furneaux Group have been found to have some tangible link with sealing in the 19th century.
The
Aboriginal
Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to:
*Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology
* Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area
*One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...
matriarch,
Dolly Dalrymple Dolly Dalrymple (1808–1864) was a half-caste Tasmanian Aboriginal woman. She was a known figure in the Tasmanian colonial legends.
Biography
Dolly Dalrymple was born on one of the Furneaux Islands, between Victoria and Tasmania, to Woretemoeteye ...
, was born on the Furneaux Islands. Her mother was one of two Aboriginal women who had been kidnapped from northern Tasmania by the sealer George Briggs.
King Island King Island, Kings Island or King's Island may refer to:
Australia
* King Island (Queensland)
* King Island, at Wellington Point, Queensland
* King Island (Tasmania)
** King Island Council, the local government area that contains the Tasmanian is ...
, at the western end of Bass Strait, is not a part of the group.
Administration
The Furneaux Group forms the
Flinders Council together with the groups of islands to the northwest: the
Kent Group,
Hogan Island Group,
Curtis Group, and the Tasmanian part of the
Wilsons Promontory Islands.
Islands in the Group
Geology
The islands contain granite from the
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...
period, as well as unconsolidated limestone and sand from
Cenozoic
The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...
periods. During the
last ice age, a land bridge joined Tasmania to the Australian mainland through this group of islands.
See also
*
Furneaux bioregion
* ''
Engaeus martigener
''Engaeus martigener'', the Furneaux burrowing crayfish, is a species of crayfish in the family Parastacidae, endemic to Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising ...
''
*
List of islands of Tasmania
References
External links
Birds of the Furneaux Islands
{{Authority control
Seal hunting