Griffiths Island, sometimes incorrectly spelled as Griffith Island or Griffitts Island, lies at the mouth of the
Moyne River
The Moyne River, a perennial river of the Glenelg Hopkins catchment, is located in the Western District of Victoria, Australia.
Course and features
The Moyne River rises near , from the edge of the lava flows west-southwest of Penshurst. The ...
next to, and within the bounds of, the town of
Port Fairy
Port Fairy (historically known as Belfast) is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the ...
, in the
Western District of the state of
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
in
Australia.
[
] Griffiths now has no permanent inhabitants, but is connected to the mainland by a causeway and is accessible on foot. It forms part of the Port Fairy and Belfast Coastline Protection Reserve and, as well as being a tourist attraction, is an important site in the context of the history of European settlement of western Victoria. It is managed by the
Moyne Shire Council.
History
There is little surviving evidence of Aboriginal use of the island, though it was visited by the local
Gunditjmara people
The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Thei ...
, who knew it as ''Moleen''. Following commercial investigation of the western Victorian coast, it was named after
John Griffiths, an
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...
and
merchant from
Launceston in northern
Tasmania
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
, who figures prominently in the early history of the area. From the mid-1830s until 1843 the island served as a base for a bay
whaling
Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution.
It was practiced as an organized industr ...
station for
southern right whales, until the supply of whales was exhausted and the industry went into terminal decline. Some shipbuilding also took place during the 1840s. The abandoned whaling station buildings were later used until 1854 by Flora Dunlop, widow of Victorian politician
Alexander Dunlop, as a 'mission' for young
Aborigines. Because of its historic and
archaeological significance, the island has been listed on the
Victorian Heritage Register
The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...
(H1659).
[
]
Lighthouse
Griffiths Island Lighthouse was built in 1859 as a navigation aid at a time when Port Fairy was becoming an important trading port for western Victoria. Extensive harbour works undertaken then and subsequently, mainly to improve the navigability of the Moyne River and its approaches, have affected the shape and boundaries of the island. The lighthouse is operated by the Victorian Channels Authority, part of the Port of Melbourne Corporation
The Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) is a statutory body established by the Victorian Government to develop and manage the Port of Melbourne, Australia's busiest container port. The Corporation commenced operations on 1 July 2003, when it t ...
. It was constructed on what was then Rabbit Island, at the eastern end of Griffiths, from local bluestone
Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:
* basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand
* dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain (including Stonehenge)
* fe ...
by Scottish stonemasons. The stairway was constructed with each step being inserted in the next course of stone in the outer wall. The lighthouse was initially manned by two keepers. The last keeper to live on the island was there from 1929 to 1954, when the light was automated; the two stone keepers’ cottages were subsequently demolished in about 1956.
Description
The low-lying island is about long and wide at its widest point, with an area of about . It is bordered on its northern side by the Moyne River, which has been channeled between stone 'training walls' and provides easy access by sea to the port of Port Fairy. Originally a cluster of three separate islands – Goat, Rabbit and Griffiths – harbour works and coastal accretion have consolidated them into a single island which protects the mouth of the Moyne and shelters Port Fairy Bay.
Geology
Griffiths is an isolated outcrop of basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...
ic reefs and boulders on a substrate of early Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
, with overlying calcareous
Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
In zoology
''Calcareous'' is used as an ad ...
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class o ...
. It was formed by lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...
flows from Mount Rouse, a volcano near Penshurst
Penshurst is a historic village and civil parish located in a valley upon the northern slopes of the Kentish Weald, at the confluence of the River Medway and the River Eden, within the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England.
The village is situ ...
, that reached the coast some 3–400,000 years ago. It is bounded in part by collapsed lava tunnels, such as the South West Passage across which the causeway was constructed. More recent limestone, about 100,000 years old, occurs on the southern coast of the island. Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
dunes which cover parts of the island are about 6000 years old.[
]
Flora
Griffiths Island lies in the Warrnambool Plain Bioregion
A bioregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a biogeographic realm, but larger than an ecoregion or an ecosystem, in the World Wide Fund for Nature classification scheme. There is also an attempt to use the ...
. The original vegetation would have been similar to that of nearby areas, consisting of coastal shrubland, grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...
and woodland
A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...
. It has been heavily modified by the various human activities the island has been subject to. Predominant native plant species include bower spinach
''Tetragonia implexicoma'', commonly known as bower spinach, is a species of plant in the Aizoaceae, or ice-plant family (biology), family. A similar species is ''Tetragonia tetragonioides'', however this species has larger leaves and a shorter f ...
, small leaved clematis, seaberry saltbush, coast beard-heath, cushion bush, karkalla,
common boobialla, knobby club-sedge, coast spear-grass, coast sword-sedge, kangaroo apple, coast daisy bush, coast tussock-grass, hairy spinifex and bidgee-widgee. marram grass
''Ammophila'' (synonymous with ''Psamma'' P. Beauv.) is a genus of flowering plants consisting of two or three very similar species of grasses. The common names for these grasses include marram grass, bent grass, and beachgrass. These grasses ar ...
was extensively planted in the past in an attempt to mitigate erosion.[
]
Fauna
Some 80–90 bird species have been recorded from the island, especially 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 and 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. There is a large breeding colony of short-tailed shearwaters, locally known as 'muttonbirds', with an estimated 100,000 burrows (of which probably fewer than half are occupied during the September–April breeding season). The shearwater colony is a tourist attraction in spring and summer, with a viewing platform constructed to facilitate watching the birds as they return in a swarm to their burrows at dusk. Other animals resident on the island include swamp wallabies
The swamp wallaby (''Wallabia bicolor'') is a small macropod marsupial of eastern Australia. This wallaby is also commonly known as the black wallaby, with other names including black-tailed wallaby, fern wallaby, black pademelon, stinker (in Q ...
, short-beaked echidna
The short-beaked echidna (''Tachyglossus aculeatus''), also called the short-nosed echidna, is one of four living species of echidna and the only member of the genus ''Tachyglossus''. It is covered in fur and spines and has a distinctive snout ...
s, blue-tongued lizards and tiger snakes.[
]
References
External links
Friends of Griffiths Island on Facebook
Griffiths Island Lighthouse Project
{{Authority control , additional=Q29964146
1859 establishments in Australia
Lighthouses completed in 1859
Lighthouses in Victoria (state)
Islands of Victoria (state)
Seabird colonies
Victorian Heritage Register
Western District (Victoria)
Coastline of Victoria (state)