Gun Island is one of the larger islands in the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, in the

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off the west coast of Australia. It is nominally at , about north and east of Half Moon Reef and is a flat limestone outcrop of about in size. The island is part of the Houtman Abrolhos

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

, identified as such by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because of its importance for supporting large numbers of breeding seabirds.

History

Between June 1727 and March 1728, crew of the Dutch

VOC VOC, VoC or voc may refer to: Science and technology * Open-circuit voltage (VOC), the voltage between two terminals when there is no external load connected * Variant of concern, a category used during the assessment of a new variant of a virus * ...

ship were stranded on the island after it struck Half Moon Reef. A longboat with 11 seamen was dispatched to go for help, but it failed to return, and the remaining survivors used wreckage to construct a

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

, which they named the ''Sloepie''. Of the 88 crew who survived, 82 arrived in

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on 30 April 1728. During

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surveys of the north-west coast in 1840, the crew of discovered a

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

gun of about three pounds

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and an iron

swivel gun The term swivel gun (or simply swivel) usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun wi ...

on which paint was still adhered. Captain Stokes, with Commander John Clements Wickham, named the place Gun Island. They also discovered several coins, including one dated about 1707 and another dated 1720. Also seen was what appeared to be the beam of a ship with an iron bolt through it, and glass bottles and clay pipes. The material was presumed to have been left there by the ''Zeewyk'' castaways 112 years earlier. In 1883,

Charles Edward Broadhurst Charles Edward Broadhurst (1826 – 26 April 1905) was a pioneer pastoralist and pearler in colonial Western Australia. He was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council in 1874 and 1875. In 2009, he was recognised as one of Weste ...

, who had been granted a lease for

guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

export, discovered several campsites, as well as the bones of seals which had evidently been killed for sustenance by the crew of the ''Zeewyk''. Gun Island was one of the islands of the Abrolhos most heavily worked for guano. Guano workings continued on a commercial scale from the 1880s to the 1920s, and again in the mid-1940s. A stone jetty on the south-eastern corner, built for loading guano, remains intact. The yacht ''Nautilus'' was wrecked at Gun Island in 1897. From June to November 1968, a stratigraphic test well was drilled on Gun Island (28º53'30.11"S, 113º51'27.0"E) by BP Petroleum Development Australia. It was drilled within the Perth Basin and reached a total depth (TD) of . The extent of the drilling platform near the wharf can be seen on satellite images.

Archaeology

In 1974, an archaeological expedition was made to the island by members of the Western Australian Museum. Gun Island is classified as having "High" conservation significance and is one of the seven protected zones in the Abrolhos Islands. Protected zone restrictions mean that "visitors shall not carry out any digging or major earthworks within the zones around declared maritime archaeological sites unless permitted to do so", and that they shall also not take metal detecting devices onto the island. A -wide rock called Gun Islet is about off the southern tip of the island.

References

{{reflist Pelsaert Group Important Bird Areas of Western Australia