Hopkins Island is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

located in

Spencer Gulf The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe and ...

off the east coast of

Jussieu Peninsula __NOTOC__ Jussieu Peninsula is a peninsula located at the south east end of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by Proper Bay and Spalding Cove within the natural harbour known as Port Lincoln to the north, Spencer Gulf to the e ...

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

approximately south-east of

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

. It was named by

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 ...

in memory of John Hopkins who was one of the eight crew lost from a cutter that capsized on 21 February 1802. Since 2004, the island has been part of the

Memory Cove Wilderness Protection Area Memory Cove Wilderness Protection Area is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located on the south east tip of Jussieu Peninsula on Eyre Peninsula and on a number of nearby islands about south-south east of Port Lincoln. ...

Description

Hopkins Island is located approximately south-east of Port Lincoln and west of Carrington Point, on the west coast of

Thistle Island Thistle Island / Noondala is in the Spencer Gulf, South Australia, some west of Adelaide, and northwest of the Gambier Islands. The city of Port Lincoln lies to the northwest of the island. Between them, the Gambier Islands and Thistle form a c ...

. The island is triangular in plan with its long axis being approximately and it maximum width being about . Its long axis is aligned in a north-east direction, similar to that of the north-west coast of Thistle Island. The island has an area of and has a maximum height of near its south west end. Access by boat is possible at the small beach on the island’s north coast. In 1910, it was described as "low-lying and somewhat bare".

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 ...

deposits were found in caves on the island. It was quarried there in the 19th and early 20th centuries, in some cases under a combined lease including deposits on Lewis Island and Williams Island. In the 1930s, the lease was owned by Dr. Angas Johnson, who purchased it on advice from Arthur Searcy and made it a sanctuary for seals, Cape Barren geese, rock parrots and the Stormy petrel. He had no intention of grazing goats on it, or allowing the activity to occur there. The island had a reputation for being snake infested, but this was not observed by all landing parties.

Formation, geology and oceanography

Hopkins Island was formed about 7000 years ago after sea levels rose at the start of the

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 togethe ...

. The island has a perimeter consisting of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

over which ‘a flat upper plateau’ of

calcarenite Calcarenite is a type of limestone that is composed predominantly, more than 50 percent, of detrital (transported) sand-size (0.0625 to 2 mm in diameter), carbonate grains. The grains consist of sand-size grains of either corals, shells, ooi ...

sits and which supports ‘a thick soil bed’. The island rises from the seabed at from within of its north west coast while the same transition occurs over a distance of almost on its south coast. On its north east coast, the passage between the island and Thistle Island is relatively shallow with a maximum charted depth of due to both islands sharing the same geological base strata.

Flora and fauna

Plants

As of 1996, a

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

dominated by

marsh saltbush ''Atriplex paludosa'', commonly known as marsh saltbush, is a species of saltbush endemic to Australia. Description It grows as an erect shrub up to a metre high. Leaves are oval in shape, one to four centimetres long, and 2 to 15 millimetres wi ...

grows in the deeper soil present on most of the upper platform.

Tussock grass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...

and nitre bush is present in locations where thinner soils lying over underlying ridges of rock. Heath bluebush dominates the thinner exposed soils on the island’s perimeter.

Weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...

species were represented by African box thorn, common iceplant, and

grasses Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

such as red brome and rat's-tail fescue. It was suggested that these weed species have been successful due to various attempts to develop a

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

on the island suitable for

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

Terrestrial animals

Accounts given of the island's ecology in 1933 refer to its informal name "Snake Island" and describes large populations of snakes and rats. It also noted the presence of

little penguins The little penguin (''Eudyptula minor'') is a species of penguin from New Zealand. They are commonly known as little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage and are also known by their Māori name . The Australian lit ...

, "thousands" of mutton birds and their eggs. The lessee in the 1930s, Dr. Angas Johnson believed

Cape Barren geese The Cape Barren goose (''Cereopsis novaehollandiae'') is a large goose resident in southern Australia. Etymology The species' common name is derived from Cape Barren Island, where specimens were first sighted by European explorers. It is known ...

also roosted on the island. The

short-tailed shearwater The short-tailed shearwater or slender-billed shearwater (''Ardenna tenuirostris''; formerly ''Puffinus tenuirostris''), also called yolla or moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird in Australia, is the most abundant seabird species in A ...

was reported in 1996 as being the dominant animal species on the island with an estimated population of ‘69700 adult birds in 34800 burrows.’ Other species observed at the time include the

bush rat The bush rat or Australian bush rat (''Rattus fuscipes'') is a small Australian Nocturnality, nocturnal animal. It is an omnivore and one of the most common indigenous species of rat on the continent, found in many heathland areas of Victoria ...

and the black tiger snake. As of 2013, the island is reported as being an unconfirmed breeding site for

flesh-footed shearwater The flesh-footed shearwater (''Ardenna carneipes''; formerly ''Puffinus carneipes'') is a medium-sized shearwater. Its plumage is black. It has pale pinkish feet, and a pale bill with a distinct black tip. Together with the equally light-billed ...

Marine animals

Australian sea lion The Australian sea lion (''Neophoca cinerea''), also known as the Australian sea-lion or Australian sealion, is a species of sea lion that is the only endemic pinniped in Australia. It is currently monotypic in the genus ''Neophoca'', with the e ...

s use the beach on the island’s north west coast as a

haul out Hauling-out is a behaviour associated with pinnipeds (true seals, sea lions, fur seals and walruses) temporarily leaving the water. Hauling-out typically occurs between periods of foraging activity. Rather than remain in the water, pinnipeds hau ...

site. In 1938, tuna (then referred to as "tunny") weighing up to 35 lb were caught off Hopkins Island.

History

The island was one of several first sighted by Europeans on Saturday, 20 February 1802, from HMS ''Investigator'' whilst under the command of

entered what is now Spencer Gulf. Flinders named the island on Wednesday, 24 February 1802, in memory of John Hopkins who lost his life, presumably drowned, along with seven other members of the crew on Sunday 21 February 1802 when one of HMS ''Investigator''s cutters capsized near

Cape Catastrophe Cape Catastrophe is a headland in the Australian state of South Australia located at the southeast tip of Jussieu Peninsula on Eyre Peninsula. It is one of the natural features named by the British navigator Matthew Flinders in memory of the ei ...

Economic activity

Guano

Hopkins Island is one of the island sites from which

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 ...

was mined under licence from the

South Australian Government The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

prior to 1919.

Tourism

Hopkins Island is notable as a venue to see, swim and snorkel with Australian sea lions.

Protected areas status

Since 30 September 2004, Hopkins Island has been part of the

. Previously, it had been part of the

Lincoln National Park Lincoln National Park is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located about west of the state capital of Adelaide and about south of the municipal seat of Port Lincoln. It consists of a mainland area on the Jussieu Pe ...

. It originally obtained

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

status as a fauna reserve under the former ''Fauna Conservation Act 1964'' in 1965 and status as a fauna conservation reserve declared under the ''Crown Lands Act 1929–1966'' on 16 March 1967.

References

{{coord, 34, 58, S, 136, 04, E, display=title, region:AU_type:isle_source:GNS-enwiki Islands of South Australia Uninhabited islands of Australia Spencer Gulf