Nelly Island is the largest and easternmost of the
Frazier Islands, lying in
Vincennes Bay off
Wilkes Land
Wilkes Land is a large district of land in eastern Antarctica, formally claimed by Australia as part of the Australian Antarctic Territory, though the validity of this claim has been placed for the period of the operation of the Antarctic Treaty ...
,
East Antarctica.
History
The Frazier Islands were delineated from aerial photographs taken by
US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
's
Operation Highjump in February 1947. Nelly Island was visited on 21 January 1956 by a party of the
Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) who established an astronomical control station there. It was so named by ANARE because of the giant petrels, or nellies, nesting there.
Antarctic Specially Protected Area
The island forms part of the Frazier Islands
Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) No.160 because it supports one of only four known
breeding colonies of
southern giant petrels on continental Antarctica.
See also
*
List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands
References
Islands of Wilkes Land
Antarctic Specially Protected Areas
Seabird colonies
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