Cliffs on the southern coast of Bowen Island November 2021

Bowen Island is a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

island lying off the tip of the Bherwerre Peninsula at the entrance to

Jervis Bay Jervis Bay () is a oceanic bay and village on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, said to possess the whitest sand in the world. A area of land around the southern headland of the bay is a territory of the Commonwealth of Australia ...

, on the coast of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. The island, however, is not part of the state of New South Wales but of the

Jervis Bay Territory The Jervis Bay Territory (; JBT) is an internal territory of Australia. It was established in 1915 from part of New South Wales (NSW), in order to give the landlocked Australian Capital Territory (ACT) access to the sea. It was administered ...

, administered by Australia's federal government. It lies within the Booderee National Park. In the 1990s it was raised as a prospective site to establish an internment camp for drug users to recover from heroin addiction.

Description

The island is tear-shaped, about long north to south, and wide. It slopes sharply from the cliffs on its eastern, or oceanic, side down to rock platforms at sea level on its west. Much of it is covered by windblown sand supporting, and stabilised by, various vegetation communities. The island was named after Lieutenant Richard Bowen RN. Another Bowen Island, in Canada, is named after Richard's eldest brother Rear-Admiral James Bowen RN.

Birds

The island, with the waters on its western side, constitutes a special purpose zone intended to protect nesting seabirds and their habitat from disturbance, and is not open to general public access. Birds nesting on the island include

sooty oystercatcher The sooty oystercatcher (''Haematopus fuliginosus'') is a species of oystercatcher. It is a wading bird endemic to Australia and commonly found on its coastline. It prefers rocky coastlines, but will occasionally live in estuaries. All of its fea ...

s and three species of

shearwater Shearwaters are medium-sized long-winged seabirds in the petrel family Procellariidae. They have a global marine distribution, but are most common in temperate and cold waters, and are pelagic outside the breeding season. Description These tub ...

( little, wedge-tailed and short-tailed).

Little penguin colony

Bowen Island is home to an important

little penguin 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 li ...

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

, with some 5000 breeding pairs. The population has increased from 1000 breeding pairs in 1979, to 1500 breeding pairs in 1985 and 2500 breeding pairs in 1993. In 2012, just over 50 individuals were marked as part of a little penguin research project. DNA samples were also collected and some birds were micro-chipped. The Bowen Island colony was revisited several times in 2013 with results to be published in a forthcoming PhD thesis. A description of the island from 1948 warned 'one is apt to trip over penguins if he wanders around at night.' Penguins were known to inhabit the island since at least 1908, when they were described as being present in large numbers.

Coastal defence battery

A coastal defence battery named Bowen Battery was established on the island during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

to protect ships anchored in Jervis Bay. A single QF 4.7-inch Mk 1 was emplaced, and a jetty, several buildings, a concrete command and observation post and an underground ammunition magazine were constructed. The gun was elderly and in poor condition after being extensively used in previous roles. It proved to be very inaccurate on the only occasion it was test fired. The battery was probably closed in 1943 as part of a general reduction in coastal defence units in Australia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen Island (Jervis Bay) Jervis Bay Territory Islands of Australia Seabird colonies Penguin colonies