Greenly Island is an island in the Australian state of

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 ...

located in the

Great Australian Bight The Great Australian Bight is a large oceanic bight, or open bay, off the central and western portions of the southern coastline of mainland Australia. Extent Two definitions of the extent are in use – one used by the International Hydrog ...

about west-south-west of

Point Whidbey Point Whidbey is a headland located at the southern western extremity of both Coffin Bay Peninsula and Avoid Bay on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia about west of the town of Coffin Bay. It was described in 2012 as being “ ...

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 af ...

. The island is uninhabited by humans and provides a haven for marine and terrestrial wildlife. The island and its intertidal zone constitute the Greenly Island Conservation Park. Its adjacent waters are occasionally visited by fishermen targeting yellowtail kingfish.

Nomenclature

Greenly Island was named for Sir Isaac Coffin’s fiancée, Elizabeth Browne Greenly of Titley Court, by the British explorer Matthew Flinders on 16 February 1802.

Environment

Greenly Island is a large

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 under ...

dome with steep sides plunging vertically into deep water, split by two large

crevasses A crevasse is a deep crack, that forms in a glacier or ice sheet that can be a few inches across to over 40 feet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pie ...

which effectively break the island into three blocks. The top of the island is capped with Drooping Sheoak (

Allocasuarina verticillata ''Allocasuarina verticillata'', commonly known as drooping she-oak or drooping sheoak, is a nitrogen fixing native tree of southeastern Australia. Originally collected in Tasmania and described as ''Casuarina verticillata'' by French naturalist ...

) and Dryland Tea-tree (Melaleuca lanceolata) woodlands while the lower slopes have either a Coastal Tussock (Poa poiformis var. poiformis) grassland or a

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 ...

(Atriplex paludosa var. cordata) shrubland. The main part of the island rises to the east to a steep peak of 230m.

Fauna

The island features haul-out areas for Australian sea lion and

New Zealand fur seal ''Arctocephalus forsteri'' (common names include the Australasian fur seal, South Australian fur seal, New Zealand fur seal, Antipodean fur seal, or long-nosed fur seal) is a species of fur seal found mainly around southern Australia and New Z ...

. The Australian sea lion, previously known as a "hair seal" was observed by visitors to Greenly Island in 1948.

Western blue groper The western blue groper (''Achoerodus gouldii'') is a species of wrasse native to coastal waters of southern Australia from the Houtman Abrolhos in Western Australia to west of Melbourne. This species prefers areas with rocky substrates and ca ...

and

yellowtail kingfish The yellowtail amberjack, yellowtail kingfish, hiramasa or great amberjack (''Seriola lalandi'') is a large fish found in the Southern Ocean. Although previously thought to be found in all oceans and seas, recent genetic analysis restricts ''S. ...

are found in the waters off Greenly Island. The

Tammar wallaby The tammar wallaby (''Notamacropus eugenii''), also known as the dama wallaby or darma wallaby, is a small macropod native to South and Western Australia. Though its geographical range has been severely reduced since European colonisation, the ...

was introduced to Greenly Island (south) in 1905 to provide food for stranded sailors. Their impact on the vegetation is obvious in the marked difference between the north and south islands. Both northern and southern islands support high-density populations of bush rats. Birds recorded on Greenly Island include the

Cape Barren goose 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 know ...

white-faced heron The white-faced heron (''Egretta novaehollandiae'') also known as the white-fronted heron, and incorrectly as the grey heron, or blue crane, is a common bird throughout most of Australasia, including New Guinea, the islands of Torres Strait, Ind ...

ruddy turnstone The ruddy turnstone (''Arenaria interpres'') is a small cosmopolitan wading bird, one of two species of turnstone in the genus ''Arenaria''. It is now classified in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae but was formerly sometimes placed in the plov ...

Australian raven The Australian raven (''Corvus coronoides'') is a passerine bird in the genus '' Corvus'' native to much of southern and northeastern Australia. Measuring in length, it has all-black plumage, beak and mouth, as well as strong grey-black legs an ...

Nankeen kestrel The nankeen kestrel (''Falco cenchroides''), also known as the Australian kestrel, is a raptor native to Australia and New Guinea. It is one of the smallest falcons, and unlike many, does not rely on speed to catch its prey. Instead, it simply pe ...

white-bellied sea eagle The white-bellied sea eagle (''Haliaeetus leucogaster''), also known as the white-breasted sea eagle, is a large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Originally described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it is closely related t ...

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 ...

welcome swallow The welcome swallow (''Hirundo neoxena'') is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It is a species native to Australia and nearby islands, and self-introduced into New Zealand in the middle of the twentieth century. It is very similar ...

silver gull The silver gull (''Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae'') is the most common gull of Australia. It has been found throughout the continent, but particularly at or near coastal areas. It is smaller than the Pacific gull (''Larus pacificus''), which ...

Pacific gull The Pacific gull (''Larus pacificus'') is a very large gull, native to the coasts of Australia. It is moderately common between Carnarvon in the west, and Sydney in the east, although it has become scarce in some parts of the south-east, as a re ...

rock parrot The rock parrot (''Neophema petrophila'') is a species of grass parrot native to Australia. Described by John Gould in 1841, it is a small parrot long and weighing with predominantly olive-brown upperparts and more yellowish underparts. Its h ...

little grassbird The little grassbird (''Poodytes gramineus'') is a species of Old World warbler in the family Locustellidae. It is found in Australia and in West Papua, Indonesia. These sexually monomorphic birds are found in reed beds, rushes, lignum swamps an ...

red-capped robin The red-capped robin (''Petroica goodenovii'') is a small passerine bird native to Australia. Found in drier regions across much of the continent, it inhabits scrub and open woodland. Like many brightly coloured robins of the family Petroici ...

great cormorant The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo''), known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a w ...

, short-tailed shearwater, crested tern,

fairy tern The fairy tern (''Sternula nereis'') is a small tern which is native to the southwestern Pacific. It is listed as " Vulnerable" by the IUCN and the New Zealand subspecies is " Critically Endangered". There are three subspecies: * Australian fai ...

silvereye The silvereye or wax-eye (''Zosterops lateralis'') is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific. In Australia and New Zealand its common name is sometimes white-eye, but this name is more commonly used to refer to all membe ...

and little penguin. Reptiles recorded on Greenly Island include the bull skink (''Egernia multiscutata'') and four-toed earless skink (''Hemiergis peronii''), southern four-toed slider (''Lerista dorsalis''), dwarf skink (''Menetia greyii''), Mallee snakeeye (''Morethia obscura'') and marbled gecko (''Phyllodactylus marmoratus'').

Little penguins

The first fauna study of Greenly Island was conducted in 1948 and described the little penguins as "innumerable".Lindsay, H. A
"Unspoiled corner of original Australia"
''The Advertiser'', South Australia (1948-02-14). Retrieved 2014-03-18. The island was noted as a breeding site in a 1996 survey of South Australia's offshore islands. In 2004, the little penguin colony's population was estimated at 1,500 breeding birds.Wiebkin, A. S. (2011
Conservation management priorities for little penguin populations in Gulf St Vincent. Report to Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board.
South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), Adelaide. SARDI Publication No. F2011/000188-1. SARDI Research Report Series No.588. 97pp.

Protected area status

Greenly Island first obtained protected area status as a fauna conservation reserve declared under the ''Crown Lands Act 1929-1966'' on 16 March 1967 . The fauna conservation reserve was reconstituted as the Greenly Island Conservation Park under the ''

National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972 Protected areas of South Australia consists of protected areas located within South Australia and its immediate onshore waters and which are managed by South Australian Government agencies. As of March 2018, South Australia contains 359 sepa ...

'' in 1972.

References

{{Islands of South Australia , state=collapsed Islands of South Australia Great Australian Bight Uninhabited islands of Australia Penguin colonies