The Ninth Island, officially Tareerpattel-tarerenner / Ninth Island, is a uninhabited

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 ...

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 ...

situated in Bass Strait as part of the Waterhouse Island Group, lying close to the north-eastern coast of

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, Australia.Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). ''Tasmania's Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features''. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart. In November 2018, it was listed for sale for the fourth time, at $1.98 million. The property for sale is a landlocked title within a conservation covenant, preventing access to the island by any means except helicopter.

Fauna

As well as the black-faced cormorants, recorded breeding

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

s and

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...

s include the little penguin, short-tailed shearwater,

common diving-petrel The common diving petrel (''Pelecanoides urinatrix''), also known as the smaller diving petrel or simply the diving petrel, is a diving petrel, one of four very similar auk-like small petrels of the southern oceans. It is native to South Atlanti ...

white-faced storm-petrel The white-faced storm petrel (''Pelagodroma marina''), also known as white-faced petrel is a small seabird of the austral storm petrel family Oceanitidae. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Pelagodroma''. Description The white-faced ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

and crested tern.

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 breed there,

European rabbit The European rabbit (''Oryctolagus cuniculus'') or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (including Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France), western France, and the northern Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa. It has b ...

s have been introduced and the southern grass skink is present. The island is approximately long and wide, lying from the north-eastern coast of Tasmania. It is partly privately owned and has been badly affected in the past by grazing, frequent fires and, in July 1995, by the oil spill which killed between 2000 and 6000 little penguins. The island forms part of the Ninth and Little Waterhouse Islands Important Bird Area (IBA), so identified by BirdLife International because it holds over 1% of the world population of black-faced cormorants.

Ownership and conservation

In approx 1988–1989, Ninth Island was purchased for 64,000. In February 2015, Ninth Island was advertised for sale with an asking price of A$500,000; however in July it was passed in at auction for 1.19 million. The island currently does not have a

jetty A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying some ...

or an

airstrip An aerodrome ( Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for pub ...

, so the only way to access the island is via

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

. In 2012 the Ninth Island Conservation Area was formed on the island. This conservation area completely surrounds the central hill on the island and extends all the way to the shoreline. In addition, the full tidal region of the island's shoreline has been designated Tidal Crown Land, managed by the Tasmanian National Parks and Wildlife Service. A

conservation covenant In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or gove ...

exists on the island, owing to the fact a mutton-bird rookery exists on the island.

Region

Other islands in the Waterhouse Group include St Helens, Tenth, Waterhouse, Little Waterhouse,

Maclean MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John). The clan surname is an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic "Mac Gille Eathai ...

Baynes Baynes is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adam Baynes, English politician * Aron Baynes (born 1986), New Zealand-born Australian basketball player * Helton Godwin Baynes, (1882–1943), analytical psychologist, author, transl ...

, Foster, Swan, Little Swan,

Cygnet A cygnet is a young swan. Cygnet may also refer to: Places * Cygnet Island, a small islet in south-eastern Australia *Cygnet, Ohio, a village in the United States *Cygnet River, South Australia, a locality on Kangaroo Island * Cygnet, Tasmania, ...

and Paddys islands and Bird Rock and

George Rocks The George Rocks, also historically known as King George's Rocks, is part of the Waterhouse Island Group, a group of three adjacent uninhabited granite islets and associated reefs with a combined area of , situated in Banks Strait, part of Bass ...

islets. The island is situated within the Dorset Municipality.

References

{{Islands of Tasmania , state=collapsed Islands of North East Tasmania Important Bird Areas of Tasmania Private islands of Tasmania Waterhouse Island group Islands of Australia (tenure: conservation area)

Fauna

Ownership and conservation

Region

See also

References