Pelsaert Island is one of the islands of the
Pelsaert Group, which is the southernmost of the three groups of islands that make up the
Houtman Abrolhos
The Houtman Abrolhos (often called the Abrolhos Islands) is a chain of 122 islands and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia, about west of Geraldton, Western Australia. It is the southernmost true coral ...
island chain in
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...
.
Nominally located at ,
it consists of a number of islands, the largest of which are
Gun Island,
Middle Island, and Pelsaert Island itself.
The group and island is named by the captain of HMS Beagle, which was charting the area, after the commodore
Francisco Pelsaert of the
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
trading fleet whose ship, the "
Batavia" got wreched at sank at the Wallabi island group to the north. The captain saw a wreck on the island, mistakenly assumed it was the Batavia and named it after Pelsaert.
The island is a significant bird site.
The island and group contains the most southerly true
coral reefs
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups.
...
in the
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...
.
See also
*
Wallabi Group
*
Easter Group
*
List of islands of Western Australia
For lists of islands of Western Australia, please see:
* List of islands of Western Australia, 0–9, A–C
*Islands of Lake Argyle
* List of islands of Western Australia, D–G
* List of islands of Western Australia, H–L
* List of islands of W ...
References
*
{{WesternAustralia-geo-stub