Furneaux Group Explained

Furneaux Group
Map:	Tasmania
Map Relief:	1
Coordinates:	-40.115°N 148.115°W
Location:	Bass Strait
Total Islands:	approx. 100
Major Islands:	Flinders Island, Cape Barren Island, and Clarke Island
Area Km2:	2010.3
Length M:	-->
Width M:	-->
Coastline M:	-->
Country:	Australia
Country Admin Divisions Title 1:	State
Country Admin Divisions 1:	Tasmania
Country Admin Divisions 2:	Flinders Council
Country Area M2:	or
Country Area Ha:	-->
Country 1 Area M2:	or
Country 1 Area Ha:	-->
Population:	795

The Furneaux Group is a group of approximately 100 islands located at the eastern end of Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. The islands were named after British navigator Tobias Furneaux, who sighted the eastern side of these islands after leaving Adventure Bay in 1773 on his way to New Zealand to rejoin Captain James Cook.^[1] Navigator Matthew Flinders was the first European to explore the Furneaux Islands group, in the in 1798, and later that year in the .^[2]

The largest islands in the group are Flinders Island, Cape Barren Island, and Clarke Island. The group contains five settlements:Killiecrankie, Emita, Lady Barron, Cape Barren Island, and Whitemark on Flinders Island, which serves as the administrative centre of the Flinders Council. There are also some small farming properties on the remote islands.

After seals were discovered there in 1798, the Furneaux Group of islands became the most intensively exploited sealing ground in Bass Strait.^[3] A total of 29 islands in the Furneaux Group have been found to have some tangible link with sealing in the 19th century.^[4]

The Aboriginal matriarch, Dolly Dalrymple, was born on the Furneaux Islands. Her mother was one of two Aboriginal women who had been kidnapped from northern Tasmania by the sealer George Briggs.^[5]

King Island, at the western end of Bass Strait, is not a part of the group.

Islands in the Group

Island	Capital	Other cities	Area	Population
	sq mi
Furneaux Group	Whitemark	Lady Barron, The Corner, Emita, Killiecrankie	2010.3km2	795
			5.01km2	0
			4.4km2	0
			0.39km2	0
			0.02km2	0
Other			0km2	0
			0.2km2	0
			a18.15km2	3
			13.5km2	1
			1.09km2	0
			0.045km2	0
			0.025km2	0
			0.036km2	0
			3.45km2	2
Other			0.004km2	0
			0.025km2	0
			4.1km2	6
			1.57km2	4
			0.41km2	0
			1.57km2	2
			0.14km2	0
			0.05km2	0
			0.04km2	0
Other			0.14km2	0
			478.4km2	67
			82km2	1
			0.389km2	0
			1367km2	700
			21.362km2	14
			1.66km2	0
			0.13km2	0
			0.034km2	0
			0.17km2	0
			3.75km2	10
			0.01km2	0
			0.13km2	0
			0.83km2	0
			0.87km2	0
			3.13km2	0
			0.04km2	0
Other			0.253km2	0
			0.07km2	0
			0.07km2	0
			0.185km2	1
			1.86km2	2
			8.17km2	1
			7.48km2	0
Other		Shag Rock	0km2	0
			5.45km2	0
			1.1km2	0
			0.034km2	0
			0.084km2	0
			0.28km2	0
Other			0.122km2	0
			0.37km2	0
			0.21km2	0
	Passage Island		4.47km2	2
			1.67km2	0
			0.085km2	0
			0.02km2	0
			0.025km2	0
Other			0.017km2	0
	Passage Island		2.53km2	2
			0.123km2	0
			2.37km2	2
			0.06km2	0
			0.026km2	0
Other			a0.007km2	0
		Horseshoe Bay	2.08km2	2
			0.197km2	0
			12.8km2	0
			0.015km2	0
			0.35km2	0
Other			0.075km2	0
		South Bay	12.2km2	0
			0.16km2	0
			0.1km2	0
			0.094km2	0
Furneaux Group	Whitemark	Lady Barron, The Corner, Emita, Killiecrankie	2010.3km2	795

Geology

The islands contain granite from the Devonian period, as well as unconsolidated limestone and sand from Cenozoic periods. During the last ice age, a land bridge joined Tasmania to the Australian mainland through this group of islands.

See also

• Furneaux bioregion
• Engaeus martigener
• List of islands of Tasmania

External links

• Birds of the Furneaux Islands
• Shipwrecks in the Furneaux Islands

Notes and References

1. Book: Cumpston, J. S. . First visitors to Bass Strait . Canberra . Roebuck Society . 1973 . 0-9500858-8-X .
2. Book: Flinders, Matthew . Matthew Flinders . 1801 . Observations on the coasts of Van Diemen's, Land on Bass's Strait and its islands, and on part of the coasts of New South Wales; intended to accompany the charts of the late discoveries in those countries .
3. Book: Kostoglou . Parry . Sealing in Tasmania historical research project . 1996 . Parks and Wildlife Service . Hobart . 90–1 . First.
4. Kostoglou, p.91.
5. Ian . McFarlane . AS10118b . Dalrymple, Dolly (c. 1808 - 1864) . Supplementary Volume . 2005 . 94 .