The Tenth Island, sometimes called Barrenjoey, part of the Waterhouse Island Group, is a 900-square-metre (9,700 sq ft) uninhabited granite islet and nature reserve, situated in Bass Strait, lying close to the north-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The islet has no vegetation and much of it is wave-washed in winter storms.[1] The Aboriginal name for the island is recorded as Roobala mangana.[2]
Other islands in the Waterhouse Group include Ninth, Maclean, Waterhouse, Little Waterhouse, Baynes, St Helens, Foster, Swan, Little Swan, Cygnet and Paddys islands and Bird Rock and George Rocks islets.[1]
Fauna and marine life
The island is home to a significant breeding colony of Australian fur seals, with up to 400 pups born each year, though many drown in storms. black-faced cormorants also breed on the island and little penguins roost there.[1][3]
In the waters surrounding Tenth Island, Therese Cartwright, aged 35 years and a mother of five children, was killed as a result of a human shark attack fatality on 5 June 1993 when a reportedly 5-metre (16 ft) long great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) attacked Cartwright while she was scuba diving at the seal colony.[4][5]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart. ISBN 0-7246-4816-X
- ^ Milligan, Joseph (1858). "On the dialects and languages of the Aboriginal Tribes of Tasmania, and on their manners and customs" (PDF). Papers of the Royal Society of Tasmania: 270.
- ^ "Small Bass Strait Island Reserves. Draft Management Plan". Department of Primary Industries,Water and Environment. Tasmanian Government. October 2000. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
- ^ World Shark Attack Database: Fatal Shark Attack, Cartwright Archived 22 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Tassie's history of sharks". The Mercury. Hobart. 12 January 2009.
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