Fairfax Islands
Encyclopedia
Fairfax Islands is a pair of small coral
cay
s, both of which have been used as a bombing range. They are located near the Tropic of Capricorn
in the southern Great Barrier Reef
, 113 km due east of Gladstone
, Queensland
, Australia
, and 405 km north of the state capital Brisbane
.
The island is the third island in the Great Barrier Reef chain of islands (with the first being Lady Elliot Island
), and is part of the Capricorn and Bunker Group
of islands and forms part of the Capricornia Cays National Park
as well as of the Capricornia Cays Important Bird Area
. Most people only see the island by the more easily reached Lady Musgrave Island
, which can be readily reached by fast catamaran from the town of 1770, Queensland
, or from Gladstone, both of which are located approximately five hours drive north of Brisbane
.
Fairfax Islands
which is restricted to the centre of the island. Two brackish pools are located towards the eastern end of the island.
The western cay features an elongated sand spit that supports vegetation on its western extremity. Vegetation is similar to that occurring on the larger sand cays of the Capricorn Group. A tin shed, erected by the Australian Navy when the eastern cay was used for bombing practice, is located in the centre of the island.
The Capricorn and Bunker Cays form part of a distinct geomorphic province at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef (Hopley 1982). The cays and their reefs lie on the western marginal shelf, and are separated from the mainland by the Curtis Channel. The cays are not generally visible from the mainland, although Masthead Island may be viewed from Mount Larcom on a clear day.
Geologically the cays are young, having developed during the Holocene period, they are mostly around 5000 years old. The sea level was much lower during the last Ice Age (at the end of the Pleistocene period) and the coastal plane on which today’s reefs and cays developed was completely exposed. Early in the Holocene (around 10,000 years ago) the sea level began to rise, until it stabilised at its present level around 6000 years ago. Once the sea level stabilised, it was possible for reef flats to expand and provide potential sites for the formation of cays.
Fairfax Islands area a Closed Ring Reefs and the two coral cays belong to two distinct types :
of the whaling ship Albion was the first European to discover the region and gave his name to the southern group.
During a second whaling voyage from England in the Albion he discovered the Bunker Islands off the Queensland coast.
The Albion was 362 tons and registered in London, the ship was fitted with 10 guns, and a crew of 26; she was built in Deptfordand, Britain ownered by, Messrs. Champion; and used for general cargo
The southern cays and reefs were first chartered between 1819 and 1821 by Lieutenant Phillip Parker King RN initially in the Mermaid and later in the Bathurst. The main charting exercise for all the islands and reefs was carried out in 1843 under the command of Captain Francis Blackwood in HMS Fly which was accompanied by the Bramble. The naturalist, Professor J. Beete Jukes, was on board the Fly and his published journal provides valuable information on some of the cays.
, Fairfax and North West Island
during the 1890s. This was an extension of a more substantial guano mining operation on Lady Elliot
Island to the south. Some remains of these activities are still evident.
A good description of part of the operations from 1899 can be found below
and Royal Australian Navy
. This ceased over 40 years ago, and the vegetation of these two cays has largely recovered. Bomb disposal experts have found and destroyed unexploded ordnance
left from the bombing, however advice from the Australian Army suggest that many more unexploded ordnance will be on the Island
The islands have physically changed with old craters on the right end of the larger of the two islands (East Fairfax)
Changes have occurred in the morphology, vegetation and sea-bird populations of Fairfax Island as a result of military bombing practice between 1943 and at least 1965, during and after, the Second World War , Fairfax Islands (particularly East Fairfax Island) has suffered environmental degradation as this affected the island habitats which was used many times as a bombing and shelling
One report by a National Park Ranger, describing the condition of the island before the Second World War, stated that:
one section of Fairfax Island was thickly timbered with Pisonia umbellifera
, Pandanus pedunculatus, and Casuarina
(Oak); […] bird life is very plentiful on this island and during the time of his visit the Brown Gannet were nesting there in thousands; and […] the island is also the nesting place of the Mutton bird during the nesting season.
Yet when the Queensland government Ichthyologist, Mr T. C. Marshall, visited Fairfax Island shortly after 1945, he commented that the gannet rookery there ‘was not one tenth its pre-war size when you could hardly move among the thousands of nests without stepping upon one of them’, and he attributed the decline of the bird population to naval bombing practices during the war.
Another report in 1953 by C. Roff, described the effects of bombing practice at Fairfax Island as:
Large numbers of the brown gannet, Sula leucogaster, are breeding on the island […]. Birds continue to sit on nests whilst aircraft roar overhead and rockets explode. […] The gannets still extensively use the island although it has been used as a target area since 1943, and in some instances, apparently during the war years, was actually bombed and shelled.
Mr. D. Jolly in April 1954, contained the following description:
as the result of the bombing and shelling of the National Park by the Navy, there are some large shell craters at the eastern portion of the island in which an elephant could be buried. Fortunately this area is tree less. On the western portion of the west island are some bomb craters near and among the trees. After the attack on the island by the Navy the trees were almost stripped of leaves.
, West Fairfax and West Hoskyn Islands these are maintained in a natural condition, free from human disturbance;
There are also Brown Booby
breeding colonies at East and West Fairfax and East Hoskyn Islands
Until recently, East and West Fairfax Islands were also infested with two species of rats (black rats), and they were reportedly responsible for significant destruction of the seabird population, the island had also be infested and by cockroaches, but the rats have probably been eradicated through a recent National parks baiting program.
Locusts completely stripped the Pisonia
foliage on west Fairfax Island in 1986 allowing sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor. An impenetrable metre-high thicket of Wollastonia
biflora (Asteraceae
) and other species rapidly developed but after eight months later the canopy had regrown, the forest floor was again in shade and the undergrowth thicket was dead.
Diana was a vessel engaged in guano mining. Boomerang sighted the wreckage on the northwestern side of "middle Bunker Island" on 13 August 1864, and the crew went ashore and found part of the wreck had been salvaged with equipment and tents hauled onto one of the islands. The wreck had broken into two parts, with many timbers strewn about on the reef salvaged, but no sign of life. The crew had been rescued by the schooner Caroline (also reported by press as Eleanor Palmer).
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
cay
Cay
A cay , also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island formed on the surface of coral reefs. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans , where they provide habitable and agricultural land for hundreds of thousands of people...
s, both of which have been used as a bombing range. They are located near the Tropic of Capricorn
Tropic of Capricorn
The Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, marks the most southerly latitude on the Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This event occurs at the December solstice, when the southern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun to its maximum extent.Tropic of Capricorn is one of the five...
in the southern Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
, 113 km due east of Gladstone
Gladstone, Queensland
- Education :Gladstone has several primary schools, three high schools, and one university campus, Central Queensland University. It is also home to CQIT Gladstone Campus.- Recreation :...
, Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and 405 km north of the state capital Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
.
The island is the third island in the Great Barrier Reef chain of islands (with the first being Lady Elliot Island
Lady Elliot Island
Lady Elliot Island is the southern-most coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The island lies north-east of Bundaberg and covers an area of approximately . The island is home to a small eco resort and an airstrip, which is serviced daily by flights from Bundaberg, Hervey Bay,...
), and is part of the Capricorn and Bunker Group
Capricorn and Bunker Group
The islands and reefs of the Capricorn and Bunker Group are situated astride the Tropic of Capricorn at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, approximately 80 kilometres east of Gladstone, which is situated on the central coast of Queensland....
of islands and forms part of the Capricornia Cays National Park
Capricornia Cays National Park
Capricornia Cays is both a national park and a scientific national park in Queensland , located 486 km and 472 km north of the state capital Brisbane respectively. Collectively they comprise 241 ha of coral cays....
as well as of the Capricornia Cays Important Bird Area
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird Area is an area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. Currently there are about 10,000 IBAs worldwide. The program was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International...
. Most people only see the island by the more easily reached Lady Musgrave Island
Lady Musgrave Island
Lady Musgrave Island is a coral cay in the Great Barrier Reef, with a surrounding reef. The island is the second island in the Great Barrier Reef chain of islands , and is most easily reached from the town of 1770, Queensland, located on approximately 5 hours north of Brisbane...
, which can be readily reached by fast catamaran from the town of 1770, Queensland
1770, Queensland
1770 is a village in Queensland, Australia, built on the site of the second landing by James Cook and the crew of HM Bark Endeavour in May 1770 . Originally known as Round Hill — after the creek it sits on — the name was changed in 1970 to commemorate the bicentennial of Cook's visit...
, or from Gladstone, both of which are located approximately five hours drive north of Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
.
Fairfax Islands
- East Fairfax 23°51′18"S 152°22′38"E
- West Fairfax23°51′43"S 152°22′2"E
Geomorphology and landscape
The eastern cay is composed of shingle and the western of sand and shingle. Interference with the vegetation of the eastern cay occurred as a result of phosphate mining and secondly during the period when the Australian Military Forces used the area as a bombing target. The cay is no longer used for either purposes. Vegetation is dominated by Pisonia grandisPisonia grandis
Pisonia grandis is a species of flowering tree in the Bougainvillea family, Nyctaginaceae.-Description:The tree has broad, thin leaves, smooth bark and bears clusters of green sweet-smelling flowers that mature into sticky barbed seeds....
which is restricted to the centre of the island. Two brackish pools are located towards the eastern end of the island.
The western cay features an elongated sand spit that supports vegetation on its western extremity. Vegetation is similar to that occurring on the larger sand cays of the Capricorn Group. A tin shed, erected by the Australian Navy when the eastern cay was used for bombing practice, is located in the centre of the island.
The Capricorn and Bunker Cays form part of a distinct geomorphic province at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef (Hopley 1982). The cays and their reefs lie on the western marginal shelf, and are separated from the mainland by the Curtis Channel. The cays are not generally visible from the mainland, although Masthead Island may be viewed from Mount Larcom on a clear day.
Geologically the cays are young, having developed during the Holocene period, they are mostly around 5000 years old. The sea level was much lower during the last Ice Age (at the end of the Pleistocene period) and the coastal plane on which today’s reefs and cays developed was completely exposed. Early in the Holocene (around 10,000 years ago) the sea level began to rise, until it stabilised at its present level around 6000 years ago. Once the sea level stabilised, it was possible for reef flats to expand and provide potential sites for the formation of cays.
Fairfax Islands area a Closed Ring Reefs and the two coral cays belong to two distinct types :
- 1. Vegetated sand cays:- Fairfax (West).
- 2. Shingle cays:- Fairfax (East).
Discovery
In 1803 Captain Eber BunkerEber Bunker
Eber Bunker was a sea captain and pastoralist, born on 7 March 1761 at Plymouth, Massachusetts. His parents were James Bunker and his wife Hannah, née Shurtleff.-1776-1786: Background:...
of the whaling ship Albion was the first European to discover the region and gave his name to the southern group.
During a second whaling voyage from England in the Albion he discovered the Bunker Islands off the Queensland coast.
The Albion was 362 tons and registered in London, the ship was fitted with 10 guns, and a crew of 26; she was built in Deptfordand, Britain ownered by, Messrs. Champion; and used for general cargo
The southern cays and reefs were first chartered between 1819 and 1821 by Lieutenant Phillip Parker King RN initially in the Mermaid and later in the Bathurst. The main charting exercise for all the islands and reefs was carried out in 1843 under the command of Captain Francis Blackwood in HMS Fly which was accompanied by the Bramble. The naturalist, Professor J. Beete Jukes, was on board the Fly and his published journal provides valuable information on some of the cays.
Mining of guano in the 1890s
The mining of guano (bird droppings) occurred on Lady Musgrave IslandLady Musgrave Island
Lady Musgrave Island is a coral cay in the Great Barrier Reef, with a surrounding reef. The island is the second island in the Great Barrier Reef chain of islands , and is most easily reached from the town of 1770, Queensland, located on approximately 5 hours north of Brisbane...
, Fairfax and North West Island
North West Island
North West Island is a coral cay in the southern Great Barrier Reef, located 75 kilometres northeast of Gladstone, Queensland. North West Island forms part of Capricornia Cays National Park and with an area of 1.05 km², the island is the second largest coral cay in the Great Barrier Reef...
during the 1890s. This was an extension of a more substantial guano mining operation on Lady Elliot
Lady Elliot
The Lady Elliot was a ship that was wrecked north of Cardwell, Queensland, Australia in 1816.The Lady Elliot was a ship of 353 tons and had been constructed in Bengal, India. The ship was registered in Calcutta and was under the command of Thomas Stewart. The ship arrived in Sydney from Calcutta...
Island to the south. Some remains of these activities are still evident.
A good description of part of the operations from 1899 can be found below
The Pacific Islands Company, having worked cut the guano deposits at Fairfax Island, Bunker Group, is now transferring their plant to North-west Island In the Capricorn Group, which will be "the head- quarters for some time to" come (says the "Bundaberg Star" of yesterday). The steamer Lady Musgrave, which was chartered by the company for this work, returned to Bundaberg on Sunday afternoon, bringing Mr. A. E. Ellis, the local manager, and account forty Japanese, whose services are being dispensed with. The captain of the Lady Musgrave reports that he had helped to complete the work of removal from Fairfax to North-east Island. In about ten days, but, owing to the bad weather experienced, it occupied sixteen days to get through with It. So bad was the weather, that in fourteen days the vessel was only able to Steam for fifty hours, the steamer having to take shelter behind one of the islands from the heavy squalls and rain. The Lady Musgrave left Fairfax Island at 4 p.m. on Saturday, with the ketch Loma Doone in tow. Heavy weather was encountered, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday the line parted, and notwithstanding all the efforts made, it proved impossible to pick up the ketch again, and it was decided to make for Burnett Heads, which were not reached, as stated, till 4 p.m. the same day. The Loma Doone apparently got through all right, for she was reported off Bustard Head on Sunday, and is expected to arrive here tomorrow
Military target practice at Fairfax Islands, 1943–1965
East and West Fairfax Islands were used as a bombing range by the Royal Australian Air ForceRoyal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
and Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
. This ceased over 40 years ago, and the vegetation of these two cays has largely recovered. Bomb disposal experts have found and destroyed unexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnance are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, potentially many decades after they were used or discarded.While "UXO" is widely and informally used, munitions and explosives of...
left from the bombing, however advice from the Australian Army suggest that many more unexploded ordnance will be on the Island
The islands have physically changed with old craters on the right end of the larger of the two islands (East Fairfax)
Changes have occurred in the morphology, vegetation and sea-bird populations of Fairfax Island as a result of military bombing practice between 1943 and at least 1965, during and after, the Second World War , Fairfax Islands (particularly East Fairfax Island) has suffered environmental degradation as this affected the island habitats which was used many times as a bombing and shelling
One report by a National Park Ranger, describing the condition of the island before the Second World War, stated that:
one section of Fairfax Island was thickly timbered with Pisonia umbellifera
Pisonia umbellifera
Pisonia umbellifera, commonly known as the Bird-lime Tree, is a species of plant in the Nyctaginaceae family. It grows throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific. It is native to the Andaman Islands, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Hawaii and Madagascar and the...
, Pandanus pedunculatus, and Casuarina
Casuarina
Casuarina is a genus of 17 species in the family Casuarinaceae, native to Australasia, southeast Asia, and islands of the western Pacific Ocean. It was once treated as the sole genus in the family, but has been split into three genera .They are evergreen shrubs and trees growing to 35 m tall...
(Oak); […] bird life is very plentiful on this island and during the time of his visit the Brown Gannet were nesting there in thousands; and […] the island is also the nesting place of the Mutton bird during the nesting season.
Yet when the Queensland government Ichthyologist, Mr T. C. Marshall, visited Fairfax Island shortly after 1945, he commented that the gannet rookery there ‘was not one tenth its pre-war size when you could hardly move among the thousands of nests without stepping upon one of them’, and he attributed the decline of the bird population to naval bombing practices during the war.
Another report in 1953 by C. Roff, described the effects of bombing practice at Fairfax Island as:
Large numbers of the brown gannet, Sula leucogaster, are breeding on the island […]. Birds continue to sit on nests whilst aircraft roar overhead and rockets explode. […] The gannets still extensively use the island although it has been used as a target area since 1943, and in some instances, apparently during the war years, was actually bombed and shelled.
Mr. D. Jolly in April 1954, contained the following description:
as the result of the bombing and shelling of the National Park by the Navy, there are some large shell craters at the eastern portion of the island in which an elephant could be buried. Fortunately this area is tree less. On the western portion of the west island are some bomb craters near and among the trees. After the attack on the island by the Navy the trees were almost stripped of leaves.
Natural
Green turtle rookeries are located at Wreck IslandWreck Island (Queensland)
Wreck Island is a small coral cay. It is located near the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern Great Barrier Reef, 93 km due northe east of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, and 460 km north of the state capital Brisbane....
, West Fairfax and West Hoskyn Islands these are maintained in a natural condition, free from human disturbance;
There are also Brown Booby
Brown Booby
The Brown Booby is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. The adult brown booby reaches about in length. Its head and upper body are covered in dark brown, with the remainder being a contrasting white. The juvenile form is gray-brown with darkening on the head, wings and tail...
breeding colonies at East and West Fairfax and East Hoskyn Islands
Pests
The island have had a reasonable long exposure to introduced pests firstly goats were introduced to the island in the Guano mining period these were latter eradicated from East and West Fairfax Islands in the early 1970s.Until recently, East and West Fairfax Islands were also infested with two species of rats (black rats), and they were reportedly responsible for significant destruction of the seabird population, the island had also be infested and by cockroaches, but the rats have probably been eradicated through a recent National parks baiting program.
Locusts completely stripped the Pisonia
Pisonia
Pisonia is a genus of flowering plants in the four o'clock flower family, Nyctaginaceae. It was named for Dutch physician and naturalist Willem Piso . Certain species in this genus are known as Catchbirdtrees because their sticky seeds reportedly trap small birds...
foliage on west Fairfax Island in 1986 allowing sunlight to penetrate to the forest floor. An impenetrable metre-high thicket of Wollastonia
Wollastonia
Wollastonia is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family....
biflora (Asteraceae
Asteraceae
The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...
) and other species rapidly developed but after eight months later the canopy had regrown, the forest floor was again in shade and the undergrowth thicket was dead.
Known shipwrecks on the reef
Diana, a wooden carvel schooner / brig of 103 tons and 70 feet in length built in Sydney in 1847 by the builder Ale and owned by C.L. Throck. The vessel ran aground on 1 June 1864 in the Bunker Group at the North Western side of "middle island" (she was wrecked on Fairfax Island (middle island - Bunker group)) while loading guanoDiana was a vessel engaged in guano mining. Boomerang sighted the wreckage on the northwestern side of "middle Bunker Island" on 13 August 1864, and the crew went ashore and found part of the wreck had been salvaged with equipment and tents hauled onto one of the islands. The wreck had broken into two parts, with many timbers strewn about on the reef salvaged, but no sign of life. The crew had been rescued by the schooner Caroline (also reported by press as Eleanor Palmer).
See also
- Capricorn and Bunker GroupCapricorn and Bunker GroupThe islands and reefs of the Capricorn and Bunker Group are situated astride the Tropic of Capricorn at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, approximately 80 kilometres east of Gladstone, which is situated on the central coast of Queensland....
- Great Barrier ReefGreat Barrier ReefThe Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
- Capricornia Cays National ParkCapricornia Cays National ParkCapricornia Cays is both a national park and a scientific national park in Queensland , located 486 km and 472 km north of the state capital Brisbane respectively. Collectively they comprise 241 ha of coral cays....