Houtman Abrolhos
Encyclopedia
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Coral reef
Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...
s, in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
off the west coast of Australia. Nominally located at 28°43′S 113°47′E, it lies about eighty kilometres (50 mi) west of Geraldton, Western Australia
Geraldton, Western Australia
Geraldton is a city and port in Western Australia located north of Perth in the Mid West region. Geraldton has an estimated population at June 2010 of 36,958...
. It is the southernmost true coral reef in the Indian Ocean, and one of the highest latitude reef systems in the world. It is one of the world's most important seabird
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have 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 environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...
breeding sites, and is the centre of Western Australia's largest single species fishery, the Western Rock Lobster
Western rock lobster
Panulirus cygnus is a species of spiny lobster , found off the west coast of Australia. Panulirus cygnus is the basis of Australia's most valuable fishery, making up 20% of value of Australia's total fishing industry, and is identified as the western rock lobster.-Description:The species has five...
fishery. It has a small seasonal population of fishermen, and a limited number of tourists are permitted for day trips, but most of the land area is off limits as conservation habitat. It is well known as the site of numerous shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
s, the most famous being the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
ships Batavia
Batavia (ship)
Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company . It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors...
, which was wrecked in 1629, and Zeewijk
Zeewijk
The Zeewijk was an 18th century East Indiaman of the Dutch East India Company that was shipwrecked at the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia, on 9 June 1727. The survivors built a second ship, the Sloepie, enabling 82 out of the initial crew of 208 to reach their initial...
, wrecked in 1727.
Geography
The Houtman Abrolhos is made up of three island groups, the Wallabi GroupWallabi Group
The Wallabi Group is the northern-most group of islands in the Houtman Abrolhos. Nominally located at , it is 58 kilometres from the Australian mainland, and about 9 kilometres from the Easter Group....
, Easter Group
Easter Group
The Easter Group is the central of three groups of islands that make up the Houtman Abrolhos island chain. Nominally located at , it is about 20 kilometres by 12 kilometres, and consists of a number of islands including Rat Island, Wooded Island, Morley Island, Suomi Island and Alexander Island....
and Pelsaert Group
Pelsaert Group
The Pelsaert Group is the southernmost of the three groups of islands that make up the Houtman Abrolhos island chain. Nominally located at , it consists of a number of islands, the largest of which are Gun Island, Middle Island, and Pelsaert Island. The group is named after a Dutch "opperkoopman"...
.
The most northerly group, the Wallabi Group, consists of an island clump about 17 kilometres (10 mi) by 10 kilometres (6 mi), and also takes in the outlying North Island
North Island (Houtman Abrolhos)
North Island is the northernmost island in the Houtman Abrolhos, a coral reef archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Mid West Western Australia. Located about 14 km from the nearest island group, it is one of the largest islands in the Houtman Abrolhos, and one of the few to support...
, located 14 kilometres to the northwest. The main islands of the Wallabi Group are North Island, West Wallabi Island
West Wallabi Island
West Wallabi Island is an island in the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, located in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of mainland Australia.-History:...
, East Wallabi Island
East Wallabi Island
East Wallabi Island is an island in the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, located in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of mainland Australia.-History:East Wallabi Island played an important role in the story of the Batavia shipwreck and massacre...
and Beacon Island. The group is best known for the shipwreck of the Batavia
Batavia (ship)
Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company . It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors...
on Morning Reef near Beacon Island in 1629, and the subsequent mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
and massacre that took place among the marooned
Marooning
Marooning is the intentional leaving of someone in a remote area, such as an uninhabited island. The word appears in writing in approximately 1709, and is derived from the term maroon, a word for a fugitive slave, which could be a corruption of Spanish cimarrón, meaning a household animal who has...
survivors.
The Easter Group lies to the southeast of the Wallabi Group, from which it is separated by a 9 kilometres (5 mi) wide channel named Middle Channel. It is about 20 kilometres by 12 kilometres, and consists of a number of islands including Rat Island, Wooded Island, Morley Island, Suomi Island and Alexander Island
Alexander Island (Houtman Abrolhos)
Alexander Island is one of the five largest islands in the Easter Group of the Houtman Abrolhos. It is nominally located at The island is part of the Houtman Abrolhos Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for supporting large numbers of...
.
Further to the southeast, across Zeewijk Channel, lies the Pelsaert Group, the most southerly true coral reef in the Indian Ocean. The main islands of this group are Middle Island, Square Island, Long Island, Pelsaert Island, Basile Island and the Mangrove Group. A great many ships have been wrecked in the Pelsaert Group, most notably the Zeewijk
Zeewijk
The Zeewijk was an 18th century East Indiaman of the Dutch East India Company that was shipwrecked at the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia, on 9 June 1727. The survivors built a second ship, the Sloepie, enabling 82 out of the initial crew of 208 to reach their initial...
, which was wrecked on the Half Moon Reef in 1727, the survivors staying on Gun Island
Gun Island
Gun Island is one of the larger islands in the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos. It is nominally located at , about 4 km north and east of Half Moon Reef and is a flat limestone outcrop of about by in size...
for some time afterwards. Other wrecks include the Ocean Queen, wrecked on the Half Moon Reef in 1842; the Ben Ledi, wrecked off Pelsaert Island in 1879; and the Windsor
Windsor (ship)
The Windsor was a ship wrecked on Long Reef near Sydney, Australia in 1816.The Windsor was a sloop of 22 tons owned and under the command of Henry Major. The Windsor left the Hawkesbury and headed for Sydney when it was blown well off shore by a gale. It is probable that it was this gale that...
, wrecked on the Half Moon Reef in 1908.
Discovery and naming
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Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
VOC
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
ships Dordrecht and Amsterdam in 1619, only three years after Dirk Hartog
Dirk Hartog
Dirk Hartog was a 17th century Dutch sailor and explorer. Dirk Hartog's expedition was the third European group to land on Australian soil. He was the first to leave behind an artifact to record his visit, the Hartog plate. His name is sometimes alternatively spelled Dirck Hartog or Dierick...
made the first authenticated sighting of what is now Western Australia, and only 13 years after the first authenticated voyage to Australia, that of the Duyfken
Duyfken
Duyfken was a small Dutch ship built in the Netherlands. She was a fast, lightly armed ship probably intended for shallow water, small valuable cargoes, bringing messages, sending provisions, or privateering...
in 1606. Discovery of the islands was credited to Frederick de Houtman
Frederick de Houtman
Frederick de Houtman , or Frederik de Houtman, was a Dutch explorer who sailed along the Western coast of Australia en route to Batavia.-Biography:...
, Captain-General of the Dordrecht, as it was Houtman who later wrote of the discovery in a letter to the directors of the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
:
The word Abrolhos is of Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
origin, making the Houtman Abrolhos one of only two Australian places with a Portuguese name, the other being Pedra Branca in Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
. The term is commonly reported to be a contraction of the Portuguese expression abre os olhos ("open the eyes") or abri vossos olhos ("keep your eyes open"), but this has been shown to be a false etymology
False etymology
Folk etymology is change in a word or phrase over time resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. Unanalyzable borrowings from foreign languages, like asparagus, or old compounds such as samblind which have lost their iconic motivation are...
. In the Portuguese language of the time, abrolhos meant "spiked obstructions", and served not only as a word for offshore reefs, but also as their word for caltrop
Caltrop
A caltrop is an antipersonnel weapon made up of two or more sharp nails or spines arranged in such a manner that one of them always points upward from a stable base...
s and chevaux de frise
Cheval de frise
The cheval de frise was a Medieval defensive obstacle consisting of a portable frame covered with many long iron or wooden spikes or even actual spears. They were principally intended as an anti-cavalry obstacle but could also be moved quickly to help block a breach in another barrier...
. To Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
ears, however, the word sounded like abre ojos ("open your eyes"), so they imputed this meaning, and this false etymology was later borrowed by English, Dutch and French writers.
Another explanation has been proferred by Philippe Godard. He reports, without citation, that some authors have claimed that the word Abrolhos comes from a 15th century Portuguese nobleman named Frederico de Abrolhos. Godard notes, however, that there is no trace of such a person in Lusitania
Lusitania
Lusitania or Hispania Lusitania was an ancient Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain . It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people...
n archives, and that Abrolhos is not known as a family name in Portugal, making this an unconvincing explanation.
Why Houtman named the islands using a Portuguese word remains a subject of debate. John Forsyth states that the islands are named after the Abrolhos Archipelago
Abrolhos Archipelago
The Abrolhos Archipelago are a group of 5 small islands with coral reefs off the southern coast of Bahia state in the northeast of Brazil, between 17º25’—18º09’ S and 38º33’—39º05’ W. Caravelas is the nearest town. Their name comes from the , a rock awash or submerged sandbank that is a danger to...
off the east coast of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, which was discovered and named by Portuguese navigators early in the 16th century. This position is supported by the fact that Houtman was familiar with the Abrolhos Archipelago, having sailed through it in 1598. Others assert that abrolhos was a Portuguese lookout
Lookout
A lookout or look-out is a person on a ship in charge of the observation of the sea for hazards, other ships, land, etc. Lookouts report anything they see and or hear. When reporting contacts, lookouts give information such as, bearing of the object, which way the object is headed, target angles...
's cry which, like many other Portuguese maritime terms, was taken up by sailors of other nationalities, becoming by Houtman's time a Dutch loan word for offshore reefs. Finally, it has been argued by proponents of the theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia
Theory of Portuguese discovery of Australia
Although most historians hold that the European discovery of Australia began in 1606 with the voyage of the Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon on board the Duyfken, a theory exists that a Portuguese expedition arrived in Australia between 1521 and 1524...
that the Portuguese name is evidence that the islands were charted by Portuguese navigators in the 16th century. Kenneth McIntyre
Kenneth McIntyre
Kenneth Gordon McIntyre OBE was an Australian lawyer, historian and mathematician who is perhaps best known for his controversial book The Secret Discovery of Australia - Portuguese ventures 200 years before Captain Cook....
, for example, claimed that Houtman was in possession of Portuguese maps of the west coast of Australia, and that he named the islands "abrolhos" in accordance with the name on his map. Charting of the islands was previously credited to Jorge de Menezes
Jorge de Menezes
Jorge de Menezes was a Portuguese explorer who in 1526-27 landed on Waigeo Island , taking shelter in the town of Wasai whilst he awaited the passing of the monsoon season...
, but the notion that Menezes visited Australia is now thoroughly discredited, and no other candidate has been proffered.
The primary piece of evidence for the claim of Portuguese priority is the 16th century Dieppe maps
Dieppe maps
The Dieppe maps are a series of world maps produced in Dieppe, France, in the 1540s, 1550s and 1560s. They are large hand-produced maps, commissioned for wealthy and royal patrons, including Henry II of France and Henry VIII of England...
, some of which are said to show the west coast of Australia, including an island at the position of the Houtman Abrolhos. This island is unlabelled on most of the Dieppe maps, but on Pierre Desceliers
Pierre Desceliers
Pierre Desceliers was a French cartographer of the Renaissance and an eminent member of the Dieppe School of Cartography. He is considered the father of French hydrography....
' 1550 map, it is labelled Arenes. In 1895, George Collingridge
George Collingridge
George Collingridge was an Australian writer and illustrator best known today for his early assertions of Portuguese discovery of Australia in the 16th century....
suggested that Arenes was a corruption of Abrolhos, but this was mocked by Heeres in 1898, and according to J. S. Battye "this suggestion can scarcely be regarded seriously. It certainly does not in any way add to the merit of the Portuguese claim".
Setting aside the Portuguese claims, the Houtman Abrolhos first appears on a published map in 1622, on a little-known portolan by Hessel Gerritsz
Hessel Gerritsz
Hessel Gerritsz was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher. Despite strong competition, he is considered by some “unquestionably the chief Dutch cartographer of the 17th century”...
. They are unlabelled, however, being marked merely as a group of small circles. They are first named in print in Gerritsz' 1627 map Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht
Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht
Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht is a 1627 map by Hessel Gerritsz. One of the earliest maps of Australia, it shows what little was then known of the west coast, based on a number of voyages beginning with the 1616 voyage of Dirk Hartog...
, where they bear the label Fr. Houtman's abrolhos. On a map produced by him the following year, they are labelled Houtman's Abrolhos.
On British Admiralty charts, the islands are labelled Houtman's Rocks.
Wreck of the Batavia
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Batavia (ship)
Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company . It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors...
under the command of Francisco Pelsaert
Francisco Pelsaert
Francisco Pelsaert was a Dutch merchant who worked for the Dutch East India Company, who became most famous as the commander of the ship Batavia, which ran aground in the Houtman Abrolhos off the coast of Western Australia in June...
ran aground and Pelsaert and some men went in an open boat to the town of Batavia (now Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
) in order to get help. A group of the men who stayed on some of the islets decided to terrorise and massacre many others, including women. When Pelsaert came back many culprits were executed.
Wreck of the Zeewijk
The ZeewijkZeewijk
The Zeewijk was an 18th century East Indiaman of the Dutch East India Company that was shipwrecked at the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia, on 9 June 1727. The survivors built a second ship, the Sloepie, enabling 82 out of the initial crew of 208 to reach their initial...
was the last of the four Dutch East Indiamen to be wrecked on the west coast of Australia. The Ship's Council having made the inexplicable decision to disregard sailing orders and actually seek out the west coast of Australia, the ship ran onto the Half Moon Reef at about 7:30pm on 9 June 1727. It did not break up immediately, and the heavy swell made evacuation impossible until 18 June. The longboat
Longboat
In the days of sailing ships, a vessel would carry several ship's boats for various uses. One would be a longboat, an open boat to be rowed by eight or ten oarsmen, two per thwart...
was launched on that day, and the crew and stores were thereafter gradually transferred to nearby Gun Island
Gun Island
Gun Island is one of the larger islands in the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos. It is nominally located at , about 4 km north and east of Half Moon Reef and is a flat limestone outcrop of about by in size...
. Later, the men landed ten chests of money, containing 315,836 guilder
Guilder
Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch gulden — from Old Dutch for 'golden'. The guilder originated as a gold coin but has been a common name for a silver or base metal coin for some centuries...
s and weighing a total of three tons.
The crew of the Zeewijk would be marooned in the Pelsaert Group for ten months, during which time they lived off seals, seabirds, eggs, and victuals salvaged from the wreck. They obtained some water from rainfall, but were forced to explore throughout the group in search of further supplies. A great many men died on the islands, including two boys who were accused of sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
and marooned on separate islands of the Mangrove Group.
On 10 July the longboat, fitted for a voyage and crewed with eleven men, was sent to Batavia to obtain help. It never arrived there, and nothing is known of its fate. Four months later the castaways began building a 60 feet (18.3 m) boat, sufficient to carry all the men and the money chests. Completed in March 1728 and affectionately named the Sloepie ("little sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
"), it was the first ocean-going vessel built in Australian history. On 26 March 1728, the surviving men set sail for Batavia, arriving in Sunda Strait
Sunda Strait
The Sunda Strait is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean...
late the following month.
Later history
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HMS Beagle
HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames, at a cost of £7,803. In July of that year she took part in a fleet review celebrating the coronation of King George IV of the United Kingdom in which...
discovered a brass gun of about three pounds calibre, an iron swivel on which paint still adhered as well as numerous other artefacts signifying European occupation, on the largest island in the Pelsart Group. The commander, John Clements Wickham
John Clements Wickham
John Clements Wickham was a naval officer, magistrate and administrator. He was a Lieutenant on HMS Beagle during her second survey mission from 1831 to 1836, which took the young naturalist Charles Darwin on what became the subject of his book, The Voyage of the Beagle...
, named the place Gun Island
Gun Island
Gun Island is one of the larger islands in the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos. It is nominally located at , about 4 km north and east of Half Moon Reef and is a flat limestone outcrop of about by in size...
and the passage between the Easter and Pelsart Groups, Zeewijk Channel. Later during the 19th century many islets were used by men collecting guano
Guano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...
.
A lease
Lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...
to mine rock phosphate on the islands was obtained by Charles Broadhurst in 1884. Afer surveying the area he constructed a plant and had over 40 Malay workers mining and processing the phosphate for export. Over 48,000 tonnes was shipped between 1884 and 1896.
Tenure, governance and management
The Houtman Abrolhos is Australian territory. There is no dispute about this, although it has been suggested that Australia claims the island chain under the UNCLOS by extending their continental baseline to encompass it, a breach of Article 7 of the Convention.The islands are a part of Western Australia. They are part of the Electoral district of Geraldton
Electoral district of Geraldton
Geraldton is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.Geraldton was one of the original 30 seats contested at the 1890 state election...
, and the Shire of Northampton
Shire of Northampton
The Shire of Northampton is a Local Government Area in the Mid West region of Western Australia, about north of Geraldton and about north of the state capital, Perth...
. Management is vested in the Department of Fisheries.
Geology
Some of the islands are considered to be remnants of the mainland isolated by rising sea level during the last 8,000 to 10,000 years. Others were more recently formed from coralCoral
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...
rubble.
Bathymetry
The Houtman Abrolhos lays in the Indian OceanIndian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
about 60 kilometres (40 mi) off the coast of Western Australia, near the edge of Australia's continental shelf
Continental shelf
The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain. Much of the shelf was exposed during glacial periods, but is now submerged under relatively shallow seas and gulfs, and was similarly submerged during other interglacial periods. The continental margin,...
. At less than 50 metres (160 ft) deep, the shelf is quite shallow. It is also fairly level, the depth increasing to the west at a modest gradient of about 1.3 metres per kilometre (7 ft/mi). About five kilometres (3 mi) to the west of the Houtman Abrolhos lies the shelf break, beyond which the seabed falls away much more steeply, averaging around 50 metres per kilometre (260 ft/mi).
The islands of each island group arise from a single carbonate platform
Carbonate platform
A carbonate platform is a sedimentary body which possesses topographic relief, and is composed of autochthonous calcareous deposits . Platform growth is mediated by sessile organisms whose skeletons build up the reef or by organisms which induce carbonate precipitation through their metabolism...
, so the waters within an island group are mostly shallow. The channels between groups, however, are 40 to 50 metres deep, and therefore no impediment to the exchange of offshore and inshore waters.
Currents
The Houtman Abrolhos lies almost directly in the path of the Leeuwin CurrentLeeuwin Current
The Leeuwin Current is a warm ocean current which flows southwards near the western coast of Australia. It rounds Cape Leeuwin to enter the waters south of Australia where its influence extends as far as Tasmania...
, which draws warm, low-saline water of tropical origin southwards along the coast of Western Australia. This current flows all year round, but is strongest during southern hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
winter months. In general the Leeuwin Current runs along the shelf break, and thus passes close by the western edge of the Abrolhos. It meanders, however, sometimes passing well out to sea, and sometimes passing directly through the island chain, bathing it in warm tropical water; Although the direction of the Leeuwin Current is predominantly southerly, Shark Bay
Shark Bay, Western Australia
Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. It is an area centred approximately on , 800 kilometres north of Perth, on the westernmost point of Australia. An expedition led by Dirk Hartog happened upon the area in 1616, becoming the second group of Europeans...
and the Houtman Abrolhos together act as a topographical
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
trigger for the forming of eddies
Eddy (fluid dynamics)
In fluid dynamics, an eddy is the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid flows past an obstacle. The moving fluid creates a space devoid of downstream-flowing fluid on the downstream side of the object...
, so the Abrolhos can experience currents from any direction, even when the Leeuwin Current is flowing strongly.
Unlike most other major ocean currents, there is no large-scale coastal upwelling associated with the Leeuwin Current
Leeuwin Current
The Leeuwin Current is a warm ocean current which flows southwards near the western coast of Australia. It rounds Cape Leeuwin to enter the waters south of Australia where its influence extends as far as Tasmania...
. There is limited evidence for some sporadic, localised upwelling in the vicinity of the Abrolhos, but if so it appears to have little effect on the extremely low levels of nutrients in the water.
Temperature and salinity
There is also an annual cycle, with sea temperature varying by a little less than 4 °C (7 °F) over the year, peaking at nearly 24 °C (75 °F) in March, and falling to around 20 °C (68 °F) in September. This variability is much less than in nearby coastal waters, which reaches a similar peak in summer but drops as low as 18 °C (64 °F) in winter. The relatively low variability in sea temperatures at the Abrolhos is largely attributable to the Leeuwin Current, which bathes the islands in warm tropical water during winter months.
A similar annual pattern occurs in salinity
Salinity
Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...
. There is a clear seasonal variation, with values ranging from a summer high of around 35.7 ppt, to a winter low of around 35.4 ppt. As with water temperatures, the variability in salinity is much smaller than in coastal waters, where summer salinity reaches 36.4 ppt. This difference is partly due to the low-salinity waters of the Leeuwin Current, but there are a number of other factors involved, including high evaporation of coastal waters in summer.
Temperatures can also vary substantially from year to year. Annual mean temperatures vary by as much as 1 °C (2 °F); with cooler years usually cooler throughout the year. There is evidence that annual mean temperatures are related to El Niño-Southern Oscillation
El Niño-Southern Oscillation
El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, is a quasiperiodic climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean roughly every five years...
events.
The water column is generally well-mixed, with no evidence of a significant halocline
Halocline
In oceanography, a halocline is a subtype of chemocline caused by a strong, vertical salinity gradient within a body of water. Because salinity affects the density of seawater, it can play a role in its vertical stratification...
or thermocline
Thermocline
A thermocline is a thin but distinct layer in a large body of fluid , in which temperature changes more rapidly with depth than it does in the layers above or below...
. Mean differences in water temperature between sea surface and sea bed range from only half a degree (Celsius; 1 °F) in summer to almost zero in winter, and differences in salinity are very small even when the Leeuwin Current is at its strongest.
Sea levels
As with the rest of southwestern Australia, tideTide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....
s at the Houtman Abrolhos are small and irregular. There is little tidal data available for the islands, but what there is accords very closely with the data for Geraldton. Geraldton tides follow a diurnal pattern, with maximum tidal ranges of around 1 metre (3 ft).
Mean sea levels at Geraldton show seasonal fluctuations, being higher in winter when the Leeuwin Current is at its peak. There are also variations from year to year, which are strongly associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation
El Niño-Southern Oscillation
El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, is a quasiperiodic climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean roughly every five years...
(ENSO) cycle. Apparently, ENSO events induce a weaker Leeuwin Current, which results in lower sea levels.
There is no published information on wave heights in the Abrolhos. In the open ocean, waves are typically a little over two metres high all year round. Nearer the mainland, they are usually less than 1.2 metres, with a calmer period in March and April, and another in October and November.
Climate
As of 2007, the Australian Bureau of MeteorologyBureau of Meteorology
The Bureau of Meteorology is an Executive Agency of the Australian Government responsible for providing weather services to Australia and surrounding areas. It was established in 1906 under the Meteorology Act, and brought together the state meteorological services that existed before then...
has not published climatic
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
data for the Houtman Abrolhos. However, an automatic weather station
Automatic weather station
An automatic weather station is an automated version of the traditional weather station, either to save human labour or to enable measurements from remote areas...
has been installed on North Island
North Island (Houtman Abrolhos)
North Island is the northernmost island in the Houtman Abrolhos, a coral reef archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Mid West Western Australia. Located about 14 km from the nearest island group, it is one of the largest islands in the Houtman Abrolhos, and one of the few to support...
since 1990, and hourly measures of precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
, air temperature, wind speed
Wind speed
Wind speed, or wind velocity, is a fundamental atmospheric rate.Wind speed affects weather forecasting, aircraft and maritime operations, construction projects, growth and metabolism rate of many plant species, and countless other implications....
, wind direction
Wind direction
Wind direction is reported by the direction from which it originates. For example, a northerly wind blows from the north to the south. Wind direction is usually reported in cardinal directions or in azimuth degrees...
, relative humidity
Relative humidity
Relative humidity is a term used to describe the amount of water vapor in a mixture of air and water vapor. It is defined as the partial pressure of water vapor in the air-water mixture, given as a percentage of the saturated vapor pressure under those conditions...
and atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure
Atmospheric pressure is the force per unit area exerted into a surface by the weight of air above that surface in the atmosphere of Earth . In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point...
have been publicly available since then. Based on this and other data, researchers have put together a picture of the Abrolhos' climate.
The islands have a Mediterranean climate
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
, with warm dry summers and cooler, wet winters. Mean temperatures range from 9.3 °C to 19.5 °C in July, and from 19.1 °C to 32.4 °C in February. These temperatures have a substantially smaller range than on the mainland: the summer temperature is typically a degree cooler, while winter temperatures are a good deal warmer. This is due to the influence of the ocean, and to the Leeuwin Current.
86% of the rain falls between April and September; on average there are 89 raindays, resulting in 469 millimetres of rain. The wettest month is June, when over 100 millimetres typically falls. In contrast, only about 70 millimetres can be expected to fall between October and March.
It is nearly always windy. During summer a high pressure ridge lies to the south, causing persistent winds from the southeast or southwest, at speeds exceeding 17 knots (31 km/h) almost half the time. During autumn and winter, the ridge moves northwards, increasing the atmospheric pressure over the islands, resulting in highly variable winds. Winter tends to produce both the strongest gales and the most frequent periods of calm.
In addition to these winds, there is daily pattern of land breezes in the morning, followed by the onset of south-westerly sea breezes in the afternoon. This pattern is caused by temperature differences between the land and the ocean, and is not as strong in the Houtman Abrolhos as on the mainland, but is present nonetheless.
Three classes of storm have been identified for the region. Brief squalls may occur between December and April. A tropical cyclone
Tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor...
occurs in the area about once in three years, between January and April; these may generate extremely high wind speeds that are potentially destructive. During winter, extra-tropical cyclones sometimes pass south of Geraldton, generating winter gales with gusts of up to 35 metres per second, the wind direction from the northwest initially, then gradually moving around to southerly.
Biogeography
Under the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for AustraliaInterim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia
The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia is a biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian Government's Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts...
(IBRA), the islands of the Houtman Abrolhos fall within the Geraldton Hills subregion of the Geraldton Sandplains
Geraldton Sandplains
Geraldton Sandplains is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia and part of the larger Southwest Australia savanna ecoregion.It has two sub regions: -* Geraldton Hills sub region* Lesuer sub region...
region. The main biogeographic
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species , organisms, and ecosystems in space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area...
significance of the islands is their isolation, allowing them to provide refugia
Refugia
In biology a refugium , sometimes termed simply a refuge, is a location of an isolated or relict population of a once more widespread species. This isolation can be due to climatic changes, geography, or human activities such as deforestation and over-hunting...
for such threatened fauna as Tammar Wallabies
Tammar Wallaby
The Tammar Wallaby , also known as the Dama Wallaby or Darma Wallaby, is a small member of the kangaroo family and is the model species for research on kangaroos and marsupials. It is found on offshore islands on the South Australian and Western Australian coast...
(Macropus eugenii), Australian Sea Lion
Australian Sea Lion
The Australian Sea Lion , also known as the Australian Sea-lion or Australian Sealion, is a species of sea lion that breeds only on the south and west coasts of Australia...
s (Neophoca cinerea) and rare breeding seabirds.
In marine terms, the Houtman Abrolhos is located within the Southwest Shelf Transition, an Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia
Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia
The Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia , formerly the Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation for Australia, is a biogeographic regionalisation of the oceanic waters of Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone...
(IMCRA) biotone
Biotone
A biotone is a biogeographical region characterised not by distinctive biota but rather by a distinctive transition from one set of biota to another...
that takes in the continental shelf from Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
to Geraldton
Geraldton, Western Australia
Geraldton is a city and port in Western Australia located north of Perth in the Mid West region. Geraldton has an estimated population at June 2010 of 36,958...
. This province is defined as the area of shelf where tropical waters intergrade into temperate, thus supporting both tropical and temperate biota. In addition, this area contains the highest concentration of west coast endemics.
Consistent with this, the Houtman Abrolhos contains a mix of tropical, temperate and west coast endemic fauna, resulting in unusual associations such as the occurrence of tropical corals in close association with temperate macro-algae. The proportions of tropical, temperate and west coast endemic biota vary from taxonomic group to group, but in general the biota is dominated by tropical species. This is attributable to the location of the Houtman Abrolhos at the northern limit of the Southwest Shelf Transition, together with the warming influence of the Leeuwin Current.
Under IMCRA, the Southwest Shelf Transition divides into two meso-scale bioregions. One is named Abrolhos Islands, and covers the shelf waters surrounding the Houtman Abrolhos, with an area of 6,645 square kilometres. The other bioregion, Central West Coast, covers the remaining area.
Terrestrial flora
The vegetation of the Houtman Abrolhos islands is dominated by chenopod shrubs. The flora is generally the same as the coastal flora of the adjacent mainland, with the exception of the islands' mangrove, saltbush and salt lake vegetation.Flora
Vascular plant
Vascular plants are those plants that have lignified tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the clubmosses, Equisetum, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms...
of the Houtman Abrolhos has been thoroughly surveyed, and species lists have been published for 119 islands. As of 2001, these lists totaled 239 species from 68 families. A further six species have been collected in the Houtman Abrolhos, but cannot be allocated to islands because insufficient location information was recorded. There have also been collections of moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
es, liverwort
Hepatica
Hepatica is a genus of herbaceous perennials in the buttercup family, native to central and northern Europe, Asia and eastern North America...
s and lichen
Lichen
Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium...
s, but no information has been published on these non-vascular groups.
The islands with the greatest floristic diversity are East and West Wallabi Islands, with 124 and 97 species respectively. 54 species occur in all three island groups. The most widely distributed species are Nitraria billardierei
Nitraria billardierei
Nitraria billardierei is a perennial salt tolerant shrub. It is often found in saline areas or areas that have been overgrazed. Nitre Bush flowers mainly in spring with small ovoid or oblong fruit that are purple, red or golden...
(Nitre Bush), which has been recorded on 106 islands; the exotic Mesembryanthemum crystallinum
Mesembryanthemum crystallinum
Mesembryanthemum crystallinum is a prostrate succulent plant that is native to Africa, Western Asia and Europe. The plant is covered with large, glistening bladder cells, reflected in its common names of Common Ice Plant, Crystalline Iceplant or Iceplant.-Uses:Its leaves are edible, as with some...
(Iceplant), on 88 islands; Threlkeldia diffusa
Threlkeldia diffusa
Threlkeldia diffusa, also known as Coast Bonefruit, is a perennial herb which occurs in coastal areas and saline flats in Australia. It is sometimes prostrate or may grow up to 0.4 metres in height. The green flowers occur between October and November in its native range....
(Coast Bonefruit), on 72 islands; and Atriplex cinerea
Atriplex cinerea
Atriplex cinerea is a species of plant in the Chenopodiaceae family. It occurs in sheltered coastal areas and around salt lakes in the Australian states of Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales....
(Grey Saltbush), on 70 islands. On the other hand, Eucalyptus oraria
Eucalyptus oraria
Eucalyptus oraria, also known as Ooragmandee, is a mallee species of Eucalyptus that is native to Western Australia, occurring in coastal and near-coastal areas. Its mature height ranges from 1 to 15 metres....
(Ooragmandee) and Acacia didyma
Acacia didyma
Acacia didyma is a shrub or small tree which is native to Western Australia. It grows to between 1.5 metres and 4 metres in height and flowers from August to October in its native range....
occur only on East Wallabi Island.
As of 2001, 5 species of priority flora occurred on the islands. One, Acacia didyma
Acacia didyma
Acacia didyma is a shrub or small tree which is native to Western Australia. It grows to between 1.5 metres and 4 metres in height and flowers from August to October in its native range....
, is no longer considered a priority species. The remaining priority species are Chthonocephalus tomentellus
Chthonocephalus tomentellus
Chthonocephalus tomentellus is an annual herb in the family Asteraceae. It is endemic to Western Australia, occurring in saline depressions...
, which is rated Priority Two under the Department of Environment and Conservation's Declared Rare and Priority Flora List; Calocephalus aervoides
Calocephalus aervoides
Calocephalus aervoides is a herb in the family Asteraceae. It produces yellow flowers from September to October in its native range....
and Galium migrans
Galium migrans
Galium migrans is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is native to in the Australian states of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland....
, both Priority Three; and Lepidium puberulum
Lepidium puberulum
Lepidium puberulum is an annual herb in the Brassicaceae family, endemic to the west coast of Western Australia. The species has white or green flowers that appear from July to November in its native range.-References:...
, Priority Four.
95 exotic species from 29 families have been recorded. In general, islands that have or had human settlements are the weediest. Of greatest concern is the noxious weed Lycium ferocissimum
Lycium ferocissimum
Lycium ferocissimum is a shrub in the nightshade family . The species is native to Cape Province and Orange Free State in South Africa and has become naturalised in Australia and New Zealand. It is listed on the Noxious Weed List for Australian States and Territories and is a declared noxious weed...
(African Boxthorn), which has long spines that can trap birds. This weed was recorded on the islands as early as 1970. Efforts to eradicate it began in 1990; there was a lull in eradication in the late 1990s, but the program was later reinstated, and in July 2007, the Department of Environment and Conservation reported that the species had been eradicated from 14 of the 18 islands on which it had been recorded. Other noxious weeds include
Opuntia stricta
Opuntia stricta
Opuntia stricta is a species of cactus from southern North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. Common names include Erect Prickly Pear and Nopal Estricto ....
(Prickly Pear), Verbesina encelioides
Verbesina encelioides
Verbesina encelioides is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. The species is native to the United States and Mexico. It is naturalized in the Middle East, Spain, Argentina, Australia and the Pacific islands....
and Echium plantagineum (Paterson's Curse).
Birds
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have 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 environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...
s. Most seabird species have a tropical distribution, but some occur in both tropical and warm-temperate seas, and a small number are warm-temperate only.
When numbers of individuals are taken into account, the tropical birds overwhelmingly dominate. The islands are one of the most important breeding sites for tropical seabirds in Australia and have been identified by BirdLife International
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...
as an 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...
(IBA). They contain by far the largest colonies of Wedge-tailed Shearwater
Wedge-tailed Shearwater
The Wedge-tailed Shearwater, Puffinus pacificus is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It is one of the shearwater species that is sometimes referred to as a Muttonbird, like the Sooty Shearwater of New Zealand and the Short-tailed Shearwater of Australia...
in the eastern Indian Ocean, with over a million breeding pairs recorded there in 1994. They also contain Western Australia's only breeding colonies of the Lesser Noddy
Lesser Noddy
The Lesser Noddy , also known as the Sooty Noddy, is a species of tern in the Sternidae family.It is found in Comoros, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates.- References :...
, and the largest colonies in Western Australia of the Little Shearwater
Little Shearwater
The Little Shearwater is a small shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae.mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data indicates that the former North Atlantic Little Shearwater group is closer to Audubon's Shearwater , and myrtae being closer to the Newell's and possibly Townsend's Shearwater...
, White-faced Storm Petrel, Common Noddy, Caspian Tern
Caspian Tern
The Caspian Tern is a species of tern, with a subcosmopolitan but scattered distribution. Despite its extensive range, it is monotypic of its genus, and has no subspecies accepted either...
, Crested Tern, Roseate Tern
Roseate Tern
The Roseate Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a number of geographical races, differing mainly in bill colour and minor plumage details....
and Fairy Tern
Fairy Tern
The Fairy Tern is a small tern which occurs in the southwestern Pacific.There are three subspecies:* Australian Fairy Tern, Sterna nereis nereis - breeds in Australia...
. In addition, they contain important breeding areas for the Pacific Reef Heron, Pacific Gull
Pacific Gull
The Pacific Gull 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 result of competition from the Kelp Gull, which has "self-introduced" since...
, Bridled Tern
Bridled Tern
The Bridled Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans.-Description:...
, White-bellied Sea Eagle
White-bellied Sea Eagle
The White-bellied Sea Eagle , also known as the White-breasted Sea Eagle, is a large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Originally described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it is closely related to Sanford's Sea Eagle of the Solomon Islands, and the two are considered a superspecies...
and Osprey
Osprey
The Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk or fish eagle, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and across the wings...
.
There are two subspecies of bird endemic to the islands. The Abrolhos Painted Button-quail
Abrolhos Painted Button-quail
The Abrolhos Painted Button-quail is a subspecies of the Painted Buttonquail endemic to the Houtman Abrolhos. It is common on North Island, and also occurs on other islands of the Wallabi Group, namely East Wallabi, West Wallabi, Seagull and Pigeon Islands...
occurs only on five islands in the Wallabi Group, and is protected as rare under the Wildlife Conservation Act 1950
Wildlife Conservation Act 1950
The Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 is an act of the Western Australian Parliament that provides the statute relating to conservation and legal protection of flora and fauna....
. Also gazetted as rare, the Australasian subspecies of the Lesser Noddy, Anous tenuirostris melanops, breeds only on Wooded Island, Morley Island and Pelsaert Island.
Mammals
Tammar Wallaby
The Tammar Wallaby , also known as the Dama Wallaby or Darma Wallaby, is a small member of the kangaroo family and is the model species for research on kangaroos and marsupials. It is found on offshore islands on the South Australian and Western Australian coast...
(Macropus eugenii) and the Bush Rat
Bush Rat
The bush rat is a small Australian nocturnal animal. It is an omnivore. It is one of the most common species of rats and is found in many heathland areas of Victoria and NSW...
(Rattus fuscipes). Both are native only to West and East Wallabi Islands, although R. fuscipes has not been collected on East Wallabi Island since August 1967, and is probably extinct there. The Tammar Wallabi was seen on West Wallabi Island by survivors of the 1628 Batavia shipwreck, and recorded by Francisco Pelsart in his 1629 Ongeluckige Voyagie. This represents the first recorded sighting of a macropod by Europeans, and probably also the first sighting of an Australian mammal. Tammar Wallabies were introduced to North Island from East Wallabi Island by fishermen, probably in the 1950s, but failed to establish. In 1987 they were reintroduced again, this time successfully. By the 2000s, there were over 400 wallabies on the island, resulting in overgrazing of native vegetation and increased erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
. Research into the effectiveness of controlling population levels by the use of implanted contraceptives was begun in 2005, but in July 2007 the research was discontinued and the population culled instead.
Two introduced mammals are established on the islands. The Domestic Cat (Felis silvestris catus) was introduced to Rat Island around 1900, and the House Mouse
House mouse
The house mouse is a small rodent, a mouse, one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus.As a wild animal the house mouse mainly lives associated with humans, causing damage to crops and stored food....
(Mus musculus) was introduced onto North Island in the 1970s, presumably with food. In 1995 the House Mouse was reported as also present on Rat Island for many years before 1987, but a recent report makes no mention of this. In addition, three introduced mammals were previously established in the Houtman Abrolhos, but have since been eradicated. The Black Rat
Black Rat
The black rat is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Murinae . The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and spreading with Europeans across the world.-Taxonomy:The black rat was...
(Rattus rattus) was established on Pigeon and Rat Islands, but has been eradicated by poisoning. The European Rabbit
European Rabbit
The European Rabbit or Common Rabbit is a species of rabbit native to south west Europe and north west Africa . It has been widely introduced elsewhere often with devastating effects on local biodiversity...
(Oryctolagus cuniculus) has been introduced at various times onto Leo Island, Middle Island, Morley Island, Pelsaert Island and Wooded Island. In the case of Pelsaert Island, it is not clear whether it ever established; in all other cases, established populations have been eradicated by poisoning. The Domestic Goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) is also reported to have been present on East Wallabi Island, but is no longer.
Reptiles
Ecological niche
In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other; e.g. a dolphin could potentially be in another ecological niche from one that travels in a different pod if the members of these pods utilize significantly different food...
s. The most significant terrestrial reptile species are the Spiny-tailed Skink (Egernia stokesii stokesii) and the Carpet Python (Morelia spilota imbricata
Morelia spilota imbricata
Morelia spilota imbricata is a large snake found in southern regions of Western Australia and western South Australia. A member of the python family, it is commonly known as the Southern Carpet Python.-Description:...
), both of which are listed as rare and therefore afforded special protection under the Wildlife Conservation Act 1950
Wildlife Conservation Act 1950
The Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 is an act of the Western Australian Parliament that provides the statute relating to conservation and legal protection of flora and fauna....
; and the Abrolhos Dwarf Bearded Dragon (Pogona minor minima
Pogona minor minima
Pogona minor minima is an agamid lizard found only on islands at Houtman Abrolhos, and commonly named for this location; the Abrolhos Bearded Dragon. It is closely related to other Bearded dragons found in Western Australia....
), a Houtman Abrolhos endemic that is listed as a Priority 4 species by the Department of Environment and Conservation. For a full list of species, see list of reptiles of the Houtman Abrolhos.
Amphibians
Specimens of the Pobblebonk (Limnodynastes dorsalisLimnodynastes dorsalis
Limnodynastes dorsalis is a frog species from the family Myobatrachidae. The informal names for this species are Western Banjo Frog, Pobblebonk, Sand frog and Bullfrog. It is one of the endemic amphibians of Western Australia....
) and the Turtle Frog (Myobatrachus gouldii) were collected from the Houtman Abrolhos during the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition of 1913 and 1915, but no amphibians have been recorded on the islands since that time.
Algae
260 species of benthic algaeAlgae
Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...
have been recorded at the Houtman Abrolhos. This figure comprises 178 species of red algae
Red algae
The red algae are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae, and also one of the largest, with about 5,000–6,000 species of mostly multicellular, marine algae, including many notable seaweeds...
(Rhodophyta), 50 species of brown algae
Brown algae
The Phaeophyceae or brown algae , is a large group of mostly marine multicellular algae, including many seaweeds of colder Northern Hemisphere waters. They play an important role in marine environments, both as food and for the habitats they form...
(Phaeophyta) and 32 species of green algae
Green algae
The green algae are the large group of algae from which the embryophytes emerged. As such, they form a paraphyletic group, although the group including both green algae and embryophytes is monophyletic...
(Chlorophyta). Both temperate and tropical species are present, in many cases near the northern or southern extent of their range. For a full list, see list of algae of the Houtman Abrolhos.
Seagrass
Only ten species of seagrass have been recorded at the Houtman Abrolhos. Seven of these are temperate species at or near the northern limit of their range; the other three have a tropical distribution. That there are so few tropical species may be due to periods of low sea temperatures, or the small areas of suitable habitat at the Abrolhos; alternatively it may be that more collecting effort is needed in habitats that suit tropical species. The seagrass species recorded at the Houtman Abrolhos islands are:
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Posidonia australis Posidonia australis is a species of seagrass that occurs in the southern waters of Australia. It is sometimes referred to as Fibreball Weed. The marine plant forms large meadows that are considered to be of high importance to the environmental conservation of the region... Posidonia coriacea Posidonia coriacea is a species of seagrass that occurs in the southern waters of Australia.-Description:A species of Posidonia. A perennial rhizomatous herb that appears as stands in marine habitat. This species is found at depths from 1 to 30 metres on white sands, in areas subject to intense... |
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Fish
- Pomacentrus milleri (Miller's Damsel)
- Scarus schlegeli (Schlegel's Parrotfish)
- Stethojulis strigiventer (Stripebelly Wrasse)
- Coris auricularis (Western King Wrasse)
- Kyphosus cornelii (Western Buffalo Bream)
- Choerodon rubescens (Baldchin Groper)
- Chromis westaustralis (West Australian Puller)
- Thalassoma lutescensThalassoma lutescensThalassoma lutescens is a Wrasse from the Indo-Pacific. It occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade. It grows to a size of 30 cm in length....
(Green Moon Wrasse) - Scarus ghobban (Blue-barred Orange Parrotfish)
- Abudefduf sexfasciatus (Scissortail Sergeant)
- Thalassoma lunare (Moon Wrasse)
- Stegastes obreptus (Western Gregory)
- Halichoeres brownfieldi (Brownfield's Wrasse)
- Amblygobius phalaenaAmblygobius phalaenaAmblygobius phalaena is a Goby from the Pacific Ocean. It occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade. It grows to a size of 15 cm in length....
(White-barred Goby) - Asterropteryx semipunctatus (Starry Goby)
- Anampses geographicus (Scribbled Wrasse)
Commercially important species include Pagrus auratus (Pink Snapper), Choerodon rubescens (Baldchin Groper), Glaucosoma hebraicum
Glaucosoma hebraicum
Glaucosoma hebraicum is a species of fish, informally known as the West Australian dhufish. The local name for the species is jewfish or pearl perch, and regarded as good eating. The distribution is from Shark Bay, Western Australia to the Archipelago of the Recherche.The pearlescent, silver-grey,...
(Westralian Dhufish) and Plectropomus leopardus (Coral Trout). For a complete list of fish species recorded at the Houtman Abrolhos, see list of fishes of the Houtman Abrolhos.
About two thirds of the total number of species are tropical in distribution, the remainder being subtropical or warm-temperate. This ratio also holds for the most abundant species, eleven of the sixteen species being tropical. On the other hand, over 70% of tropical species occur in extremely low numbers, so low in fact that they are thought not to maintain breeding populations at the Abrolhos; rather, populations are maintained by larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e carried to the islands by the Leeuwin Current from populations further north.
Marine mammals
The Houtman Abrolhos maintains a breeding population of Australian Sea LionAustralian Sea Lion
The Australian Sea Lion , also known as the Australian Sea-lion or Australian Sealion, is a species of sea lion that breeds only on the south and west coasts of Australia...
s (Neophoca cinerea), probably numbering between 75 and 100. Historical data suggests numbers were previously much higher; for example, in 1727 survivors of the Zeewyk shipwreck killed over 150 sea lions in the Southern Group alone. This has led to a 1727 population estimate of between 290 and 580 animals for the entire Houtman Abrolhos. Populations apparently fell dramatically between the 1840s and the 1880s, largely due to extensive commercial sealing
Seal hunting
Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. The hunt is currently practiced in five countries: Canada, where most of the world's seal hunting takes place, Namibia, the Danish region of Greenland, Norway and Russia...
in the area. In addition to direct killing of the animals, it is likely that much of the mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
habitat on the islands was cleared as fuel for trypots, and this may have affected the survival of young pups. Populations are thought to have been fairly stable for the last fifty years, although the lack of genetic diversity in the smaller population remains of concern, as does climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
.
Sea lions come ashore to rest on leeward beaches throughout the island chain, but only a small number of these "haulout sites" are used for breeding. Breeding has been observed on Serventy Island, Gilbert Island, Alexander Island
Alexander Island (Houtman Abrolhos)
Alexander Island is one of the five largest islands in the Easter Group of the Houtman Abrolhos. It is nominally located at The island is part of the Houtman Abrolhos Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for supporting large numbers of...
, Suomi Island, Keru Island, Square Island, Stick Island, Gibson Island, Gun Island
Gun Island
Gun Island is one of the larger islands in the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos. It is nominally located at , about 4 km north and east of Half Moon Reef and is a flat limestone outcrop of about by in size...
, Morley Island and Wooded Island. All but the last three of these are considered current breeding sites, and are therefore considered by the Department of Fisheries to have a high conservation value.
Little information is available on other marine mammals at the Abrolhos, as no direct research on this subject has been undertaken. Sightings of the Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale
The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...
(Megaptera novaeangliae) are common between April and October, when the whales are migrating. Other marine mammals sometimes sighted at the islands include Pygmy Bryde's Whale (Balaenoptera edeni), Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Recent molecular studies show the genus contains two species, the common bottlenose dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin , instead of one...
(Tursiops aduncus) and Striped Dolphin
Striped Dolphin
The Striped Dolphin is an extensively studied dolphin that is found in temperate and tropical waters of all the world's oceans.-Taxonomy:...
(Stenella coeruleoalba).
Marine reptiles
The Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) and the Loggerhead Turtle (Caretta caretta) both live in the waters off the Houtman Abrolhos, albeit in low numbers. Neither species breeds in the area, as water temperatures are too low.Coral
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The coral reef community at the Houtman Abrolhos is unusual in having tropical coral growing alongside and in direct competition with, temperate seaweed
Seaweed
Seaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...
. As a result of this competition for light, space and nutrients, coral at the Houtman Abrolhos tends to grow more slowly and die younger than is usual. Reef production is to a large extent due to the production of carbon by coralline algae
Coralline algae
Coralline algae are red algae in the order Corallinales. They are characterized by a thallus that is hard because of calcareous deposits contained within the cell walls...
rather than by coral.
Crustaceans
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Crustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
at the Houtman Abrolhos is the Western Rock Lobster
Western rock lobster
Panulirus cygnus is a species of spiny lobster , found off the west coast of Australia. Panulirus cygnus is the basis of Australia's most valuable fishery, making up 20% of value of Australia's total fishing industry, and is identified as the western rock lobster.-Description:The species has five...
(Panulirus cygnus). 44 species of crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
and 9 species of amphipod were recorded there by the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition of 1916.
Molluscs
492 species of marine mollusc have been recorded from the shallow waters of the Houtman Abrolhos. These are predominantly gastropods (346 species, 70%) and bivalves (124, 25%); the remaining 5% of species consist of cephalopodCephalopod
A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda . These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head, and a set of arms or tentacles modified from the primitive molluscan foot...
s (14 species), chiton
Chiton
Chitons are small to large, primitive marine molluscs in the class Polyplacophora.There are 900 to 1,000 extant species of chitons in the class, which was formerly known as Amphineura....
s (5 species) and scaphopods (3 species). About two thirds of the species have a tropical distribution, temperate species account for 20%, and the remaining 11% are endemic to Western Australia. For a full list, see List of molluscs of the Houtman Abrolhos.
The Southern Saucer Scallop (Amusium balloti) is the only commercially important species. This occurs in sheltered areas of medium-fine sand in deep water to the north-east of the reefs; it is usually the dominant species there.
Echinoderms
Houtman Abrolhos has an extremely high diversity of echinoderms, with 172 species having been recorded there. 63% of these are tropical species, 14% are temperate, and 22% are endemic to Western Australia. None is endemic to the Houtman Abrolhos. Published surveys have not included observations of the crown-of-thorns starfishCrown-of-thorns starfish
The crown-of-thorns starfish is a large nocturnal sea star that preys upon coral polyps. The crown-of-thorns receives its name from venomous thorn-like spines that cover its body. It is endemic to tropical coral reefs in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean...
(Ananthaster planci), but individuals have occasionally been observed there. For a complete list of species, see list of echinoderms of the Houtman Abrolhos.
Other invertebrates
The sponges of the Houtman Abrolhos are poorly studied, although 109 species of demospongeDemosponge
The Demospongiae are the largest class in the phylum Porifera. Their "skeletons" are made of spicules consisting of fibers of the protein spongin, the mineral silica, or both. Where spicules of silica are present, they have a different shape from those in the otherwise similar glass sponges...
have been collected there. In the most recent survey, 77 species were collected, of which around half are probably new to science. Only two locations were surveyed in this study, however, so this figure is likely to represent only a small proportion of the total sponge fauna of the Houtman Abrolhos; the islands are therefore thought to harbour an extremely rich diversity of sponges. A preliminary assessment suggested that there were more temperate species than tropical, which stands in marked contrast to most other groups.
The marine worm
Marine worm
Any worm that lives in a marine environment is considered a marine worm. Marine worms are found in several different phyla, including the Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida , Chaetognatha, Hemichordata, and Phoronida....
s identified at the Houtman Abrolhos include 22 species of the polychaete
Polychaete
The Polychaeta or polychaetes are a class of annelid worms, generally marine. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin. Indeed, polychaetes are sometimes referred to as bristle worms. More than 10,000...
family Terebellidae
Terebellidae
Terebellidae is a family of polychaete worms. They are surface deposit feeders, catching falling particles with numerous elongate prostomial tentacles splayed out on the sea floor. These tentacles, which are the most or only normally visible portion of the animal and are reminiscent of spaghetti,...
, and 16 species of the family oligochaete family Tubificidae
Tubificidae
The Naididae are a family of clitellate oligochaete worms like the sludge worm, Tubifex tubifex. They are key components of the benthic communities of many freshwater and marine ecosystems....
. For a list of species, see list of worms of the Houtman Abrolhos.
A total of 38 hydroid
Hydroid
-Marine biology:Hydroids are a life stage for most animals of class Hydrozoa, small predators related to jellyfish.-Botany:In mosses, hydroids form the innermost layer of the stem of long, colourless, thin walled cells of small diameter.The cells are dead and lack protoplasm.They function as water...
species have been collected at the Houtman Abrolhos. 34 of these are leptothecates, the remainder being anthoathecates. 92% of the species attach to temperate algae, the others to coral rubble. For a list of species, see list of hydroids of the Houtman Abrolhos.
Fishing and other visitors
Fresh water has always been a significant constraint on any permanent settlement. Aside from the early castaways noted above, the Islands have only had a small seasonal population of fishermen. The present fishermen all have permanent residence elsewhere, mainly in Geraldton, but their island shacks are used as a base during the season. For example, North Island has a seasonal camp for Western Rock Lobster fishers, with individual moorings and simple dwellings. During lobster season, which runs from 15 March to 30 June, the island hosts up to 130 people. The camp is serviced by a carrier boat, the North Islander, which visits the island every three days, bringing supplies and taking out the catch and any domestic waste.Tourists are not allowed to camp, and the conservation designation of the Island group forbids any real expansion in human occupation.
Western rock lobster
The islands are the centre of the Western Rock LobsterWestern rock lobster
Panulirus cygnus is a species of spiny lobster , found off the west coast of Australia. Panulirus cygnus is the basis of Australia's most valuable fishery, making up 20% of value of Australia's total fishing industry, and is identified as the western rock lobster.-Description:The species has five...
fishery, the largest single-species fishery in Western Australia.
Saucer scallops
After Shark Bay, the Houtman Abrolhos supports Western Australia's second largest saucer scallop fishery. This fishery is managed under the Abrolhos Islands and Mid West Trawl Limited Entry Fishery Notice 1993. Only 17 licences have been issued, and no more will be made available, as the saucer scallop is considered fully exploited. Licensees are constrained to operate only during scallop season, which generally runs from 1 April to 30 June, and are also subject to restrictions on gear design, boat size and crew numbers.Scallop fishers mainly operate east of the Houtman Abrolhos and between the island groups, in waters deeper than 30 metres. Activity is targeted at sheltered areas of bare sand, where scallops tend to settle. Catches vary greatly from year to year; from 2001 to 2003, for example, the total annual catch totalled 1182 tons, 195 tons and 5840 tons (whole weight) respectively. This variability is apparently related to the strength of the Leeuwin Current, as strong current is correlated with low scallop recruitment.
The total value of the fishery in 2003 was A$19.6 million, although this figure includes a small prawn fishery operating out of Port Gregory. Most of the catch is frozen and exported to Asia.
Aquaculture
The Department of Fisheries have issued a number of licences to cultivate black-lip pearl oysters in the Abrolhos. The first recipient of a license was Abrolhos Pearls in 1996. By 2000, another license had been issued and four more applications had been received. A year later, there were 10 square kilometres licensed for the culture of pearl oysters in the Abrolhos, of which about 21% was actually in use, carrying over 210,000 shell. Six licences had been issued by 2002, and by 2007 that number had grown to eight.95% of the pearl
Pearl
A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...
aquaculture
Aquaculture
Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...
is carried out in the Pelsaert Group. Most licenses are over areas of sand, but some areas contain small amounts of coral reef. The colour of the pearls produced is quite different to that of Pacific black pearls, and this is considered a potential marketing tool.
In addition to pearl aquaculture, a pilot sea cage finfish farm was licensed in 2004, although as of 2007 the license had not been exercised. Interest has also been expressed in the culture of live rock
Live rock
Live rock is rock from the ocean that has been introduced into a saltwater aquarium. Along with live sand, it confers to the closed marine system multiple benefits desired by the saltwater aquarium hobbyist...
and coral for the aquarium
Aquarium
An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...
industry. The Department of Fisheries has identified a number of species as having potential for aquaculture in the Abrolhos, including the Shark Bay pearl oyster (Pinctada albina
Pinctada albina
Pinctada albina is a species of Pearl oyster, known as the sharks bay shell. Another common name is the Arafura shell. It is called the "Amami gai" in Japan.-Pinctada:...
), the maxima clam
Maxima clam
The maxima clam , also known as the small giant clam, is a species of bivalve found throughout the Indo-Pacific. They are much sought after in the aquarium trade, as their often striking coloration mimics that of the true giant clam, however the maximas maintain a manageable size, with the shells...
(Tridacna maxima), rock oyster
Rock oyster
Rock oysters are true oysters of the genus Saccostrea. The best known species of rock oyster is the Sydney rock oyster .- Species :* Saccostrea** Saccostrea cuccullata...
s (Saccostrea sp.), the saucer scallop (Amusium balloti), the western rock lobster, and a number of species of finfish, most of which are filter feeder
Filter feeder
Filter feeders are animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized filtering structure. Some animals that use this method of feeding are clams, krill, sponges, baleen whales, and many fish and some sharks. Some birds,...
s.
Mineral exploration
Petroleum explorationOil exploration
Hydrocarbon exploration is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for hydrocarbon deposits beneath the Earth's surface, such as oil and natural gas...
wells were drilled in Abrolhos waters in the 1960s and 1970s, but were capped and abandoned. The Abrolhos was amongst the areas released for further exploration in 2002.
Recreation
Snorkeling
Snorkeling is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a wetsuit may also be worn...
, diving
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...
and deep sea fishing in the world, along with some of Australia's most significant historical sights, such as the shipwreck
Shipwreck
A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
of the Batavia
Batavia (ship)
Batavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company . It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors...
.
Although an important tourist destination, the tourists are not allowed to stay overnight.
Cultural references
The majority of cultural references to the Houtman Abrolhos relate to the islands' shipwrecks, particularly the Batavia. The events surrounding the loss of the Batavia is one of the most celebrated episodes in Australian popular history; in the words of Henrietta Drake-BrockmanHenrietta Drake-Brockman
-Early life:Henrietta Frances York Drake-Brockman was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1901. She was educated in Scotland, the land of her mother, and at Frensham School]Frensham school for girls in Mittagong. She studied literature at the University of Western Australia and art in Henri Van...
:The story has spawned a massive body of literature, both fiction and non-fiction, as well as numerous works in other media.
Other shipwrecks, notably the Zeewijk, have also become the subject of books and other works. Shipwrecks aside, however, cultural references to the Houtman Abrolhos are rare. By far the best known book on the Houtman Abrolhos itself is Malcolm Uren
Malcolm Uren
Malcolm John Leggoe Uren was an Australian journalist who edited the Western Mail in Western Australia.-Early life:Uren was born on 7 January 1900 in West Hindmarsh, an inner-city suburb in Adelaide, South Australia to Malcolm Francis Uren and Millicent Jane Leggoe. The Uren family then moved to...
's Sailormen's ghosts: The Abrolhos islands in three hundred years of romance, history, and adventure. First published in 1940, this book saw numerous editions published in the 1940s, and was even republished in 1980 as a "West Australian classic". In it, Uren tells both the history of the islands and the story of his own visit to the islands.
Other books include William Bede Christie's 1909 Christmas on the briny: the innocents abroad, or, a holiday trip to the Abrolhos islands, and Alison Louise Wright's 1998 Abrolhos Islands Conversations. The latter, a book of interviews and portraits of the people of the Abrolhos, won the Special Award in the 1999 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards
Western Australian Premier's Book Awards
The Western Australian Premier's Book Awards is an award for books, scripts, digital narrative and a People's Choice. Awards are provided by the Government of Western Australia, and the awards process is managed by the State Library of Western Australia...
.
The islands featured in the first episode of Surfing the Menu, an eight-part food and travel series produced for the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
in 2003., and the following year were featured on Getaway
Getaway
Getaway is Australia's longest-running and most popular holiday and travel television programme. Debuting on 14 May 1992, it is currently broadcast on the Nine Network and TLC...
, Australia's longest-running and most popular holiday and travel television programme. They were the subject of a motion picture entitled Eye opener, published by The Film Centre WA in 1981, and of a piece of classical music entitled Abrolhos: A ceremonial overture, written by William Stewart in 1988 under commission to the Geraldton Town Council.
Further reading
- Collins, Lindsay. (1991) The Abrolhos coral reefs – history and present management. Curtin gazette, Mar 1991, p. 5–11
- Myra Stanbury et al. (2000) Abrolhos Islands archaeological sites : interim report, Fremantle, W.A. Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology. Special publication no. 5. ISBN 1-876465-12-3
External links
- Inventory of the Land Conservation Values of the Houtman Abrolhos
- Long Island Tourism Development, Abrolhos Islands
- Abrolhos Islands Visitors Guide