The Wallabi Group is the northern-most group of islands in the Houtman Abrolhos

Houtman Abrolhos

The Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. Nominally located at , it lies about eighty kilometres west of Geraldton, Western Australia...

. Nominally located at 28°28′S 113°42′E, it is 58 kilometres from the 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...

n mainland, and about 9 kilometres from the 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....

.

The group consists of a number of islands arising from a 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...

 17 kilometres long and up to 10 kilometres wide, and also 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 of the main platform. The main islands are 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...

, 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...

, Long Island and Beacon Island. The group is part of the Houtman Abrolhos 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...

, identified as such 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...

 because of its importance for supporting large numbers of breeding seabirds.

The Wallabi Group is best known for 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...

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 massacres 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. Another wreck for which a location is known is the Hadda, which was wrecked off Beacon Island in April 1877 and now lies about a kilometre north of it.

Components of the island group

• Acute Bank
  Acute Bank
  Acute Bank is a bank in the Geelvink Channel east of South Passage in the Houtman Abrolhos, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. It is nominally located at ....
  
  
• Assail Bank
  Assail Bank
  Assail Bank is a bank in South Passage of the Houtman Abrolhos, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. It is nominally located at ....
  
  
• Beacon Island
• East Wallabi Island
• Long Island
• North Island
• North East Reef
  North East Reef
  North East Reef is a reef in the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. Located at , it takes its name from the fact that it is situated to the north-east of the main body of islands that makes up the Wallabi Group...
  
  
• Pigeon Island (Houtman Abrolhos)
  Pigeon Island (Houtman Abrolhos)
  Pigeon Island is a small island located need the middle of the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, an archipelago off the coast of Western Australia. It is almost entirely given over to Western Rock Lobster fishers' camps, and as a result is far more disturbed than most other islands in the...
  
  
• Shag Rock (Houtman Abrolhos)
  Shag Rock (Houtman Abrolhos)
  -Geography:It is located at , about east of West Wallabi Island. Its nearest neighbour is Plover Island, about away. The island has an area of about , and a maximum elevation of . It is uninhabitated, and devoid of human infrastructure....
  
  
• South Passage (Houtman Abrolhos)
  South Passage (Houtman Abrolhos)
  South Passage is a 14 kilometre wide strait that separates the outlying North Island from other islands in the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos island chain, in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. It is nominally located at ....
  
  
• Suda Bay Passage
  Suda Bay Passage
  Suda Bay Passage is a channel through reef just north of North Island in the Houtman Abrolhos. Located at , it is named after the Suda Bay, which was used for lobster fishing around North Island in the late 1940s....
  
  
• The Flat
  The Flat
  The Flat is an anchorage just north of North Island in the Houtman Abrolhos.It is located at ,...
  
  
• Traitors Island
  Traitors Island
  Traitors Island is an uninhabited island off the western coast of Australia, near the site of the Batavia shipwreck. About 50 metres long, it is situated near Beacon Island and is part of the Wallabi Group within the Houtman Abrolhos.-History:...
  
  
• West Wallabi Island