Tenth Island

Tenth Island
Nickname: Barrenjoey
Tenth Island

Location of Tenth Island off the coast of Tasmania

Geography
Location Bass Strait
Coordinates 40°56′S 146°59′E / 40.933°S 146.983°E / -40.933; 146.983Coordinates: 40°56′S 146°59′E / 40.933°S 146.983°E / -40.933; 146.983
Archipelago Waterhouse Island Group
Area 900 m2 (9,700 sq ft)
Administration
Australia
State Tasmania
Demographics
Population uninhabited

The Tenth Island, sometimes called Barrenjoey, part of the Waterhouse Island Group, is a 900-square-metre (9,700 sq ft) uninhabited granite islet and nature reserve, situated in Bass Strait, lying close to the north-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The islet has no vegetation and much of it is wave-washed in winter storms.[1]

Other islands in the Waterhouse Group include Ninth, Maclean, Waterhouse, Little Waterhouse, Baynes, St Helens, Foster, Swan, Little Swan, Cygnet and Paddys islands and Bird Rock and George Rocks islets.[1]

Fauna and marine life

Australian fur seal colony on rocks
The island is important as a breeding site for Australian fur seals.

The island is home to a significant breeding colony of Australian fur seals, with up to 400 pups born each year, though many drown in storms. black-faced cormorants also breed on the island and little penguins roost there.[1][2]

In the waters surrounding Tenth Island, Therese Cartwright, aged 35 years and a mother of five children, was killed as a result of a human shark attack fatality on 5 June 1993 when a reportedly 5-metre (16 ft) long great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) attacked Cartwright while she was scuba diving at the seal colony.[3][4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart. ISBN 0-7246-4816-X
  2. ↑ "Small Bass Strait Island Reserves. Draft Management Plan". Department of Primary Industries,Water and Environment. Tasmanian Government. October 2000. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
  3. ↑ World Shark Attack Database: Fatal Shark Attack, Cartwright
  4. ↑ "Tassie's history of sharks". The Mercury. Hobart. 12 January 2009.
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