English Island (South Australia)

English Island is an island off the coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. It is a part of the Sir Joseph Banks Group and close to Sibsey Island. The island is most notable for its large colony of sea lions, and for a secession movement started by the eccentric and self-styled "Sir Ralph Styles of English Island" in 1954.[1]

English Island
English Island
Geography
ArchipelagoSir Joseph Banks Group
Adjacent bodies of waterSpencer Gulf
Administration
Australia

Flora and fauna

The island is part of the Sir Joseph Banks Group Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance as a breeding site for seabirds and for Cape Barren geese.[2] It first obtained protected area status as a fauna conservation reserve declared under the Crown Lands Act 1929-1966 on 16 March 1967.[1]

In 1926, English Island was described as "teeming" with seals and thousands of breeding cormorants. Each nest contained one, two or three pale greenish eggs.[3] Australian sealions were observed on English Island in 1935[4] and 1937.[5]

References
  1. "Crown Lands Act, 1929-1966: Fauna Conservation Reserves Dedicated" (PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South Australia. 16 March 1967. pp. 961–962. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  2. "IBA: Sir Joseph Banks Islands". Birdata. Birds Australia. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  3. "ANOTHER HOLIDAY CRUISE". Saturday Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1929). 27 February 1926. p. 5. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  4. "Seeing The Islands Of the S.A. Coast". Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954). 13 April 1935. p. 9. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  5. "SIR JOSEPH BANKS ISLANDS". Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938). 10 March 1937. p. 41. Retrieved 22 June 2020.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.