Boullanger Island lies off the coast of Western Australia and covers an area of about 35 hectares. The nearest settlement is the mainland town of Jurien Bay.

The island is part of the Jurien Bay Marine Park

Jurien Bay Marine Park

The Jurien Bay Marine Park was formally declared on 31 August 2003 and is located 200 to 300 kilometres north of Perth along the newly opened Indian Ocean Drive that extends south from Green Head to the Southern boundary of Nambung National Park; it includes many of the islands located in this...

 which was declared in August 2003: it is located 200 to 300 kilometres north of 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....

 along the newly opened Indian Ocean Drive and extends south from Green Head

Green Head, Western Australia

Green Head is a small coastal town in the Shire of Coorow. The town is situated between Geraldton and Perth in the Mid West region of Western Australia....

 to the Southern boundary of Nambung National Park

Nambung National Park

Nambung National Park is a national park in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia , 162 km northwest of Perth. It contains the Pinnacles Desert....

, encompassing many of the islands located in this region. The Park protects an important section of Western Australia’s central west coast including Boullanger, Whitlock and Escape islands off Jurien Bay in Western Australia.

Both Boullanger Island and Jurien Bay were named on 1 July 1801 by the French expedition led by Captain Nicolas Baudin

Nicolas Baudin

Nicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a commoner in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...

 aboard the Géographe. The name Boullanger Island honouring the cartographer on the expedition, Charles-Pierre Boullanger

Charles-Pierre Boullanger

Charles-Pierre Boullanger was a French geographer who served on Nicolas Baudin’s scientific expedition to the South Seas from 1800 to 1803. He was a midshipman cartographer and hydrographic engineer on the survey vessel Le Géographe with the sister ship Naturaliste...

 and Jurien Bay Charles Marie Vicomte Jurien (1763-1836) a French naval administrator.

Fauna & flora

The island is inhabited by an endemic species of marsupial

Marsupial

Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by giving birth to relatively undeveloped young. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, with the remaining 100 found in the Americas, primarily in South America, but with thirteen in Central...

 mouse, Sminthopsis boullangerensis, the Boullanger Island Dunnart

Boullanger Island Dunnart

The Boullanger Island Dunnart is a species of dunnart found only on Boullanger Island, Western Australia. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the Grey-bellied Dunnart , for which reason it was not assessed by the IUCN in 2008...

. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the Grey-bellied Dunnart (S. griseoventer), for which reason it was not assessed by the IUCN in 2008 (although it was classed as critically endangered

Critically endangered

Version 2010.3 of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 3744 Critically Endangered species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and subpopulations.Critically Endangered by kingdom:*1993 Animalia*2 Fungi*1745 Plantae*4 Protista-References:...

 in the 1996 list). The EPBC Act classifies the Boullanger Island Dunnart as vulnerable

Vulnerable species

On 30 January 2010, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 9694 Vulnerable species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and sub-populations.-References:...

.