Campbell Island, New Zealand
Encyclopedia
Campbell Island is a remote, subantarctic
island
of New Zealand
and the main island of the Campbell Island group
. It covers 112.68 square kilometres (43.5 sq mi) of the group's 113.31 square kilometres (43.7 sq mi), and is surrounded by numerous stacks
, rocks
and islets like Dent Island
, Folly Island
(or Folly Islands), Isle de Jeanette Marie, and Jacquemart Island
, the latter being the southernmost extremity of New Zealand. The Island is mountainous, rising to over 500 metres (1,640 ft) in the south. A long fjord
, Perseverance Harbour
, nearly bisects it, opening out to sea on the east coast.
Campbell Island is inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list together with the other subantarctic New Zealand islands in the region as follows: 877-005 Campbell Island S52.33 E169.09 11331 Ha 1998
The island holds the distinction of being the most remote location (on a significant piece of land) from London, England
.
of the sealing
brig
Perseverance, which was owned by shipowner Robert Campbell
's Sydney-based company Campbell & Co. (whence the island's name). It became a seal
hunting base, and the seal population was almost totally eradicated.
On the 4th of November 1810 the island's discoverer Captain Hasselborough (or "Hasselburgh" or "Hasselburg"; there are several spellings), who had returned from Sydney, was drowned in Perseverance Harbour
, together with Elizabeth Farr, a young woman born at Norfolk Island
, and a twelve or thirteen year old Sydney boy George Allwright.
The first sealing boom was over by the mid teens of the 19th century. The second was a brief revival in the 1820s. The whaling boom extended here in the 1830s and 40s. In 1874 the island was visited by a French scientific expedition intending to view the Transit of Venus
. Much of the island's topography is named after aspects of, or people connected with, the expedition. In the late 19th century the island became a pastoral lease. Sheep farming
was undertaken from 1896 until the lease, with the sheep and a small herd of cattle, was abandoned in 1931 as a casualty of the Great Depression
.
In 1907 a group of scientists spent 8 days on the Island group surveying. The 1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition
conducted a magnetic survey and also took botanical, zoological and geological specimens.
During World War II
a coastwatching
station was operative at Tucker Cove at the north shore of Perseverance Harbour as part of the Cape Expedition
program. After the war the facilities were used as a meteorological station until 1958, when a new one was established at Beeman Cove, just a few hundred metres further east.
A notable incident occurred in April 1992. A group of meteorological staff (New Zealand) were swimming when one of them was attacked and partly eaten by a Great White Shark
. Jacinda Amey, one of the workers, swam back to rescue him while the shark was still in the area. She towed him to the shore where first aid was applied. He was rescued by a helicopter flying from Taupo which was guided by a twin engine plane with Sat Nav, which was and still is the longest ever single engine helicopter rescue in the world. The victim survived and Ms Amey was awarded the New Zealand Cross
- New Zealand's highest bravery medal for civilians. The station was manned permanently until 1995 when a fully automatic station was established. Today, human presence is limited to periodic visits by research and conservation expeditions.
cause.
Her character was inspired by Elizabeth Farr. Farr was probably what would now be called a "ship girl" but the presence of a European woman at this remote place, and her death, gave rise to The Lady of the Heather story.
The accident happened when William Tucker
was present on the Aurora. Tucker was another unusual character in the sealing era who became the source of a legend and a novel. The remoteness and striking appearance of the sealing grounds, whether on mainland New Zealand or the subantarctic islands, and the sealing era's early place in Australasia's European history, supply the elements for romance and legend which are generally absent in the area's colonial history.
. The feral Campbell Island Cattle
were eliminated by about 1984. The feral Campbell Island Sheep
were culled during the 1970s and 1980s, with their eventual extermination in 1992. In 2001 Brown Rat
s (Norway rats) were eradicated from the island nearly 200 years after their introduction. This was the world's largest rat eradication. The island's rat-free status was confirmed in 2003. Since the eradication, vegetation and invertebrates have been recovering, seabirds have been returning and the Campbell Teal, the world's rarest duck, has been reintroduced. http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/wetland-birds/subantarctic-teal/docs-work/ Other native landbirds include the New Zealand Pipit and the Campbell Snipe, a race or species of the Coenocorypha
snipes only discovered in 1997. The snipe had survived on Jacquemart Island and began recolonising the main island after the rats had been removed.
Some Southern Right Whale
s come into bays in the winter to calve.
The area is one of five subantarctic island groups designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Subantarctic
The Subantarctic is a region in the southern hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° – 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands in the southern parts of the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and...
island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and the main island of the Campbell Island group
Campbell Island group
The Campbell Island group is a group of subantarctic islands, belonging to New Zealand. The group has a total area of , consisting of one big island, Campbell Island , and several small islets, notably Dent Island , Isle de Jeanette Marie , Jacquemart Island , and Monowai Island 1...
. It covers 112.68 square kilometres (43.5 sq mi) of the group's 113.31 square kilometres (43.7 sq mi), and is surrounded by numerous stacks
Stack (geology)
A stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, isolated by erosion. Stacks are formed through processes of coastal geomorphology, which are entirely natural. Time, wind and water are the only factors involved in the...
, rocks
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
and islets like Dent Island
Dent Island, New Zealand
Dent Island is a subantarctic rock stack, lying 3 km west of Campbell Island and belonging to the Campbell Island group. Dent Island is located at ....
, Folly Island
Folly Island, New Zealand
Folly Island or the Folly Islands is a subantarctic island located in New Zealand's Campbell Island group.In a survey of the island in 1976, it was found to have rats and "possibly the only pristine stand of...
(or Folly Islands), Isle de Jeanette Marie, and Jacquemart Island
Jacquemart Island
Jacquemart Island, one of the islets surrounding Campbell Island in New Zealand, lies south of Campbell Island and is the southernmost island of New Zealand....
, the latter being the southernmost extremity of New Zealand. The Island is mountainous, rising to over 500 metres (1,640 ft) in the south. A long fjord
Fjord
Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...
, Perseverance Harbour
Perseverance Harbour
Perseverance Harbour, also known as South harbour, is a large indentation in the coast of Campbell Island, one of New Zealand's subantarctic outlying islands. The harbour is a long lateral fissure which reaches the ocean in the island's southeast, and is overlooked by the island's highest point,...
, nearly bisects it, opening out to sea on the east coast.
Campbell Island is inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list together with the other subantarctic New Zealand islands in the region as follows: 877-005 Campbell Island S52.33 E169.09 11331 Ha 1998
The island holds the distinction of being the most remote location (on a significant piece of land) from London, England
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Climate
Campbell Island has a maritime tundra climate with consistently cool, cloudy, wet and windy weather. The island receives only 650 hours of bright sunshine annually and it can expect less than an hour's sunshine on 215 days (59%) of the year. The peaks of the island are frequently obscured by cloud. It has an annual rainfall of 1450 millimetres (57.1 in), with rain, mainly light showers or drizzle, falling on an average of 325 days a year. It is a windy place, with gusts of over 96 km/h (49 kn; 59.7 mph) occurring on at least 100 days each year. Variations in daily and annual temperatures are small with a mean annual temperature of 6 °C (42.8 °F), rarely rising above 12 °C (53.6 °F).History
Campbell Island was discovered in 1810 by Captain Frederick HasselboroughFrederick Hasselborough
Frederick Hasselborough polar explorer , whose surname is also spelled Hasselburgh and Hasselburg, was an Australian sealer from Sydney who discovered Campbell and Macquarie Islands .-References:...
of the 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...
brig
Brig
A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
Perseverance, which was owned by shipowner Robert Campbell
Robert Campbell (1769–1846)
Robert Campbell was a pioneering and leading merchant in Sydney, a land-owner, a pastoralist, a philanthropist, and a politician being a member of the first New South Wales Legislative Council...
's Sydney-based company Campbell & Co. (whence the island's name). It became a seal
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
hunting base, and the seal population was almost totally eradicated.
On the 4th of November 1810 the island's discoverer Captain Hasselborough (or "Hasselburgh" or "Hasselburg"; there are several spellings), who had returned from Sydney, was drowned in Perseverance Harbour
Perseverance Harbour
Perseverance Harbour, also known as South harbour, is a large indentation in the coast of Campbell Island, one of New Zealand's subantarctic outlying islands. The harbour is a long lateral fissure which reaches the ocean in the island's southeast, and is overlooked by the island's highest point,...
, together with Elizabeth Farr, a young woman born at Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...
, and a twelve or thirteen year old Sydney boy George Allwright.
The first sealing boom was over by the mid teens of the 19th century. The second was a brief revival in the 1820s. The whaling boom extended here in the 1830s and 40s. In 1874 the island was visited by a French scientific expedition intending to view the Transit of Venus
Transit of Venus
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun...
. Much of the island's topography is named after aspects of, or people connected with, the expedition. In the late 19th century the island became a pastoral lease. Sheep farming
Sheep husbandry
Sheep husbandry is a subcategory of animal husbandry specifically dealing with the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. Sheep farming is primarily based on raising lambs for meat, or raising sheep for wool. Sheep may also be raised for milk or to sell to other farmers.-Shelter and...
was undertaken from 1896 until the lease, with the sheep and a small herd of cattle, was abandoned in 1931 as a casualty of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
.
In 1907 a group of scientists spent 8 days on the Island group surveying. The 1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition
1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition
The 1907 Sub-Antarctic Islands Scientific Expedition was a New Zealand scientific expedition organised by the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury...
conducted a magnetic survey and also took botanical, zoological and geological specimens.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
a coastwatching
Coastwatchers
The Coastwatchers, also known as the Coast Watch Organisation, Combined Field Intelligence Service or Section C, Allied Intelligence Bureau, were Allied military intelligence operatives stationed on remote Pacific islands during World War II to observe enemy movements and rescue stranded Allied...
station was operative at Tucker Cove at the north shore of Perseverance Harbour as part of the Cape Expedition
Cape Expedition
Cape Expedition was the deliberately misleading name given to a secret five-year wartime program of establishing coastwatching stations on New Zealand’s more distant uninhabited subantarctic islands...
program. After the war the facilities were used as a meteorological station until 1958, when a new one was established at Beeman Cove, just a few hundred metres further east.
A notable incident occurred in April 1992. A group of meteorological staff (New Zealand) were swimming when one of them was attacked and partly eaten by a Great White Shark
Great white shark
The great white shark, scientific name Carcharodon carcharias, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a large lamniform shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans. It is known for its size, with the largest individuals known to have approached...
. Jacinda Amey, one of the workers, swam back to rescue him while the shark was still in the area. She towed him to the shore where first aid was applied. He was rescued by a helicopter flying from Taupo which was guided by a twin engine plane with Sat Nav, which was and still is the longest ever single engine helicopter rescue in the world. The victim survived and Ms Amey was awarded the New Zealand Cross
New Zealand Cross (1999)
The New Zealand Cross is New Zealand's highest award for civilian bravery. It was instituted by Royal Warrant on 20 September 1999 as part of the move to replace British bravery awards with an indigenous New Zealand Bravery system. The medal, which may be awarded posthumously, is granted in...
- New Zealand's highest bravery medal for civilians. The station was manned permanently until 1995 when a fully automatic station was established. Today, human presence is limited to periodic visits by research and conservation expeditions.
The legend of The Lady of the Heather
The Lady of the Heather was the title of a romantic novel by Will Lawson. The novel is a mixture of facts and fiction elaborating on the incidents surrounding Captain Hasselburg's death on Campbell Island. The story is about a daughter of Bonnie Prince Charlie, exiled to Campbell Island after she is suspected of treachery to the JacobiteJacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
cause.
Her character was inspired by Elizabeth Farr. Farr was probably what would now be called a "ship girl" but the presence of a European woman at this remote place, and her death, gave rise to The Lady of the Heather story.
The accident happened when William Tucker
William Tucker (settler)
William Tucker was a British convict, a sealer, a trader in human heads, an Otago settler, and New Zealand’s first art dealer....
was present on the Aurora. Tucker was another unusual character in the sealing era who became the source of a legend and a novel. The remoteness and striking appearance of the sealing grounds, whether on mainland New Zealand or the subantarctic islands, and the sealing era's early place in Australasia's European history, supply the elements for romance and legend which are generally absent in the area's colonial history.
Coleoptera
- Carabidae
- Kenodactylus audouini
- Oopterus clivinoides
- Oopterus marrineri [endemic]
- ?Laemostenus complanatus [introduced, established?]
Conservation
In 1954 the island was gazetted as a nature reserveNature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
. The feral Campbell Island Cattle
Campbell Island Cattle
Campbell Island Cattle were a feral breed of domestic cattle found on Campbell Island, New Zealand. From photographs taken in 1976 it appeared that the cattle were at least partly of shorthorn origin...
were eliminated by about 1984. The feral Campbell Island Sheep
Campbell Island Sheep
Campbell Island sheep are a feral breed of domestic sheep formerly found on Campbell Island, New Zealand.-The sheep farmers:The sheep were originally introduced to Campbell Island in the late 1890s, following the inclusion of the island in New Zealand’s pastoral lease system in 1896...
were culled during the 1970s and 1980s, with their eventual extermination in 1992. In 2001 Brown Rat
Brown Rat
The brown rat, common rat, sewer rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat, Brown Norway rat, Norwegian rat, or wharf rat is one of the best known and most common rats....
s (Norway rats) were eradicated from the island nearly 200 years after their introduction. This was the world's largest rat eradication. The island's rat-free status was confirmed in 2003. Since the eradication, vegetation and invertebrates have been recovering, seabirds have been returning and the Campbell Teal, the world's rarest duck, has been reintroduced. http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/wetland-birds/subantarctic-teal/docs-work/ Other native landbirds include the New Zealand Pipit and the Campbell Snipe, a race or species of the Coenocorypha
Coenocorypha
Coenocorypha is a genus of tiny birds in the sandpiper family, also known as the New Zealand snipes, which are now only found on New Zealand's outlying islands. There are currently six extinct species and three living species, with the Subantarctic Snipe having three subspecies, including the...
snipes only discovered in 1997. The snipe had survived on Jacquemart Island and began recolonising the main island after the rats had been removed.
Some Southern Right Whale
Southern Right Whale
The southern right whale is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Like other right whales, the southern right whale is readily distinguished from others by the callosities on its head, a broad back without a dorsal fin, and a long arching...
s come into bays in the winter to calve.
The area is one of five subantarctic island groups designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
See also
- Campbell Teal
- Megaherbs
- Campbell Island groupCampbell Island groupThe Campbell Island group is a group of subantarctic islands, belonging to New Zealand. The group has a total area of , consisting of one big island, Campbell Island , and several small islets, notably Dent Island , Isle de Jeanette Marie , Jacquemart Island , and Monowai Island 1...
- New Zealand subantarctic islands
- List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands
- Rat IslandRat Island (Alaska)Rat Island is an island in the Rat Islands archipelago of the western Aleutian Islands in the U.S. state of Alaska. The island has a land area of 10.3126 sq mi and no permanent population...
, where rats have also been eradicated
External links
- Topographic map, Campbell Island, NZMS 272/3, Edition 1, 1986.
- Long description of Campbell Island and especially its history
- Landcare Research - Campbell Island
- Campbell Island Bicentennial Expedition
