Lacepede Islands
Encyclopedia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, about 120 km (75 mi) north of Broome
Broome, Western Australia
Broome is a pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, north of Perth. The year round population is approximately 14,436, growing to more than 45,000 per month during the tourist season...
. They are about 30 km (20 mi) from the Dampier Peninsula
Dampier Peninsula
The Dampier Peninsula is a peninsula located north of Broome and Roebuck Bay in Western Australia. It is surrounded by the Indian Ocean to the west and north, and King Sound to the east...
, from which they are separated by the Lacepede Channel
Lacepede Channel
The Lacepede Channel separates the Lacepede Islands from the Dampier Peninsula in north-west Western Australia. It is nominally located at 16° 55' S 122° 13' E.-References:...
. They are important for their breeding seabird
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...
s.
Description
The islands are West IslandWest Island (Lacepede Islands)
West Island is an island within the Lacepede Islands group, which sits about 30 kilometres off the coast of the Dampier Peninsula in north-west Western Australia. It is located at 16° 51' S 122° 06' E. It forms part of the Lacepede Islands Important Bird Area , so identified by BirdLife...
, Middle Island
Middle Island (Lacepede Islands)
Middle Island is an island within the Lacepede Islands group, which sits about 30 kilometres off the coast of the Dampier Peninsula in north-west Western Australia. It is located at 16° 51' S 122° 08' E. It forms part of the Lacepede Islands Important Bird Area , so identified by BirdLife...
, East Island
East Island (Lacepede Islands)
East Island is an island within the Lacepede Islands group, which sits about 30 kilometres off the coast of the Dampier Peninsula in north-west Western Australia. It is located at . It is the site of the East Island Lighthouse...
and Sandy Island
Sandy Island (Lacepede Islands)
Sandy Island is an island within the Lacepede Islands group, which sits about 30 kilometres off the coast of the Dampier Peninsula in north-west Western Australia. It is located at 16° 52' S 122° 10' E. It forms part of the Lacepede Islands Important Bird Area , so identified by BirdLife...
. They are all small, low spits of coarse sand and coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
rubble, lying atop a platform reef
Coral reef
Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...
. They are treeless but support some low vegetation. Average annual rainfall is about 750 mm. East Island is the site of the East Island Lighthouse
East Island Lighthouse (Western Australia)
East Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse located at 16º54'S 122º11'E, on East Island in the Lacepede Islands off the north west coast of Western Australia. First commissioned in 1984, it is a 23 metres high lattice metal tower, with the light's focal plane positioned at 33 metres above sea level. The...
.
Environment
The Lacepede Islands are an A-class Lacepede Islands Nature Reserve managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation. Black RatBlack Rat
The black rat is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Murinae . The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and spreading with Europeans across the world.-Taxonomy:The black rat was...
were eradicated in 1986, allowing the recolonisation of the islands by small terns. They are Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
's most important breeding habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
for Green Turtles,
Birds
The islands have been identified by BirdLife InternationalBirdLife 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...
as an 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...
(IBA) because they support over 1% of the world populations of Brown Boobies
Brown Booby
The Brown Booby is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. The adult brown booby reaches about in length. Its head and upper body are covered in dark brown, with the remainder being a contrasting white. The juvenile form is gray-brown with darkening on the head, wings and tail...
and Roseate Tern
Roseate Tern
The Roseate Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a number of geographical races, differing mainly in bill colour and minor plumage details....
s. The breeding colony of Brown Boobies, of up to 18,000 breeding pairs, is possibly the largest in the world. Up to 20,000 Roseate Terns have been recorded there.
Other birds breeding on the islands include Masked Boobies
Masked Booby
The Masked Booby, Sula dactylatra, is a large seabird of the booby family, Sulidae. This species breeds on islands in tropical oceans, except in the eastern Atlantic; in the eastern Pacific it is replaced by the Nazca Booby, Sula granti, which was formerly regarded as a subspecies of Masked Booby...
, Australian Pelican
Australian Pelican
The Australian Pelican is a large water bird, widespread on the inland and coastal waters of Australia and New Guinea, also in Fiji, parts of Indonesia and as a vagrant to New Zealand.-Taxonomy:...
s, Lesser Frigatebird
Lesser Frigatebird
The Lesser Frigatebird, Fregata ariel, is a species of frigatebird.It nests in Australia, among other locations.There is a single record from the Western Palearctic, from Eilat in the Gulf of Aqaba....
s, Eastern Reef Egret
Eastern Reef Egret
The Eastern Reef Heron , also known as the Pacific Reef Egret or Eastern Reef Egret, is a kind of heron. They are found in many areas of Asia including the oceanic region of India, Southeast Asia, Japan, Polynesia, and in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand.Pacific Reef Herons are medium-sized...
s, Silver Gull
Silver Gull
The Silver Gull also known simply as "seagull" in Australia, is the most common gull seen in Australia. It has been found throughout the continent, but particularly coastal areas. The South African Hartlaub's Gull and the New Zealand Red-billed Gull The Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus...
s, Crested, Bridled
Bridled Tern
The Bridled Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans.-Description:...
and Lesser Crested Tern
Lesser Crested Tern
The Lesser Crested Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae...
s, Common Noddies, and Pied
Pied Oystercatcher
The Pied Oystercatcher, Haematopus longirostris, is a species of oystercatcher. It is a wading bird native to Australia and commonly found on its coastline. The similar South Island Pied Oystercatcher The Pied Oystercatcher, Haematopus longirostris, is a species of oystercatcher. It is a wading...
and Sooty Oystercatcher
Sooty Oystercatcher
The Sooty Oystercatcher, Haematopus fuliginosus, is a species of oystercatcher. It is a wading bird native to Australia and commonly found on its coastline. It prefers rocky coastlines, but will occasionally live in estuaries....
s. Visiting wader
Wader
Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...
s include Grey-tailed Tattler
Grey-tailed Tattler
The Grey-tailed Tattler, Tringa brevipes , is a small shorebird.- Description :...
s, Ruddy Turnstone
Ruddy Turnstone
The Ruddy Turnstone is a small wading bird, one of two species of turnstone in the genus Arenaria. It is now classified in the sandpiper family Scolopacidae but was formerly sometimes placed in the plover family Charadriidae...
s, Great Knot
Great Knot
The Great Knot, Calidris tenuirostris, is a small wader. It is the largest of the calidrid species.Their breeding habitat is tundra in northeast Siberia. They nest on the ground laying about four eggs in a ground scrape. They are strongly migratory wintering on coasts in southern Asia through to...
s and Greater Sand Plover
Greater Sand Plover
The Greater Sand Plover, Charadrius leschenaultii, is a small wader in the plover family of birds. The spelling is commonly given as "Greater sandplover", but the official British Ornithologists' Union spelling is "Greater sand plover"....
s.
History
The islands were discovered by Nicolas BaudinNicolas 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...
in 1801, and named in honour of French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède, who described several Australian fish species.
Guano exploitation
In the 19th century, the Lacepede Islands were among numerous islands off the Western Australian coast that were mined for guanoGuano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...
. Although much of the guano mined was by Western Australia industry, there was also extensive unauthorised mining by trading ships from other countries, especially the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
company, Messrs. Poole, Picken and Co., had been authorised by the Western Australian government to load guano, and had been charged a royalty of 10 shilling
Shilling (Australian)
The Australian Shilling was a coin of the Commonwealth of Australia prior to decimalization. The coin was minted from 1910 until 1963, excluding 1923, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1938, 1947, 1949 and 1951...
s per ton. In 1876, a dispute arose when an American named Gilbert Roberts landed from the French barque Forca de la Roquette and disputed a demand that he pay a levy for mining there. He planted the United States flag on one of the islands, claiming the island group for that country in accordance with the United States Guano Islands Act
Guano Islands Act
The Guano Islands Act is federal legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, on August 18, 1856. It enables citizens of the U.S. to take possession of islands containing guano deposits. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied and not within the jurisdiction of other...
that empowered U.S. citizens to take possession of uninhabited islands more than a league
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
(three miles) offshore from any country, so long as they had not been formally claimed. This action, known as the "American Incident" or "Lacepede Islands Incident", sparked a diplomatic and political row, which was eventually resolved by Roberts paying the levy and a fine, and the Western Australian government enacting legislation requiring all guano mining to be licensed, with severe penalties for transgressions.
Blackbirding
The Lacepede Islands are also known to have been used by blackbirderBlackbirding
Blackbirding is a term that refers to recruitment of people through trickery and kidnappings to work as labourers. From the 1860s blackbirding ships were engaged in seeking workers to mine the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands in Peru...
s, as a place to maroon kidnapped Abrorigines
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
before signing them up to work in various industries, such as the pearling industry
Pearling in Western Australia
Pearling in Western Australia existed well before European settlement. Coastal dwelling Aborigines had collected and traded pearl shell as well as trepang and tortoise with fishermen from Sulawesi for possibly hundreds of years. After settlement the Aborigines were used as slave labour in the...
. One confirmed case is that of a settler from Cossack
Cossack, Western Australia
Cossack is an historic ghost town located 1,480 km north of Perth and 15 km from Roebourne in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The nearest town to Cossack is Wickham. At the 2006 census, Cossack had a population of 236....
, Edward Chapman, who was cautioned for kidnapping Aborigines from the Beagle Bay community
Beagle Bay Community, Western Australia
Beagle Bay is a medium-sized Aboriginal Community on the western side of the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome.-Background:The community is situated adjacent to the Indian Ocean. Beagle Bay is the gateway to communities further north such as Djarindjin Community, Bardi Community, Bobeiding...
and marooning
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...
them in the Lacepedes.