Seal Island (Western Australia)
Encyclopedia
Albany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
. The island is located approximately 3 kilometres (2 mi) off-shore from Frenchman Bay in King George Sound
King George Sound
King George Sound is the name of a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Located at , it is the site of the city of Albany.The sound covers an area of and varies in depth from to ....
. The island is designated as a nature reserve
Nature 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...
(Reserve Number 32199) and has a total area of 2.8 hectares (7 acre).
George Vancouver
George Vancouver
Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...
named Seal Island in 1791 along with Breaksea Island
Breaksea Island (Western Australia)
Breaksea Island is an island in King George Sound in the Great Southern of Western Australia and is South East of Albany. The island is a nature reserve and managed by Department of Environment and Conservation , it’s reserve number is 27614. The island is also registered as a national estate....
, Michaelmas Island
Michaelmas Island
Michaelmas Island is an island located in King George Sound near Albany, Western Australia.The island is a nature reserve and managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation; its reserve number is 30049. The island is also registered as a national estate. The island is in area...
and other features around King George Sound
King George Sound
King George Sound is the name of a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Located at , it is the site of the city of Albany.The sound covers an area of and varies in depth from to ....
.
Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders
Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...
landed on Seal Island during the voyage of the Investigator in 1801, searching for items that were reportedly left by Vancouver and leaving behind a bottle containing a parchment with details of their own arrival and departure.
HMAS Perth
HMAS Perth (D38)
HMAS Perth was the lead ship of the Perth class guided missile destroyers operated by the Royal Australian Navy . Built in the United States of America to a modified version of the Charles F...
was scuttle
Scuttling
Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...
d behind Seal Island in 2001 and is now one of Western Australia's premier dive
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....
sites.
The island is composed entirely of granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and is only accessible at the western end.