Furneaux Group

Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox islands Template:GeoGroup The Furneaux Group is a group of approximately 100 islands located at the eastern end of Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. The islands were named after British navigator Tobias Furneaux, who sighted the eastern side of these islands after leaving Adventure Bay in 1773 on his way to New Zealand to rejoin Captain James Cook.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Navigator Matthew Flinders was the first European to explore the Furneaux Islands group, in the Template:Ship in 1798, and later that year in the Template:Ship.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The largest islands in the group are Flinders Island, Cape Barren Island, and Clarke Island. The group contains five settlements: Killiecrankie, Emita, Lady Barron, Cape Barren Island, and Whitemark on Flinders Island, which serves as the administrative centre of the Flinders Council. There are also some small farming properties on the remote islands.

After seals were discovered there in 1798, the Furneaux Group of islands became the most intensively exploited sealing ground in Bass Strait.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A total of 29 islands in the Furneaux Group have been found to have some tangible link with sealing in the 19th century.<ref>Kostoglou, p.91.</ref>

The Aboriginal matriarch, Dolly Dalrymple, was born on the Furneaux Islands. Her mother was one of two Aboriginal women who had been kidnapped from northern Tasmania by the sealer George Briggs.<ref>Template:Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography</ref>

King Island, at the western end of Bass Strait, is not a part of the group.

Islands in the Group

Island	Capital	Other cities	Area		Population
			km2	sq mi
Furneaux Group	Whitemark	Lady Barron, The Corner, Emita, Killiecrankie	Template:Convert	795
Babel Island Group			Template:Convert	0
Babel Island			Template:Convert	0
Cat Island			Template:Convert	0
Fifty Foot Rock			Template:Convert	0
Other			Template:Convert	0
Storehouse Island			Template:Convert	0
Badger Island Group	Badger Island	Mount Chappell Island	aTemplate:Convert	3
Badger Island	South East Point		Template:Convert	1
Goose Island			Template:Convert	0
Inner Little Goose Island			Template:Convert	0
Little Badger Island			Template:Convert	0
Little Goose Island			Template:Convert	0
Mount Chappell Island			Template:Convert	2
Other	Beagle Island	North West Mount Chappell Islet	Template:Convert	0
Bass Pyramid	Bass Pyramid		Template:Convert	0
Big Green Island Group	Big Green Island	East Kangaroo Island	Template:Convert	6
Big Green Island			Template:Convert	4
Chalky Island			Template:Convert	0
East Kangaroo Island			Template:Convert	2
Isabella Island			Template:Convert	0
Little Chalky Island			Template:Convert	0
Mile Island			Template:Convert	0
Other			Template:Convert	0
Cape Barren Island	The Corner		Template:Convert	67
Clarke Island			Template:Convert	1
Craggy Island	Craggy Island		Template:Convert	0
Flinders Island	Whitemark	Lady Barron	Template:Convert	700
Franklin Sound Islands Important Bird Area	Great Dog	Tin Kettle	Template:Convert	14
Anderson Island			Template:Convert	0
Boxen Island			Template:Convert	0
Briggs Islet			Template:Convert	0
Doughboy Island			Template:Convert	0
Great Dog Island	Great Dog Island		Template:Convert	10
Lady Barron Island			Template:Convert	0
Little Anderson Island			Template:Convert	0
Little Dog Island	Little Dog Island		Template:Convert	0
Little Green Island			Template:Convert	0
Long Island			Template:Convert	0
Neds Reef			Template:Convert	0
Other	Spences Islands	Big Black Reef, GVH Rock, Mid Woody Islet, Ram, Apple Orchard Point, Billy Goat Reefs, Fisher Island, Samphire Island	Template:Convert	0
Oyster Rocks	East Oyster	West Oyster	Template:Convert	0
Pelican Island			Template:Convert	0
Puncheon Island	Puncheon Island		Template:Convert	1
Tin Kettle Island	Tin Kettle		Template:Convert	2
Vansittart Island	Bates Bay	House Bay	Template:Convert	1
Inner Sister Island			Template:Convert	0
Other	Little Island	Shag Rock	Template:Convert	0
Outer Sister Island	Outer Sister Island		Template:Convert	0
Pasco Island Group	Roydon Island		Template:Convert	0
Marriott Reef			Template:Convert	0
Middle Pasco Islands			Template:Convert	0
North Pasco Island			Template:Convert	0
Other			Template:Convert	0
Roydon Island			Template:Convert	0
South Pasco Island			Template:Convert	0
Passage Island Group	Passage Island		Template:Convert	2
Forsyth Island			Template:Convert	0
Gull Island			Template:Convert	0
Low Islets			Template:Convert	0
Moriarty Rocks			Template:Convert	0
Other	Battery Island		Template:Convert	0
Passage Island	Passage Island		Template:Convert	2
Spike Island	Spike Island	Little Spike Island	Template:Convert	0
Preservation Island Group	Preservation Island		Template:Convert	2
Key Island			Template:Convert	0
Night Island			Template:Convert	0
Other			aTemplate:Convert	0
Preservation Island	Preservation Island	Horseshoe Bay	Template:Convert	2
Rum Island			Template:Convert	0
Prime Seal Island Group	Prime Seal Island		Template:Convert	0
Bird Island			Template:Convert	0
Low Islets	South Low	Middle Low, North Low	Template:Convert	0
Other			Template:Convert	0
Prime Seal Island	Peacock Bay	South Bay	Template:Convert	0
Wybalenna Island			Template:Convert	0
Sentinel Island			Template:Convert	0
Wright Rock			Template:Convert	0
Furneaux Group	Whitemark	Lady Barron, The Corner, Emita, Killiecrankie	Template:Convert	795

Geology

The islands contain granite from the Devonian period, as well as unconsolidated limestone and sand from Cenozoic periods. During the last ice age, a land bridge joined Tasmania to the Australian mainland through this group of islands.

See also

• Furneaux bioregion
• Engaeus martigener
• List of islands of Tasmania

External links

• Birds of the Furneaux Islands
• Shipwrecks in the Furneaux Islands