Lady Julia Percy Island.html |
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Lady Julia Percy Island lies 22 kilometres south-west of Port Fairy, is Australia’s only off-shore volcano and the only large basalt island off the coast of western Victoria. It is about 2 km in length by 1 km in width, with an area of 1.33 km², comprising a plateau of up to 40 m above sea-level surrounded by cliffs, rock platforms and reefs. Formed some seven million years ago, it is much older than other volcanoes in the region, and is also unusual in being built by both submarine and subaerial eruptions. It is a State Wildlife Reserve.
The island was originally named "Lady Julia’s Island" in 1800 by Lt James Grant1 after the wife of the Duke of Northumberland. In 1802, Matthew Flinders expanded the name to the Lady Julia Percy Island as he sailed past on his ship the Navigator.1 In 1802, Nicolas Baudin also sailed past the island in his ship the Géographe, and recorded the island as Ile aux Alouettes.1 This name has not persisted.
The island is also known by its Aboriginal name ‘Deen Maar’ or "Dhinmar" and it is understood that the spirits of the dead were conveyed across the sea to Lady Julia Percy Island from a cave called Tarnwirring ("the flowing of the wind") at the top of a rocky sea cliff.
There are two graves on the island – one of a sealer buried in 1822, and one a man named Hardman buried in 1828 by Captain Wishart of the “Fairy”.
Lady Julia Percy Island can be seen best from the Yambuk Lake or The Crags.
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Fauna
The island is one of four Australian Fur Seal breeding colonies in Victoria and, with an estimated 27,000 seals, is the largest such colony in Australia. The island is also home to breeding Little Penguins, Common Diving-Petrels, Fairy Prions, and Short-tailed Shearwaters. The surrounding waters are visited by Great White Sharks.
Notes
- ^ a b c Bird, Eric (12 October 2006). "Place Names on the Coast of Victoria". ANPS. Retrieved on 2008-08-24.
References
- McCoy Society. (1936). Lady Julia Percy Island: reports of the expedition of the McCoy Society for field investigation and research. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 49: 327-427.
- Lady Julia Percy Island, Victorian Resources Online, Department of Primary Industries, Victoria. Accessed 2007-12-09.
- Lady Julia Percy Island State Faunal Reserve, Aussie Heritage. Accessed 2007-12-13.