Curtis Island (Tasmania)

Curtis Island is a granite island, with an area of 150 ha, in south-eastern Australia. It is part of Tasmania’s Curtis Group, lying in northern Bass Strait between the Furneaux Group and Wilsons Promontory in Victoria. It is a nature reserve and has been identified as an Important Bird Area because it supports up to 390,000 breeding pairs of short-tailed shearwaters or Tasmanian muttonbirds.[1]

Map of the Curtis Group

It was named by lieutenant James Grant, sailing on the Lady Nelson, after Sir Roger Curtis, British governor of the Cape of Good Hope, in December 1800.[2][3][4]

Fauna

As well as the shearwaters, recorded breeding seabird and wader species include little penguin, fairy prion, Pacific gull and sooty oystercatcher. Reptiles present include white-lipped snake, Bougainville's skink, White's skink and metallic skink.[5]

See also

The other islands in the Curtis Group:

References
  1. "IBA: Curtis Island". Birdata. Birds Australia. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  2. Grant, James (1803). The narrative of a voyage of discovery, performed in His Majesty's vessel the Lady Nelson, of sixty tons burthen: with sliding keels, in the years 1800, 1801, and 1802, to New South Wales. Printed by C. Roworth for T. Egerton. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-7243-0036-5. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  3. Lee, Ida (1915), The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson, London: Grafton, p. 328, OL 6580132M, cited in Bird (2006)
  4. Bird, Eric (12 October 2006). "Place Names on the Coast of Victoria" (PDF). The Australian National Placename Survey (ANPS). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 February 2011.
  5. Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart. ISBN 0-7246-4816-X


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