Deal Island, the largest island of the Kent Group, is a

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

, located in northern

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The ...

, that lies between the

Furneaux Group 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 ...

, north-east of

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, and

Wilsons Promontory Wilsons Promontory is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland, located in the state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. South Point (Wilsons Promontory), South Point at is the southernmost tip of Wilsons Promon ...

, in Victoria, Australia.

Location and features

The island is contained entirely within the Kent Group National Park, Tasmania’s northernmost

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

, gazetted in 2002. In 2004, the national park was extended to include the marine waters of the three major islands of the Kent Group, encapsulating of marine reserve. Deal Island is at the southern end of the Beagle Commonwealth Marine Reserve, that encloses the Kent Group Marine Reserve and the Hogan and Curtis Island groups. Deal Island has been extensively modified by human activity, with the construction of facilities, and the clearing of vegetation and regular firing associated with grazing livestock. There is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

, a closed

airstrip An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...

, roads, jetty, two houses, a dam and a museum.Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). ''Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features''. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart.

Lighthouse

Deal Island has the highest

in the Southern Hemisphere, standing

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. The light was sometimes visible at night from Wilson's Promontory, away. The lighthouse was built in 1848 and deactivated in 1992. While active, the height of the tower caused problems with visibility in low cloud conditions. Management and conservation of the structure is under the control of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.

Aircraft crash

On 26 April 1943, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, an

RAAF The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is the principal aerial warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. Constitutionally the governor-general of Aus ...

Airspeed Oxford The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford is a twin-engine monoplane aircraft developed and manufactured by Airspeed Ltd, Airspeed. It saw widespread use for training Commonwealth of Nations, British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombin ...

aircraft crashed on the island, killing all four crewmen. The aircraft wreck, and the crew's graves, are about apart at the bottom of a cliff. The bodies have since been disinterred and buried at , Victoria. Eyewitness accounts say the plane flew low over a ship which was actually a wreck, and then failed to regain enough height before hitting the cliff.

Fauna

Seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

and

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

species that have been recorded breeding on the island include the

little penguin The little penguin (''Eudyptula minor'') is the smallest species of penguin. It originates from New Zealand. It is commonly known as the fairy penguin, little blue penguin, or blue penguin, owing to its slate-blue plumage and is also known by ...

, the Pacific gull and the sooty oystercatcher.

Mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s found on the island include the red-necked wallaby, the

common brushtail possum The common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula'', from the Ancient Greek, Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox", previously in the genus ''Phalangista'') is a nocturnal, semiarboreal marsupial of the family Phalangeridae ...

, the southern brown bandicoot, the

fur seal Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family Otariidae. They are much more closely related to sea lions than Earless seal, true seals, and share with them external ears (Pinna (anatomy ...

, and the introduced European rabbit.

Reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

s include the metallic skink, Bougainville's skink, White's skink and the white-lipped snake.

Climate

Deal Island has a borderline

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

(''Csb'')/

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(''Cfb'') with mild, short, somewhat dry summers and cool, wet winters, owing to its exposed location.

References