Nepean Island ( Norfuk: ''Nepeyan Ailen'') is a small uninhabited

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

located about south of

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together wit ...

in the Southwest Pacific. The island is about in area. Nepean Island is uninhabited due to its small size and tall cliffs flanking it, making landfall nearly impossible for small boats. It is part of the

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

's external territory of Norfolk Island, and is included in the

Norfolk Island National Park Norfolk Island National Park is a protected area of located at in the South Pacific Ocean, about off the East coast of Australia. The park’s area includes the Mount Pitt section on the namesake Norfolk Island with an area of / , as well as ...

as is nearby

Phillip Island Phillip Island ( Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. The island is named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explore ...

and about 10 percent of Norfolk Island proper.

History

Unlike Norfolk and Phillip Islands, Nepean is not volcanic in origin, but is

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch withi ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

formed from wind blown sand dunes between the last two ice ages.

Calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcareous'' is used as an ad ...

sand grains were bound by carbonate cement to form a calcarenite limestone. Although Polynesian people were known to have settled around Kingston, no evidence of Polynesian settlement has been found on Nepean Island. The island was first cleared during the First Settlement. Nepean was used as a quarry and for timber during the Second Convict Settlement of Norfolk Island, and was abandoned as a site during that settlement. Remaining stone steps can be seen on the east coast. It is thought the island was named in 1788 by Lieutenant

Philip Gidley King Captain Philip Gidley King (23 April 1758 – 3 September 1808) was a British politician who was the third Governor of New South Wales. When the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, King was detailed to colonise Norfolk Island for defence ...

for

Evan Nepean Sir Evan Nepean, 1st Baronet, PC FRS (9 July 1752 – 2 October 1822)Sparrow (n.d.) was a British politician and colonial administrator. He was the first of the Nepean Baronets. Family Nepean was born at St. Stephens near Saltash, Cornwall, ...

, Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, who was involved with arrangements for the dispatch of the

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command o ...

and with administration of the

colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of ...

during its early years.

Flora and fauna

The island is made of calcareous rock dating from the late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

and is a breeding site for several species of seabirds. Before being cleared in the 1790s, the island was home to about 200 Norfolk Island Pines. Today, native plants present on the island include pigface, native spinach, moo-oo, native flax and native rush. The masked booby breeds onsite during the summer. From July to December

little shearwater The little shearwater (''Puffinus assimilis'') is a small shearwater in the petrel family Procellariidae. Despite the generic name, it is unrelated to the puffins, which are auks, the only similarity being that they are both burrow-nesting s ...

s breed on the island. Other birds such as the whale bird, grey noddy,

black noddy The black noddy or white-capped noddy (''Anous minutus'') is a seabird from the family Laridae. It is a medium-sized species of tern with black plumage and a white cap. It closely resembles the lesser noddy (''Anous tenuirostris'') with which i ...

, wedge-tailed shearwater, brown noddy and

red-tailed tropicbird The red-tailed tropicbird (''Phaethon rubricauda'') is a seabird native to tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. One of three closely related species of tropicbird (Phaethontidae), it was described by Pieter Boddaert in 1783. Superfi ...

also breed on Nepean Island. It is a refuge for the endemic

marbled gecko ''Christinus'' is a genus of Gekkonidae geckos found in southern regions of Australia. It contains species and subspecies that are regionally termed as marbled geckos. The contrasted patterns of these geckos, marbling, are found in a variety of ...

, which is now extinct on Norfolk Island. It is also home to the Phillip Island skink. The island is home to little nipper landcrabs and

freshwater crab Around 1,300 species of freshwater crabs are distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics, divided among eight families. They show direct development and maternal care of a small number of offspring, in contrast to marine crabs, which relea ...

s. Green turtles are often seen off the coast of the island.

References

{{reflist Islands of Norfolk Island Uninhabited islands of Australia

History

Flora and fauna

See also

References