Wright Island (South Australia)
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Wright Island is a island in
Encounter Bay Encounter Bay is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia located on the state's south central coast about south of the state capital of Adelaide. It was named by Matthew Flinders after his encounter on 8 April 1802 with Nicolas Baudi ...
,
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. It is located between the popular tourist destination Granite Island and the prominent rocky headland known as The Bluff. The island consists largely of granite boulders. It also features low vegetation and a sandy beach suitable for the landing of small boats. The island is uninhabited and can only be accessed from the water. It was named after William Wright, one of the headmen of the
South Australia Company The South Australian Company, also referred to as the South Australia Company, was formed in London on 9 October 1835, after the '' South Australia (Foundation) Act 1834'' had established the new British Province of South Australia, with the Sou ...
's
whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...
operations in the Victor Harbor area in the 1800s. The island is managed by the
City of Victor Harbor The City of Victor Harbor is a local government area of South Australia. It covers an area of along the coast, about south of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. The council is responsible for the town of Victor Harbor, which contains ...
, the local government authority, as part of its parks and gardens asset. Eleven-year-old Janet Barker visited the island in 1954 and described it in a letter to Adelaide newspaper, ''The Mail'':


Wright Island Beach

Wright Island Beach (35°34'55.45"S 138°36'29.24"E) is a small beach located on Wright Island. It is commonly used by wildlife and is popular with human visitors in the summer who swim and fish there.


Little penguin colony

"Many" penguins were present on Wright Island in 1941 and breeding in 1954. In 1973, ten dead penguins and fifteen young seagulls were found dead on Wright Island in Encounter Bay, South Australia. It was believed that they were killed by people poking sticks down burrows before scattering the dead bodies around. In 1977, Wright Island supported a colony of 300 Little penguins. In 1990, the wider Encounter Bay population (of which Wright Island is a part) was estimated to be between 5000 and 7000 penguins. In early December 1991 a general count found 447 penguins present. In 1992, the population was estimated at over 200. At June 2011 its population status was unknown. In January 2013, Victor Harbor mayor Graham Philp said that the penguin colonies on Wright and West Islands were 'extinct' while the population on Granite Island was in 'the low 20s'. The 2013 Encounter Bay penguin census conducted by penguin ecologist Dr. Diane Colombelli-Négrel from Flinders University found no penguins and no active burrows on Wright Island. The census' report concluded that the colony had not recovered from a prior colony collapse.Colombelli-Négrel, D. & Kleindorfer, S
Penguin monitoring and conservation activities in the Gulf St Vincent July 2013 – June 2014. Report to the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Natural Resources Management Board
Flinders University, South Australia (2014-04). Retrieved 2014-07-27.


References

{{Islands of South Australia , state=collapsed Islands of South Australia Encounter Bay Uninhabited islands of Australia