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Wreck Reefs
The Wreck Reefs are located in the southern part of the Coral Sea Islands approximately east-north-east of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia. Approximately east of the Swain Reefs complex they form a narrow chain of reefs with small cays that extends for around in a west-to-east line. Islets found on the reefs include Bird Islet, West Islet and Porpoise Cay. The reef gained its name through the sinking of and '' Cato'' which were lost on Wreck Reefs. In 1803 Matthew Flinders embarked at Port Jackson as a passenger aboard ''Porpoise'', which had been refitted to carry his collection of plants and papers. ''Cato'' and ''Bridgewater'' accompanied them. Eight days later (17 August) disaster stuck with ''Porpoise'' and ''Cato'' striking the uncharted reefs giving cause to the naming of the area. The area is protected as a historic wreck site. Geography The reef complex are approximately 100 km south east from Kenn Reefs, 150 km south east from the Saumarez Reefs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coral Sea Islands
The Coral Sea Islands Territory is an States and territories of Australia#External territories, external territory of Australia which comprises a group of small and mostly uninhabited tropical islands and reefs in the Coral Sea, north-east of Queensland, Australia. The only inhabited island is Willis Island. The territory covers , most of which is ocean, extending east and south from the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef and includes Heralds Beacon Island, Osprey Reef, the Willis Group and fifteen other reef/island groups. Cato Reef#Cato Island, Cato Island is the highest point in the Territory.Geoscience AustraliaCoral Sea Islands History and status The Coral Sea Islands were first charted in 1803. In the 1870s and 1880s the islands were mined for guano but the absence of a reliable supply of fresh water prevented long-term habitation. The Coral Sea Islands became an Australian external territory in 1969 by the ''Coral Sea Islands Act'' and extended in 1997 to include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Cruz Islands
The Santa Cruz Islands form an archipelago in Temotu Province, Solomon Islands. They lie approximately to the southeast of the Solomon Islands (archipelago), Solomon Islands archipelago, just north of the archipelago of Vanuatu and are considered part of the Vanuatu rain forests ecoregion. The term Santa Cruz Islands is sometimes used to encompass all the islands of Temotu Province, Solomon Islands. Geography The largest island is Nendo Island, Nendö, which is also known as Santa Cruz Island proper. Lata, Solomon Islands, Lata, located on Nendö, is the largest town, and is the capital of Temotu Province. Other islands belonging to the Santa Cruz group are Vanikoro (which is actually made up of two islands, Banie (island), Banie and its small neighbour Teanu (island), Teanu) and Utupua. The table below provides basic data on these three islands. The Santa Cruz Islands are less than five million years old and were pushed upward by the Plate tectonics, tectonic subduction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia, separated from the coast by a channel wide in places and over deep. The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outer space and is the world's biggest single structure made by living organisms. This reef structure is composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms, known as coral polyp (zoology), polyps. It supports a wide diversity of life and was selected as a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN labelled it one of the Seven Wonders of the World#Seven Natural Wonders of the World, Seven Natural Wonders of the World in 1997. Australian World Heritage places included it in its list in 2007. The Queensland National Trust named it a state icon of Queensland in 2006. A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Mar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Cropp
Benjamin Cropp (born 19 January 1936) is an Australian documentary filmmaker, conservationist and a former Open Australian spearfishing champion. Formerly a shark hunter, Cropp retired from that trade in 1962 to pursue oceanic Documentary film, documentary filmmaking (having produced some 150 wildlife documentaries) and conservation efforts. One of his efforts for The Disney Channel, ''The Young Adventurers'', was nominated for an Emmy award. Personal life Cropp was born on Buka Island near Bougainville Island on 19 January 1936. His father was a Methodist missionary on the island. He lived in various places such as Casino, New South Wales, Casino, Ballina, New South Wales, Ballina and Bellingen, New South Wales, Bellingen as his father moved to different parishes. He grew up at Lennox Head in New South Wales. Cropp had a very religious upbringing, but when he was 18 "broke totally away from that". His first marriage was to Van Laman, which "didn't last very long". His second ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Brisbane Courier
''The Courier-Mail'' is an Australian newspaper published in Brisbane. Owned by News Corp Australia, it is published daily from Monday to Saturday in tabloid format. Its editorial offices are located at Bowen Hills, in Brisbane's inner northern suburbs, and it is printed at Yandina on the Sunshine Coast. It is available for purchase both online and in paper form throughout Queensland and most regions of Northern New South Wales. History 19th century origins The history of ''The Courier-Mail'' is through four mastheads. The '' Moreton Bay Courier'' later became '' The Courier'', then the '' Brisbane Courier'' and, since a merger with the ''Daily Mail'' in 1933, ''The Courier-Mail''. The ''Moreton Bay Courier'' was established as a weekly paper in June 1846. Its first editorial promised to "make known the wants of the community ... to rouse the apathetic, to inform the ignorant ... to transmit truthful representations of the state of this unrivalled portion of the colony to o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Crowther (Australian Politician)
William Lodewyk Crowther FRCS (15 April 1817 − 12 April 1885) was a Tasmanian politician, who was Premier of Tasmania from 20 December 1878 to 29 October 1879. His careers in medicine, politics, and business were overshadowed in modern times by his alleged role in the unsanctioned exhumation and decapitation of William Lanne's body. Lanne was believed to be the last "full-blooded" Aboriginal Tasmanian male and after the exhumation, his skull was sent by Crowther to the Royal College of Surgeons in London for preservation. Early life Crowther was born on 15 April 1817 in Haarlem, Netherlands. He was the son of Sarah () and William Crowther, who was later a long-time resident surgeon of Hobart. The Crowthers moved to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in 1824. Crowther was educated at Richard B. Claiborne's Grammar School in Longford, Tasmania in 1828. On his 120-mile (193 km) walks to and from school in holidays, Crowther developed a strong interest in natural history. Cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bramble Cay
Bramble Cay, also known as Maizab Kaur (also spelt Maizub Kaur) and Massaramcoer, is a small cay located at the northeastern edge of Australia and the Torres Strait Islands of Queensland and at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Lying around north of Erub Island in the Gulf of Papua, it is the northernmost point of land of Australia and marks the end of the Great Barrier Reef. It is of interest for its geomorphology, human history and flora and fauna. It is an important nesting site for green turtles and several species of seabird, and is notably the site of the first extinction of a mammal species due to anthropogenic climate change, the Bramble Cay melomys. There is an automated lighthouse on the island. Geology The island was formed around a "basalt outcrop produced by Pleistocene volcanic activity and is composed of foraminiferal sand, compacted guano and, at its south-eastern end, a low phosphatic rock platform". History Before being named by Europeans, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raine Island
Raine Island is a vegetated coral cay in total area situated on the outer edges of the Great Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia. It lies approximately north-northwest of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns in Queensland, about east-northeast of Cape Grenville on the Cape York Peninsula. Raine Island is the site of the oldest European structure in tropical Australia, a stone beacon built in 1844, and harbours the world's largest remaining population of green turtles (''Chelonia mydas''). An important environmental icon, the island is totally protected from public access. It got its name from Captain Thomas Raine (1793–1860), the English mariner who discovered it. Geography Raine Island is a vegetated coral cay dominated by low herbaceous annual vegetation (Batianoff et al. 1993). The cay is composed of a central core of phosphate rock surrounded by sand and extensive fringing reefs. It lies just off the eastern edge of the continental shelf, next to a shipping channel known as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swain Reefs
Swain Reefs is a national park in North Queensland, Australia, north of Brisbane. It was established in 1995, and covers an area of 0.58 km2. It is managed by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Fauna Birds Nine small cays, with a combined area of , comprise the Swain Reefs Important Bird Area (IBA), identified as such by BirdLife International because together they support over 1% of the world population of breeding roseate terns, and even larger numbers of non-breeding roseate terns, with up to 25,000 individuals recorded there. Other birds recorded on the cays include masked and brown boobies, silver gulls, black-naped, sooty, bridled, greater crested, lesser crested and little terns, black and common noddies, and lesser frigatebirds. Cays supporting seabirds include Gannet Cay (), Bylund Cay (), Thomas Cay (), Bacchi Cay (), Frigate Cay (), Price Cay (), Distant Cay (), Riptide Cay () and Bell Cay (). Fish The rockcod ('' Epinephelus fuscomarginatus'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lady Elliot Island
Lady Elliot Island is the southernmost coral cay of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The island lies north-east of Bundaberg and covers an area of approximately . It is part of the Capricorn and Bunker Group of islands and is owned by the Commonwealth of Australia. The island is home to a small Ecotourism, eco resort and an airstrip, which is serviced daily by flights from Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast. Lady Elliot Island is located within the 'Green Zone' of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which is the highest possible classification designated by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Marine National Park Green Zones protect the biodiversity within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park by protecting important breeding and nursery areas such as seagrass beds, mangrove communities, deepwater shoals and reefs. The island is particularly renowned for its scuba diving and snorkelling, as its location far offshore at the sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guano
Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a lesser extent, sought for the production of gunpowder and other explosive materials. The 19th-century seabird guano trade played a pivotal role in the development of modern Intensive farming, input-intensive farming. The demand for guano spurred the human colonisation of remote bird islands in many parts of the world. Unsustainable seabird guano mining processes can result in permanent habitat destruction and the loss of millions of seabirds. Bat guano is found in caves throughout the world. Many cave ecosystems are wholly dependent on bats to provide nutrients via their guano which supports bacteria, Fungus, fungi, invertebrates, and vertebrates. The loss of bats from a cave can result in the extinction of species that rely on their guano ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Master's Mate
Master's mate is an obsolete rating which was used by the British Royal Navy, Royal Navy, United States Navy and merchant services in both countries for a senior petty officer who assisted the sailing master, master. Master's mates evolved into the modern rank of sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy, while in the merchant service they evolved into the numbered mates or officers. Royal Navy Originally, a master's mate was an experienced petty officer who assisted the sailing master, master but was not in line for promotion to lieutenant. By the mid-eighteenth century, he was far more likely to be a senior midshipman, still waiting to pass his examination for lieutenant or to receive his Commissioned officer#Commissioned officers, commission, but taking rather more responsibility aboard ship. Six master's mates were allowed on a First-rate, first rate, three on a Third-rate, third rate, and two on most frigates. Duties Master's mates were experienced seamen, and were usually selected ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
