Carnac Island () is a , A-Class, island

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

about south-west of

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

and north of Garden Island in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

History

Carnac Island is

aeolianite Eolianite or aeolianite is any rock formed by the lithification of sediment deposited by aeolian processes; that is, the wind. In common use, however, the term refers specifically to the most common form of eolianite: coastal limestone consisting ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

remnant of

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s. In 1803, French explorer

Louis de Freycinet Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (7 August 1779 – 18 August 1841) was a French Navy officer. He circumnavigated the Earth, and in 1811 published the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of Australia. Biography He was born at M ...

, captain of , named the island ('Bald Island'). It was also known as and later . In 1827, James Stirling changed its name to ''Pulo Carnac Island'' in honour of John Rivett Carnac, Second Lieutenant on his ship . ''Pulo'' is Malay for "island"; it is not known why Stirling included the term, and it was soon dropped. From , the island served as a

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

station. The whalers transported Perth's first church to the island to be used as a storehouse. It was abandoned within a few years. From October to November 1838, the island was declared by the

Swan River Colony The Swan River Colony, also known as the Swan River Settlement, or just ''Swan River'', was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. This initial settlement place on the Swan River was soon named Perth, an ...

colonial government to be a prison for

indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

. The prison consisted of two guards, an overseer named Robert Menli Lyon, and three prisoners named Yagan, Danmera, and Ningina. The solitary conditions resulted in the soldiers assisting the prisoners' escape in a stolen government stores boat. In 1884, the colonial government gazetted the island as a quarantine station for Fremantle, but it appears never to have been used for that purpose. In 1916, the

Australian Federal Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national Executive (government), executive government of Australia, a federalism, federal Parliamentary system, parliamentary con ...

assumed control over the island for defence purposes, and the island was transferred back to the State of Western Australia in 1961. The Carnac Island Nature Reserve was gazetted on 8 March 1963, has a size of , and is located within the

Swan Coastal Plain The Swan Coastal Plain in Western Australia is the geographic feature which contains the Swan River as it travels west to the Indian Ocean. The coastal plain continues well beyond the boundaries of the Swan River and its tributaries, as a geol ...

bioregion. Apart from Carnac Island itself, the nature reserve includes the rocks north and south of the island.

Fauna

The island is home to

Australian sea lion The Australian sea lion (''Neophoca cinerea''), also known as the Australian sea-lion or Australian sealion, is a species of sea lion that is the only endemic pinniped in Australia. It is currently Monotypic taxon, monotypic in the genus ''Neopho ...

bottlenose dolphin The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

s and a large range of marine bird life. New Zealand fur seals are frequent visitors.

Rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

s inhabited the island in abundance from 1827 to 1897, but were eradicated in 1969. It is particularly noted for the abundance and size of snakes, particularly

tiger snake The tiger snake (''Notechis scutatus'') is a large and highly venomous snake of southern Australia, including its coastal islands and Tasmania. These snakes are often observed and locally well known by their banding, black and yellow like a ti ...

s, which live there. The island is densely populated with up to three tiger snakes in every . There is no permanent fresh water, providing a challenge for the animals that live there. The tiger snake colony has attracted research into how that species has adapted to a harsh island habitat, and the colony's origins has attracted significant debate. One example of a theory is that in 1929 a man named Lindsay "Rocky" Vane dumped his tiger snake collection on the island, after snake exhibitions were banned in Western Australia, after Vane's wife and his assistant died from snake bite. King skinks also inhabit the island, and there is evidence of confrontation between king skinks and tiger snakes. In November 2006, naturalist

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...

visited the island with a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

film crew to record a reptile documentary, in which Attenborough provided commentary on the

blindness Visual or vision impairment (VI or VIP) is the partial or total inability of visual perception. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment, visual impairment may cause the individual difficul ...

of many of the island's tiger snakes. This is caused by birds defending their chicks by pecking at the snakes' eyes. These blind snakes survive and thrive, relying upon scent and eating immobile prey such as seabird chicks. Carnac Island is the only place where this has been observed. Male tiger snakes largely out-number female tiger snakes on the island, which is another curiosity of the island's tiger snake colony. Carnac Island is classified as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

because it supports a large

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

of the vulnerable fairy tern, as well as small numbers of other nesting seabirds.

References

{{subject bar , auto=y , portal1=Western Australia , portal2=Environment Islands of the Perth region (Western Australia) Important Bird Areas of Western Australia Cockburn Sound Whaling stations in Australia

History

Fauna

See also

References