The Chipping Norton Islands consist of four small

lake island A lake island is any landmass within a lake. It is a type of inland island. Lake islands may form a lake archipelago. Formation Lake islands may form in numerous ways. They may occur through a build-up of sedimentation as shoals, and become t ...

s that are found within

Chipping Norton Lake Chipping Norton Lake, formerly called Lake Thomas Moore, is a artificial lake and regional park located in the Sydney suburb of , New South Wales, Australia. It is a part of the Georges River system. Chipping Norton Lake is managed by City of L ...

in western

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Geography

The four

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

s, which belong to different suburbs, include: *''Bass Island'' - Situated in the west towards

Cabramatta Cabramatta, also abbreviated as Cabra, is a suburb in South Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Cabramatta is located south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local gove ...

*''Bulba-Gong (Wildlife Reserve Island)'' - Located in the eastern part of the lake within

Chipping Norton Chipping Norton is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Cotswolds in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England, about south-west of Banbury and north-west of Oxford. The United Kingdom Census 2011, 201 ...

and is the largest *''Crescent Island'' - Strip-shaped, located in the northwest part of the lake towards Lansvale *''Daruk Island'' - Found in the centre of the lake to the east and is the most distant to land, but within the bounds of Chipping Norton

Description

The islands are within

Liverpool City Council Liverpool City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. Liverpool has had a local authority since 1207, which has been reformed on numerous ...

and

Fairfield City Council The Fairfield City Council is a local government area in the west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The council was first incorporated as the "Municipal District of Smithfield and Fairfield" on 8 December 1888, and the coun ...

local government areas. Straddling

Georges River The Georges River, also known as Tucoerah River, is an intermediate tide-dominated Ria, drowned valley estuary, that is located in Sydney, Australia. The Georges River is located south and south-west from the Sydney central business district, w ...

, they are mostly made up of native wildlife that serve as a refuge for endemic birds. The islands are accessible by boat, though visitor access is prohibited. Daruk Island is named after the

Darug The Dharug or Darug people, are a nation of Aboriginal Australian clans, who share ties of kinship, country and culture. In pre-colonial times, they lived as hunters in the region of current day Sydney. The Darug speak one of two dialects o ...

people, an Aboriginal tribe native to Sydney. “Bulba-gong” means 'island' and 'bird', respectively, in the

Eora language The Dharug language, also spelt Darug, Dharuk, and other variants, and also known as the Sydney language, Gadigal language ( Sydney city area), is an Australian Aboriginal language of the Yuin–Kuric group that was traditionally spoken in th ...

Ecology

There are over fifty different kinds of birds found around the lake, which would visit or inhabit the islands, such as

Australian pelican The Australian pelican (''Pelecanus conspicillatus'') is a large waterbird in the family Pelecanidae, widespread on the inland and coastal waters of Australia and New Guinea, also in Fiji, parts of Indonesia and as a vagrant in New Zealand. It ...

Australasian swamphen The Australasian swamphen (''Porphyrio melanotus''), commonly known as the pūkeko in New Zealand, is a striking and socially complex bird found in Oceania, including eastern Indonesia (the Moluccas, Aru Islands, Aru and Kai Islands), Papua New ...

egret Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...

maned duck The Australian wood duck, maned duck or maned goose (''Chenonetta jubata'') is a Anatinae, dabbling duck found throughout much of Australia. It is the only living species in the genus ''Chenonetta''. Traditionally placed in the subfamily Anatinae ...

pacific black duck The Pacific black duck (''Anas superciliosa''), commonly known as the PBD, is a dabbling duck found in much of Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and many islands in the southwestern Pacific, reaching to the Caroline Islands in the no ...

sacred ibis The African sacred ibis (''Threskiornis aethiopicus'') is a species of ibis, a wading bird of the family Threskiornithidae. It is native to much of Africa, as well as small parts of Iraq, Iran and Kuwait. It is especially known for its role in ...

, and

pardalote Pardalotes or peep-wrens are a family (biology), family, Pardalotidae, of very small, brightly coloured birds native to Australia, with short tails, strong legs, and stubby blunt beaks. This family is composed of four species in one genus, ''Pard ...

. Dolphin and sharks are usually spotted in the surrounding waters. The woodlands of the region feature

sedge The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...

lands,

reed Reed or Reeds may refer to: Science, technology, biology, and medicine * Reed bird (disambiguation) * Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times * Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales * Re ...

s and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

s. Native trees include the swamp oak, forest red gum,

blue box A blue box is an Electronics, electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voi ...

, grey box, bangalay and rough-barked apple. The

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

woodland vegetation is another striking feature of the lake as it is an endangered ecological community.

References

{{reflist Islands of Sydney Nature reserves in New South Wales City of Liverpool (New South Wales) City of Fairfield Lake islands of Australia Archipelagoes of Australia