Depot Island is the largest island in the Bounty Islands, a chain of uninhabited subantarctic islands 800 kilometres off the southeast coast of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

. The island is an important bird nesting site, and is located within the Moutere Hauriri / Bounty Islands Marine Reserve.Bounty Islands
" New Zealand Department of Conservation. Depot Island lies at the centre of the Bounties' main group, in the northwest of the chain. It is surrounded by numerous smaller islands, notably Proclamation, Ruatara, Spider, Penguin, Tunnel, and Ranfurly Islands. It is a roughly triangular slab of bare igneous rock, some 400 metres in length and covering an area of . It is separated from its nearest neighbours (Tunnel and Ranfurly Islands) by a narrow straight channel which delineates the island's northeastern side. The island has only one inlet, in the southwest, but, like the rest of the chain, this is unsuitable for anchorage owing to a reef which protects much of the island's coast. Depot Island rises to an unnamed peak near its centre at above sea level. The island, along with the others in the chain, was discovered by Captain

William Bligh William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was a Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Royal Navy vice-admiral and colonial administrator who served as the governor of New South Wales from 1806 to 1808. He is best known for his role in the Muti ...

in 1788, and named them after his ship, just months before the famous

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

on the ship which gave the islands their name. Depot Island's name reflects the location of a castaway depot on the island, set up in 1886 by the crew from the ''Hinemoa''. Captain Fairchild noted that there was no fresh water available on these islands. The depot had been destroyed by the sea by the time the ''Stella'' visited the island in 1887,"The SS Stella's Visit to the Islands," ''Evening Post'', Volume XXXIII, Issue 71, 25 March 1887, Page 3 but was later replenished. Depot provisioning is no longer present on the island, and little remains of the depot.

References

New Zealand subantarctic islands Uninhabited islands of New Zealand Important Bird Areas of New Zealand Archipelagoes of the Southern Ocean Islands of the New Zealand outlying islands Bounty Islands {{OutlyingNZ-geo-stub