Escape Island is an island near
Jurien Bay in
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
.
Description
The island has an area of , is located from the mainland, at the southern end of Jurien Bay, and has a maximum elevation of .
[
The island is part of the Turquoise Coast islands nature reserve group, a chain of 40 islands spread over a distance of .]
Lighthouse
Geology
The islands were formed approximately 10,000 years ago after large fluctuations in sea levels caused erosion on large areas of the continental shelf during periods of glaciation. Large parallel sand dunes then formed and hardened into limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...
, forming islands, most of which have been separated from the mainland for 6,500 years.[
Well preserved ]Tamala limestone
Tamala Limestone is the geological name given to the widely occurring eolianite limestone deposits on the western coastline of Western Australia, between Shark Bay in the north and nearly to Albany in the south. The rock consists of calcarenite ...
geological features can be found on the islands, including the fragile fossil root networks known as rhizoliths that are found on Escape Island.[
]
Fauna
The Jurien Bay skink
Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae, a family in the infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one of the most diverse families of lizards. S ...
is found on the island, inhabiting the crevices in the limestone rocks. The bull skink is also found but lives in shallow burrows in the sandy soil. King's skinks
Kings or King's may refer to:
*Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings
*One of several works known as the "Book of Kings":
**The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts
**The ''Shahnameh'' ...
are also found on the island but tend to inhabit the petrel burrows that are also found on the island.
In 1999, 40 dibbler
Dibbler (''Parantechinus apicalis'') is an endangered species of marsupial. It is an inhabitant of the southwest mainland of Western Australia and some offshore islands. It is a member of the order Dasyuromorphia, and the only member of th ...
s that were bred at Perth Zoo were released on the island under the wildlife recovery program Western Shield.
See also
* List of islands of Western Australia
References
{{coord, 30, 20, 03, S, 114, 59, 05, E, display=title, region:AU_type:isle_source:GNS-enwiki
Islands of the Mid West (Western Australia)
Nature reserves in Western Australia
Turquoise Coast (Western Australia)