Escape Island is an island near
Jurien Bay 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 ...
. It is located within the
Jurien Bay Marine Park
The Jurien Bay Marine Park is a protected marine park that is located north of Perth, off the coastal tip of the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The marine park was formally declared on and is situated along the Indian Ocean Drive tha ...
and part of the Escape Island Nature Reserve.
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
A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...
during periods of glaciation. Large parallel sand dunes then formed and hardened into 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) ...
, 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, Western Australia, Albany in the south. The ...
geological features can be found on the islands, including the fragile fossil root networks known as rhizolith
Rhizoliths are organosedimentary structures formed in soils or fossil soils (paleosols) by plant roots. They include root moulds, casts, and tubules, root petrifactions, and rhizocretions. Rhizoliths, and other distinctive modifications of carbon ...
s that are found on Escape Island.[
]
Fauna
The Jurien Bay skink
Skinks are a type of lizard belonging to the family (biology), family Scincidae, a family in the Taxonomic rank, infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one o ...
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 are also found on the island but tend to inhabit the petrel
Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the phylogenetic order Procellariiformes.
Description
Petrels are a monophyletic group of marine seabirds, sharing a characteristic of a nostril arrangement that results in the name "tubenoses". Petrels enco ...
burrows that are also found on the island.
In 1999, 40 dibbler
The 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 t ...
s that were bred at Perth Zoo
Perth Zoo is a zoological park in South Perth, Western Australia, South Perth, Western Australia. The zoo first opened in 1898 and by 2011 housed 1258 animals of 164 species and an extensive botanical collection.
It is a full institutional me ...
were released on the island under the wildlife recovery program Western Shield.
See also
* List of islands of Western Australia
For lists of islands of Western Australia, please see:
* List of islands of Western Australia, 0–9, A–C
*Islands of Lake Argyle
*List of islands of Western Australia, D–G
* List of islands of Western Australia, H–L
* List of islands of W ...
References
{{reflist
Islands of the Wheatbelt (Western Australia)
Nature reserves in Western Australia
Turquoise Coast (Western Australia)
Jurien Bay Marine Park