The Pelsaert Group is the southernmost of the three groups of islands that make up the

Houtman Abrolhos The Houtman Abrolhos (often called the Abrolhos Islands) is a chain of 122 islands and associated coral reefs in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia about west of Geraldton, Western Australia. It is the southernmost true coral r ...

island chain. It consists of a number of islands, the largest of which are

Gun Island Gun Island is one of the larger islands in the Pelsaert Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. It is nominally at , about north and east of Half Moon Reef and is a flat limestone outcrop of about ...

, Middle Island, and

Pelsaert Island Pelsaert Island is one of the islands of the Pelsaert Group, which is the southernmost of the three groups of islands that make up the Houtman Abrolhos island chain in Western Australia. Nominally located at , it consists of a numb ...

. The group is named after

Francisco Pelsaert Francisco Pelsaert ( – September 1630) was a Dutch merchant who worked for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) best known for his role as the commander of the . The ship ran aground in the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coastal regions of West ...

a Dutch "opperkoopman", who stranded nearby with the VOC-ship " Batavia" in 1629. The group contains the most southerly true

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. ...

in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. The group is part of the Houtman Abrolhos

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 ...

, identified as such by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because of its importance for supporting large numbers of breeding seabirds. A great many ships have been wrecked in the Pelsaert Group. The most notable wreck is the ''

Zeewijk The ''Zeewijk'' (or ''Zeewyk'') was an 18th-century East Indiaman of the Dutch East India Company (, commonly abbreviated to VOC) that was shipwrecked at the Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia, on 9 June 1727. The survivors ...

'', which was wrecked on the

Half Moon Reef One half is the multiplicative inverse of 2. It is an irreducible fraction with a numerator of 1 and a denominator of 2. It often appears in mathematical equations, recipes and measurements. As a word One half is one of the few fractions w ...

in 1727, the survivors staying on

for some time afterwards. Other wrecks include the '' Ocean Queen'', wrecked on the Half Moon Reef in 1842; the ''

Ben Ledi Ben Ledi (Beinn Leitir in Scottish Gaelic) is a mountain in Stirling, Scotland. It is high, and is therefore classified as a Corbett. It lies about northwest of Callander, near the village of Kilmahog. It is situated in the Trossachs, an ar ...

'', wrecked off Pelsaert Island in 1879; and the ''Windsor'', wrecked on the Half Moon Reef in 1908.Australia 1:100000 Topographic Survey, Map sheet 1640 (Edition 1): Abrolhos Special

References

Important Bird Areas of Western Australia Islands of the Mid West (Western Australia) {{WesternAustralia-geo-stub

See also

References