Warul Kawa

Indigenous Protected Area An Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) is a class of protected area used in Australia; each is formed by voluntary agreement with Indigenous Australians, and declared by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander representative organisation ...

(also known as Deliverance Island) is a small island that is part of Australia's

National Reserve System Australia's National Reserve System (NRS) is a network of more than 10,000 Commonwealth of Australia, Commonwealth plus States and territories of Australia, state and territory protected areas which, in combination, on a national scale, protect ...

, located south of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

and about north of

Thursday Island, Torres Strait Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately north of Cape ...

. The protected area and island are the most north westerly of the

Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their tot ...

located in the water of

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, �zen̪ad̪ kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, ...

, part of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

in Australia, and from Indonesia, at the border of

Papua province Papua is a province of Indonesia, comprising the northern coast of Western New Guinea together with island groups in Cenderawasih Bay to the west. It roughly follows the borders of the Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri, and is divided in ...

Geology

It is a sand

cay A cay ( ), also spelled caye or key, is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef. Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans, including in the Caribbean and on the Grea ...

surrounded by a shallow reef platform interspersed with sandy patches, with little live coral present. Brown and

Green algae The green algae (: green alga) are a group of chlorophyll-containing autotrophic eukaryotes consisting of the phylum Prasinodermophyta and its unnamed sister group that contains the Chlorophyta and Charophyta/ Streptophyta. The land plants ...

are predominating on the rocky substrate with some seagrass present. The island and surrounding reef support two internationally significant populations of sea turtles. It contains one of the largest rookeries for the Flatback turtle (''Natator depressus''). The extensive shallow water habitats in the area also support large numbers of migrating green turtles. The breeding assemblages in north and eastern Australia are the largest remaining rookeries for green turtles. The island and surrounding reef system have retained their high natural value due largely to their remoteness. Although Warul Kawa has been inhabited periodically by Europeans in the past, there has been little impact on the natural environment as evident by the presence of only two-recorded exotic plant species. The area has maintained high vegetation integrity of considerable diversity and complexity. These habitats support thirty-three species of birds, including the yellow-footed scrubfowl, not reported on many other islands in Torres Strait.

Cultural significance

Due to the spiritual and cultural significance that the island has for local Indigenous people, Deliverance Island was declared an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in February 2001. The local Indigenous name for the island, Warul Kawa, means "Island of turtles" in the Torres Strait Island language.

Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

's character German Harry from his book ''Cosmopolitans'', a Danish mariner from Langebæk who was in fact known as Old Harry but christened as Johannes Henrik Enevoldsen (22 August 1850 – 21 January 1928), lived on the island as a hermit from about 1888 until his death.

References

External links

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Significant agreement/treaty

Warul Kawa (Deliverance Island) Financial Assistance Agreement

{{Torres Strait Indigenous Protected Areas of Australia Torres Strait Islands Protected areas of Queensland Protected areas established in 2001 2001 establishments in Australia

Geology

Cultural significance

See also

References

External links

Significant agreement/treaty