Recherche Archipelago
The research Archipelago, also known as the Archipelago of the research is formed by 105 islands and about 1,800 cliffs on the south coast of Western Australia. The islands extend 230 km in east-west direction and are up to 50 kilometers away from the coast. The archipelago extends from the town of Esperance to Israelite Bay, a bay with a ruin of an old telegraph station and a weather station.
History
The Dutch captain François Thijssen and Pieter Nuyts discovered the archipelago in 1627 from a ship Gulden Zeepaert ( "Golden Seahorse "). George Vancouver went through in 1791, this archipelago, in 1792 was followed by the Frenchman Joseph Bruny d' Entrecasteaux to the admiral's ship La Recherche ( " search; research"), after whom the island group was then named.
Was first explored the archipelago in 1802 by Matthew Flinders. Australia's famous pirate Black Jack Anderson held in the 1830s on there, as well as other pirates.
Archipelagos
All the islands of the archipelago together comprise about 97 square kilometers of land. They consist mostly of granite, partly of gneiss. A western island group is located near Esperance, Woody Iceland and opposite the mainland coast of the Cape Le Grand National Park, an eastern island group is located in middleware Iceland, opposite the mainland coast of Cape Arid National Park. The Cape Le Grand National Park and Cape Arid National Park are combined to Recherche Archipelago Nature Reserve.
Middle Iceland is 10.8 square kilometers, the largest island of the archipelago, the Flinders so named because he recognized the other islands of the highest mountain in the archipelago. From this island from the pirate Black Jack put out to sea and there is the pink Lake Hillier. Woody Iceland is the only island that is accessible to April public for camping and hiking in September.
Table of the main islands
Below, the largest islands of the Recherche Archipelago, with an area of at least one square kilometer, and a few other islands:
F1 map with all coordinates: OSM, Google and Bing
Animal and plant life
The fishing grounds are available for private and commercial. You can fish for abalone, lobster, sardines and sharks. Furthermore, there are aquaculture and breeding ponds for the Southern Bluefin Tuna. In early 1991 a ship was sunk with 33,000 gross tons, to create an artificial reef. Today, it is also visited by wreck divers. Sponges, seagrasses, soft corals and scallops grow in this area.
Hundreds of bird species inhabit the archipelago. Minke whales, which can grow to 10 feet long, and seals looking on the archipelago. Furthermore, who settled on the islands of up to 2.5 meters long and 300 -pound Australian sea lion and New Zealand fur seal of. Also unique are the research Rockwallaby and the Black -flanked Rockwallaby. Also the Derbywallaby, the Australian bandicoots, the diamond python, the chicken goose and two rare species of frogs live on this archipelago.