Lowendal Islands

The Lowendal archipelago consists of 34 islands. It is about 50 km off the coast of Western Australia in Australia, about 120 km from Onslow in the Pilbara region has been removed, about 7.5 km north-east of Barrow Island and 10 km south of the Monte Bello Islands.

Geography

The archipelago ( in the Ashburton Ward ) belongs to the Ashburton Shire in the Pilbara region, and forms the northern land mass of the Ashburton Shire.

The largest island of the archipelago is Lowendal Varanus Iceland (83 ha), which is 2.5 km long and 600 m wide. Other islands are Abutilon (27 ha), Bridled (27 ha), Parkinsonia (10 ha) and Beacon (1.5 ha). The five largest islands occupy about 93 percent of the total area of 160 hectares.

F1 map with all coordinates of the section Geography: OSM, Google and Bing

Environment

The islands of the group consist of limestone and only have low vegetation, as they are heavily karstified.

In the waters of the archipelago, coral reefs, sea grass and algae grow. The islands are nature reserves, where a nesting bird colonies.

Economic use

In Varanus Iceland is a large industrial plant for the liquefaction of gas that exploded in 2008 and was destroyed. This meant that the gas supply in Australia has been reduced for months on a third.

Within the group of islands is the Simpson oil field that the Apache Northwest Pty Ltd.. exploits. In Varanus Iceland are oil tanks and pipelines lead to the mainland of Australia. In Varanus Iceland also ships offshore can be loaded. In the waters of the archipelago there are several oil rigs and oil production platforms such as Harriet Alpha, which lie a few kilometers from the islands in the sea.

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