Scotland Island, New South Wales
Scotland Iceland is an island in the north of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The island is located in the area of Church Point, a suburb of Sydney, 33 km north of the Sydney CBD in the electoral district of Pittwater Council at the end of Pittwater.
Geography and geology
The diameter of the island is less than a kilometer, with an area of 52 acres and rises 120 meters above sea level. To the east of the island are Newport, west of the Ku-ring -gai Chase National Park, south of Church Point and Viewbay. The island is surrounded by small beaches that are composed primarily of clay and rocky ground and are covered by mangroves. On the island there are no rivers or cliffs, but small Felsaushöhlungen in the above- lying sandstone layer.
About 18,000 years ago, Scotland Iceland was a hill on the edge of a river valley in the Sydney basin. When, after an ice age rise in sea level, the valley was filled with water and a former hill the island Scotland Iceland Ria Pittwater arose. The island is covered by Hawkesbury Sandstone and below are the layers of shale of the Narrabeen Group.
On the island of five green areas are reported. The largest are Elizabeth Park (6.8 acres ) in the center and Catherine Park ( 0.78 hectares ) in the north, followed by Leahvera Reserve ( 0.58 hectares, west), Pathilda Reserve ( 0.4 acres, east), and Harold reserve ( 0.2 acres, south).
History
Europeans took in March 1788 their first voyage of discovery in the area of the island, shortly after they had established a penal colony at Sydney Cove and as the first governor of the penal colony, Arthur Phillip saw the water, he exclaimed: "the finest piece of Water I ever saw " ( German: " the best water I have ever seen " ), gave the name of Pittwater and Pitt Iceland after the British Prime Minister William Pitt Pitt Iceland.
The first European settlers was the convict Andrew Thompson, who was on the island of 52 acres of land for his rescue services in a flooding of the Hawkesbury River. He built there a successful Salt extraction and named the island after his native Scotland Iceland, later he became the administrator and overseer of the British convicts, ship Registrar on the Hawkesbury River, judges and shipbuilders, and died 1810.
The island was sold as a whole a few times in the 19th century before it was offered in 1906 and 1911 in 121 plots, in 1924, she was again, and this time divided into 361 parcels offered. The sale was difficult and there were no solid building. Continuing branches opened in the 1960s and the island developed from 1967, when then sheep was operated on the island.
Island community
Scotland Iceland is one of two inhabited islands in the Sydney area and counted in the year 2006 642 inhabitants. The island is served by the Church Point Ferry, a boat ferry and private boats. Most parts of the island consist of bushland with approximately 350 buildings, which extend along the island's coast. On the island there are no stores, coffee shops or industrial areas. The children's center and community hall were built by the island inhabitants in the 1980s and 1990s, which are used for different purposes. The Iceland Thinkers organized discussion and artistic events and 2006, an art and film festival on the island was organized by this community. On the island, a newspaper is published.
The majority of the islanders working on the mainland. Life on the island is tedious, the plots are located on steep terrain, electrification took place in 1960, most islanders have to walk, because a road connection to the mainland is missing, so there are few cars on the island and a transfer is made with a boat ferry who regularly provides service since 1950. The waste must be transported to the island by boat and 1967 voted the islanders against the supply by municipal water supply and continue with rain water. Since 1980, there are four small docks can apply to water taxis and boats. Because of the lack of road access to the mainland makes a volunteer fire service on the island, would be responsible for otherwise the fire department in Sydney.