Cape Barren Island
Cape Barren Island, officially truwana / Cape Barren Island, is a 478-square-kilometre (185 sq mi) island in Bass Strait, off the north-east coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is the second-largest island of the Furneaux Group, with the larger Flinders Island to the north, and the smaller Clarke Island to the south. The highest point on the island is Mount Munro at 715 metres (2,346 ft). Mount Munro is named after James Munro (c. 1779-1845), a former convict turned sealer who, from the 1820s, lived for more than 20 years with various indigenous women on nearby Preservation Island.
Native name: truwana | |
|---|---|
Cape Barren Island (center) from space, January 1997 | |
Cape Barren Island (Tasmania) | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Bass Strait |
| Coordinates | 40.402°S 147.991°E |
| Area | 478.4 km2 (184.7 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 715 m (2346 ft) |
| Highest point | Mount Munro |
| Administration | |
Australia | |
| State | Tasmania |
| LGA | Municipality of Flinders Island |
| Largest settlement | The Corner (pop. 60) |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 66 (2016) |
| Pop. density | 0.14/km2 (0.36/sq mi) |
Ramsar Wetland | |
| Official name | Cape Barren Island,east coast lagoons |
| Designated | 16 November 1982 |
| Reference no. | 256 |
The south-eastern point of the island was named Cape Barren by Tobias Furneaux in HMS Adventure in March 1773.
The island was gazetted as a locality of the Flinders Council in 1968. Its population numbered 66 in 2016, most of them in the settlement called The Corner, on the north-west coast.
Australia's only native goose, the Cape Barren goose, was first documented by European explorers on the island.