Clarke Island (Tasmania)

Early occupation Clarke Island is known to Aboriginal Tasmanians as Lungtalanana. Aboriginal peoples occupied and used the land while it was still connected to the mainland, before the Last Glacial Period, and it is estimated that the island was occupied until around 6,500 years ago. There are many archaeological sites on the island, showing evidence of Aboriginal occupation and land use over a long period. Shipwreck (1797) Sydney Cove ran aground between Preservation Island and Rum Island on 28 February 1797. A party of seventeen men set off on 28 February 1787 in the ship's longboat to reach help at Port Jackson, away. This was led by first mate Hugh Thompson, and included William Clark the supercargo, three European seamen and twelve lascars. Ill fortune struck again and they were wrecked on the mainland at the northern end of Ninety Mile Beach. Their only hope was to walk along the shore all the way to Sydney, a distance of over . They had few provisions and no ammunition, and fatigue and hunger lessened their number as they marched. Along the way they encountered various Aboriginal Tasmanians, some friendly and some not. The last of the party to die on the march was killed by a man Dilba and his people near Hat Hill. Those people had a reputation around Port Jackson for being ferocious. Matthew Flinders and George Bass had feared for their safety when they encountered Dilba the previous year. In May 1797 the three survivors of the march, William Clark, sailor John Bennet and one lascar had made it to the cove at Wattamolla and, on 15 May 1797, with their strength nearly at an end they were able to signal a boat out fishing, which took them on to Sydney. On the march Clark had noted coal in the cliffs at what is now called Coalcliff between Sydney and Wollongong. This was the first coal found in Australia. On arrival at Port Jackson, the men informed Governor Hunter of the Sydney Cove and its remaining crew. Hunter despatched the Francis and the Eliza to salvage the ship and take the remaining crew and cargo to Port Jackson. and a live animal was taken back to Port Jackson. to verify it as a new species. Flinders also spotted many fur seals on the island in 1798. Shipwreck (1853) HMS Litherland sank off the coast of the island in 1853, and was discovered in 1983. Clarke Island is Tasmania's eighth largest island. Later use Sealing took place on the island from 1810 until 1837. From 1843 onwards, grazing livestock was introduced to the island in the form of sheep and cattle. European use of the island brought feral animals, weeds, and plant diseases. The family had minimal financial resources, and lived a semi-subsistence lifestyle, tending goats, and living from a garden and the sea. In 2009, Clarke Island had one permanent resident, while small groups of up to eight people visited for youth and corporate programmes. Infrastructure was limited and ageing. The main settlement is in the northwest corner, consisting of several buildings (4 remaining in 2023), the wharf, and an airstrip suitable for Light aircraft. Handback In 1995, the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania bought a large area of land on the island under a lease agreement. This marked the first official handover of Crown land to an Aboriginal community in Tasmania. In 2009, the island was designated an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA). ==Location and geography==

Clarke Island is part of the Furneaux Group, is an island in Bass Strait, south of Cape Barren Island, about off the northeast coast of Tasmania, Australia. Banks Strait separates the island from Cape Portland on the mainland. Clarke Island is Tasmania's eighth largest island, and the third largest in the Furneaux Group. Topography A prominent feature of Clarke Island is a central plateau that rises . This inland highland provides a limited water catchment from which water flows directly to the sea. There are three prominent hills: Blue Hills to the east, Green Hill in the southwest, Steep Hill in the northwest. There are wetlands along the coastline, which consists of rocky outcrops with white beaches between them. On the eastern shore of the island is a string of white beaches. ==Ecology, flora and fauna==

In the early 1800s Clarke Island was heavily wooded with eucalypts and sheoak (limuna), the latter growing in a belt close to the shore. during which time no cultural burning took place, leading to a number of damaging bushfires. Grazing stopped in 2005 after custodianship of the island was handed back to the local Aboriginal people, but the damage persists into the 2020s, with pastures only slowly being regenerated. A large fire in 2014 burnt about 98% of the island's vegetation. The cats were probably responsible for rendering the remaining small native mammals locally extinct. This disease, which rots the roots of plants, has since spread, and by 2015 was of some concern, especially the threat to the yamina forest, although it had not spread to the nearby islands. It can be carried by contaminated dirt on machinery or clothing. Its status as an IPA qualifies the area for some funding from DCCEEW and from the National Indigenous Australians Agency. However, this is not enough to cover elimination of the feral cats; it is mostly earmarked for employment and training of Indigenous rangers to manage Country. has been committed to the island by WWF-Australia, but this is for rewilding rather than cat eradication. A project involving the translocation of several species, starting with Bass Strait wombats from Flinders Island, and Maria Island, is planned to begin in mid-2025. It is hoped that Bennetts wallabies and long-nosed potoroos will be next, once the cat population has been brought under control and the wombats have created burrows, which serve to cool the earth and provide shelter for smaller species. ==See also==