Barrow Island (Western Australia)

{{Infobox islands

| name = Barrow Island

| image_name = NW Coast 1897.JPG

| image_caption = Barrow Island from an 1897 map, showing the Australian mainland on the bottom right (south-east) and the Montebello Islands to the north

| image_map = {{maplink

|frame=yes

|plain=yes

|frame-align=center

|frame-width=220

|frame-height=220

|text=Barrow Island

|zoom=10

|type=shape

|stroke-colour=#C60C30

|stroke-width=3

|title=Barrow Island

}}

| map = Western Australia

| map_caption = Barrow Island (Western Australia)

| location = Indian Ocean, off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia

| coordinates = {{coord |region:AU-WA_type:isle_dim:30km |name={{wikidata |property |P1448 }} |display=inline,title |format=dms |notes={{Gazetteer of Australia|name=Barrow Island, Western Australia (Towns & Localities)|id=307788}} Retrieved 28 December 2009.}}

| archipelago =

| area_km2 = 202

| length_km = 27

| width_km = 11.5

| coastline_km = 72

| highest_mount =

| elevation_m =

| country = Australia

| country_admin_divisions_title = State

| country_admin_divisions = Western Australia

| population = {{#invoke:PopulationFromWikidata | ListForInfobox | type=suburb | wikidata=Q55448889}}

| population_as_of =

| additional_info =

}}

Barrow Island is a {{convert|202|km2|adj=on}} island {{convert|50|km|mi|0}} northwest off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia. The island is the second largest in Western Australia after Dirk Hartog Island.{{cite web |url=http://www.landgate.wa.gov.au/corporate.nsf/web/Interesting+facts+about+Western+Australia |title=Landgate - Interesting facts about Western Australia |year=2009 |access-date=2009-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090412105305/http://www.landgate.wa.gov.au/corporate.nsf/web/Interesting%2Bfacts%2Babout%2BWestern%2BAustralia |archive-date=12 April 2009 |url-status=dead}}

Early history and European discovery

The island was visited by Indigenous Australians approximately 4,000 or more years ago. It separated from the mainland approximately 6,800 years ago.{{cite web|title=Evidence of the earliest occupation of the coasts of Australia from Barrow Island, Northwest Australia|url=https://phys.org/news/2017-05-evidence-earliest-occupation-coasts-australia.html|website=Phys.org|access-date=19 May 2017}}Research by Barrow Island Archaeology Project.{{cite journal|last=Dortch|first=C|author2=Morse|title=Prehistoric stone artefacts on some offshore islands in Western Australia|journal=Australian Archaeology|year=1984|volume=19|pages=31–47|doi=10.1080/03122417.1984.12092954|url=https://www.library.uq.edu.au/ojs/index.php/aa/article/view/1769/1752|access-date=25 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402130254/https://www.library.uq.edu.au/ojs/index.php/aa/article/view/1769/1752|archive-date=2 April 2015|url-status=dead}} Stone artefacts including several weathered flakes and fragments made of igneous and metamorphic rocks and chert were collected from Barrow Island in the 1960s. Thevenard Island also has evidence of Aboriginal visitation, and it is likely that the nearby Montebello Islands were utilized as well; however, there have been no archaeological finds from these islands.

Navigators had noted its existence since the early 17th century, and Nicholas Baudin sighted it in 1803, mistakenly believing it to be part of mainland Australia.{{cite web|url=http://www.gorgon.com.au/03moe_barrow.html|title=Barrow Island|work=gorgon.com.au|access-date=2006-12-13}} Phillip Parker King named the island in 1816 after Sir John Barrow, a Secretary of the Admiralty and founder of the Royal Geographical Society.

Whalers were known to operate in the area from about 1800 onwards. The first recorded visit by whalers was in 1842 with continued visits occurring until 1864. The island was used as a slave trading centre for Aboriginal Australians during the 1870s by Captain William Cadell until he was arrested and removed from the colony in 1876. Slave labour was used in the nearby mainland pearling industry.{{cite web|url=http://members.westnet.com.au/caladenia/ghosttowns/B.pdf|title=Morowa Historical Society - Ghosttowns of Western Australia|year=2000|access-date=2010-11-07|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312055951/http://members.westnet.com.au/caladenia/ghosttowns/B.pdf|archive-date=12 March 2011}}

Guano, seabirds or bats' excrement that is a highly effective fertilizer, was found on the island and mining began in 1883. It was mined for the remainder of the 1880s and sold to markets in Perth.{{cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3117009|title=The West Australian|year=1888|access-date=2010-11-07}}

Environment

File:Barrow Island.png image]]

Barrow Island is noted for its flat spinifex grasslands spotted with termite mounds. While the main feature of Barrow Island's geography is the undulating limestone uplands, the island is surrounded by a mixture of sandy beaches and rocky shores, low cliffs, dunes, salt flats, and reefs.

Due to its isolation from mainland Australia and protection afforded under its statutory status, Barrow Island is one of the most important conservation reserves in Western Australia.{{cite web | url = http://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/news/media-statements/minister-for-environment/item/1382-10-year-plan-for-pilbara-islands-released | title = 10-year plan for Pilbara islands released | date = 24 February 2015 | access-date = 15 December 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151222075420/http://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/news/media-statements/minister-for-environment/item/1382-10-year-plan-for-pilbara-islands-released | archive-date = 22 December 2015 | url-status = dead }} It is an "A-class" reserve, the highest level of conservation protection available for Crown land in Australia.{{cite web|title=Conservation Reserves|url=http://www.edowa.org.au/files/factsheets/bhpl_reserves.pdf|access-date=25 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125091328/http://edowa.org.au/files/factsheets/bhpl_reserves.pdf|archive-date=25 January 2014|url-status=dead}} Once a national park or class A nature reserve is made, mining leases and general purpose leases cannot be granted over them without the consent of both Houses of Parliament, and actual mining cannot take place within them without specific permission of the Minister for Environment. This occurred in 2003, when a portion of the reserve was excised to facilitate the Gorgon gas project.{{cite web|title=Barrow Island Bill 2003|url=http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/parliament/bills.nsf/BillProgressPopup?openForm&ParentUNID=6ECF866731F4656148256DA3000D5763|publisher=Parliament of Western Australia}}

The island is known for its diversity of mammalian fauna, including several species now extinct or greatly reduced on mainland Australia. Thirteen mammal species exist on the island, including the spectacled hare-wallaby, burrowing bettong, golden bandicoot, black-flanked rock-wallaby, Barrow Island euro and Barrow Island mouse (Pseudomys nanus ferculinus).{{cite web|title=Technical Appendix C2: mammals and reptiles|url=http://www.chevronaustralia.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/c2_mammals_and_reptiles.pdf?sfvrsn=0|access-date=25 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302184936/http://www.chevronaustralia.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/c2_mammals_and_reptiles.pdf?sfvrsn=0|archive-date=2 March 2014|url-status=dead}} The island is also home to 43 species of terrestrial reptiles including a variety of dragons, legless lizards, geckos, skinks, snakes and monitors. The most recognisable of these is probably the perentie, Australia's biggest lizard and the island's top predator. The island represents important turtle nesting habitat for the green turtle and flatback sea turtle.

Some exotic species exist on the island (e.g. the American cockroach{{cite journal|last=Callan|first=Shae K |author2=Jonathan D Majer |author3=Karl Edwards |author4=Dorian Moro |title=Documenting the terrestrial invertebrate fauna of Barrow Island, Western Australia|journal=Australian Journal of Entomology|year=2011|volume=50|issue=4|pages=323–343|doi=10.1111/j.1440-6055.2011.00818.x}}) but the island fauna is largely intact. Black rats (Rattus rattus) were discovered to have established in 1990, but were eradicated by the Department of Conservation and Land Management.{{cite book|last=Morris|first=Keith|title=Turning the Tide: the eradication of Invasive Species|year=2002|publisher=IUCN|pages=219–225|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CI8531CO-dsC&pg=PA219|isbn=978-2-8317-0682-5|editor=Veitch |editor2=Norman |editor3=Clout}} Current threats include invasive species (including weeds, feral cats, common house gecko, etc.) establishing on the island, clearing for development, fire and disease.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

Limestone caves on Barrow Island support subterranean ecological communities. These include endemic and vulnerable species. Invertebrate species include stygofauna, amphipod crustaceans, of Nedsia, Liagoceradocus and other genera. These mostly inhabit an anchialine system, a "lens" of fresh water above the saline ground water, which they share with cave fish species such as the blind cave eel (Ophisternon candidum), and two blind cave gudgeons, Milyeringa veritas and Milyeringa justitia. Troglofauna have also been discovered within the cave systems; these include the schizomid Draculoides bramstokeri and perhaps the only troglobitic reptile—Anilios longissimus. Hydrogen sulphide produced by the "Barrow fault" may sustain this diverse community through chemoautotrophic energy production.{{cite book |last=Burbidge |first=Andrew A |title=Threatened animals of Western Australia |year=2004 |publisher=Department of Conservation and Land Management |isbn=0-7307-5549-5 |chapter=4, 5, 8, 9. |quote=Threats: The production of oil since the 1960s has resulted in considerable pollution of the ground water ... effect this pollution has had, if any, is not known.}}

=Birds=

Barrow Island has been classified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area. Birds include the Barrow Island black-and-white fairy-wren (Malurus leucopterus edouardi), an endemic subspecies of the white-winged fairy-wren, which is regarded as vulnerable to extinction.{{cite web|title=Technical Appendix C3: Avifauna|url=http://www.chevronaustralia.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/c3_avifauna.pdf?sfvrsn=0|access-date=25 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302184237/http://www.chevronaustralia.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/c3_avifauna.pdf?sfvrsn=0|archive-date=2 March 2014|url-status=dead}} The island also supports over 1% of the world populations of grey-tailed tattler, red-necked stint, pied oystercatcher, and fairy tern, as well as an isolated population of the spinifexbird.{{cite web |url=http://www.birdata.com.au/iba.vm |title=IBA: Barrow Island|access-date=2011-05-19 |work= Birdata |publisher=Birds Australia }}

Conservation

The Western Shield project has sought to reduce the impact of introduced species to the region. Corporate and state government cooperation on programs has produced studies into the little-known subterranean fauna of the island.

Energy reserves

=Oil=

Oil was discovered on the island in commercial quantities in 1964 by West Australian Petroleum Pty Ltd (WAPET), and the first oil field was established shortly after.{{cite web|url=http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/773.html#3073 |title = Technology in Australia 1788–1988: North West Shelf |access-date=2007-10-12 |publisher = Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre}} In 1995, there were 430 wells producing oil and natural gas across most of the southern half of the island.Mitch Reardon. The Good Oil on Conservation in Australian Geographic. #37, Jan - Mar 1995. p. 94 The site has been Australia's leading producer of oil.

Oil tankers are filled by a submarine pipeline that extends {{convert|10|km}} offshore. WAPET established a 200-room apartment complex for workers on the island.{{cite web|url=http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=-20826556&x=115444969&z=18&l=0&m=a|title=Satellite image of workers housing complex|work=Wikimapia|access-date=2006-12-14| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061214000013/http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=31112861&x=30944656&z=18&l=10&m=a&v=2| archive-date= 14 December 2006 | url-status= live}} A private airport facility known as Barrow Island Airport {{airport codes|BWB|YBWX}} was also established to transport workers and equipment from Karratha and Perth.

=Gas=

In December 2009, a development consortium comprising the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell received environmental approvals from the Government of Western Australia to develop natural gas reserves {{convert|60|km}} north of the island. Known as the Gorgon gas project, it was completed in 2017,{{Cite web|publisher=Chevron Policy, Government and Public|title=Gorgon Project Business Overview|url=https://www.chevron.com/projects/gorgon|access-date=2021-02-02|website=chevron.com|language=en-us}} offering an estimated {{convert|40|Tcuft|km3|order=flip|abbr=off}} of gas, making it one of Australia's largest developments.

Climate

Barrow Island has a hot desert climate (Köppen: BWh) with very hot, humid summers with highly variable rainfall, and warm, dry winters.

{{Weather box

|location = Barrow Island Airport (20º52'S, 115º25'E, 6 m AMSL) (1999-2024 and extremes)

|single line = y

|metric first = y

|Jan record high C = 45.0

|Feb record high C = 41.2

|Mar record high C = 40.6

|Apr record high C = 38.2

|May record high C = 33.8

|Jun record high C = 30.9

|Jul record high C = 29.2

|Aug record high C = 33.3

|Sep record high C = 36.0

|Oct record high C = 39.5

|Nov record high C = 40.0

|Dec record high C = 42.4

|Jan high C = 33.2

|Feb high C = 33.7

|Mar high C = 33.5

|Apr high C = 31.3

|May high C = 27.5

|Jun high C = 24.3

|Jul high C = 23.8

|Aug high C = 25.2

|Sep high C = 27.2

|Oct high C = 29.6

|Nov high C = 30.6

|Dec high C = 32.3

|Jan low C = 25.8

|Feb low C = 26.3

|Mar low C = 26.6

|Apr low C = 24.6

|May low C = 21.3

|Jun low C = 18.8

|Jul low C = 17.5

|Aug low C = 17.9

|Sep low C = 19.7

|Oct low C = 21.8

|Nov low C = 23.0

|Dec low C = 24.5

|Jan record low C = 21.0

|Feb record low C = 21.5

|Mar record low C = 21.0

|Apr record low C = 19.0

|May record low C = 14.3

|Jun record low C = 12.8

|Jul record low C = 11.8

|Aug record low C = 12.2

|Sep record low C = 14.7

|Oct record low C = 16.0

|Nov record low C = 18.0

|Dec record low C = 19.8

|precipitation colour = green

|Jan precipitation mm = 20.7

|Feb precipitation mm = 43.2

|Mar precipitation mm = 53.3

|Apr precipitation mm = 34.1

|May precipitation mm = 60.1

|Jun precipitation mm = 34.7

|Jul precipitation mm = 13.1

|Aug precipitation mm = 3.5

|Sep precipitation mm = 1.2

|Oct precipitation mm = 1.6

|Nov precipitation mm = 1.5

|Dec precipitation mm = 6.1

|year precipitation mm = 271.3

|unit precipitation days = 1.0 mm

|Jan precipitation days = 2.0

|Feb precipitation days = 2.3

|Mar precipitation days = 2.4

|Apr precipitation days = 1.5

|May precipitation days = 2.6

|Jun precipitation days = 1.9

|Jul precipitation days = 1.0

|Aug precipitation days = 0.6

|Sep precipitation days = 0.2

|Oct precipitation days = 0.2

|Nov precipitation days = 0.2

|Dec precipitation days = 0.6

|year precipitation days = 15.5

|Jan afthumidity= 58

|Feb afthumidity= 59

|Mar afthumidity= 59

|Apr afthumidity= 53

|May afthumidity= 55

|Jun afthumidity= 56

|Jul afthumidity= 58

|Aug afthumidity= 52

|Sep afthumidity= 51

|Oct afthumidity= 51

|Nov afthumidity= 52

|Dec afthumidity= 54

|Jan dew point C = 21.9

|Feb dew point C = 22.7

|Mar dew point C = 22.5

|Apr dew point C = 18.8

|May dew point C = 16.7

|Jun dew point C = 14.3

|Jul dew point C = 14.1

|Aug dew point C = 13.4

|Sep dew point C = 14.4

|Oct dew point C = 16.2

|Nov dew point C = 17.7

|Dec dew point C = 19.8

|source 1 = Bureau of Meteorology{{cite web

|url = http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_005094_All.shtml

|title = Barrow Island Airport Climate Statistics

|publisher = Bureau of Meteorology

|access-date = April 3, 2024

}}

Highest wind record

The World Meteorological Organization established Barrow Island as the location of the highest non-tornadic wind gust ever recorded, at 408 km/h (254 mph).[http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/infonotes/info_58_en.html World Record Wind Gust: 408 km/h] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120065504/http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/infonotes/info_58_en.html |date=20 January 2013 }}. World Meteorological Organization. The gust occurred on 10 April 1996, during Severe Tropical Cyclone Olivia.[http://www.bom.gov.au/jshess/docs/2012/courtney.pdf Courtney, J., et al. 2012], Documentation and verification of the world extreme wind gust record: 113.3 m/s on Barrow Island, Australia, during passage of tropical cyclone Olivia. Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Journal 62: 1-9. The previous record was a 372 km/h (231 mph) gust at Mount Washington, New Hampshire, United States in April 1934.