Lord Howe Island

For the island off Solomon Islands, see Ontong Java Atoll Lord Howe Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean 600 km (375 miles) east of Australia. The island is in the state of New South Wales, Australia. ^* - maps

Location of Lord Howe Island, the main island:
Location of Wheatsheaf Islet and Ball's Pyramid (located southeast of the main island Lord Howe Island):
Highest Point: Mount Gower, 875 m (2870 feet)
Area: 14.6 km² (5.6 sq miles)
Population: 350 permanent residents. Tourists are restricted to 400 at any one time.

The Lord Howe Island group was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1982 in recognition of its unique beauty and biodiversity. Lord Howe Island Marine Park and Lord Howe Island Marine Park (commonwealth waters) protect the waters surrounding the island group.

Geology

Lord Howe island is roughly crescent-shaped, about 10 km long and 1.5 km wide. It is an eroded remnant of a 6.9 million-year-old shield volcano. The crescent of the island protects a coral reef and lagoon. The Lord Howe seamount chain, defined by coral-capped guyots, extends to the north for 1000 km (600 mi), most likely the result of the Indo-Australian Plate moving northward over a stationary hotspot (see plate tectonics). This chain is one of a number of features found on the plateau known as the Lord Howe Rise.

Mount Lidgbird (777m, 2548 feet) and Mount Gower (875 m, 2870 feet) dominate the south end of the island. They are both made of basalt rock, remnants of lava flows that once filled a large volcanic caldera. These lava flows occurred 6.4 million years ago, and were the last volcanic events on the island, which has subsequently eroded to what remains today.

The coral reef, at 31° S., is the most southerly in the world.

Ball's Pyramid is a rocky islet located 16 km (10 mi) south of Lord Howe Island, and also the remnant of an eroded volcano. It is the largest of several volcanic stacks that form islets in the area.

Flora and Fauna

Lord Howe island is a distinct terrestrial ecoregion, known as the Lord Howe Island subtropical forests. It is part of the Australasia ecozone, and shares many biotic affinities with Australia, New Guinea, and New Caledonia. Lord Howe Island was never part of a continent, and all of its flora and fauna colonized the island from across the sea. Almost half of the island's native plants are endemic. One of the best known is Howea, an endemic genus of palms (Arecaceae) that are commonly known as kentia palms and make handsome houseplants. Several million are exported annually providing the only major industry on the island apart from tourism. Another endemic feature of the island are the Glowing Mushrooms, that can be seen after heavy rain. Found in the Palm forests, they can be picked and last for a number of days glowing.

14 species of seabirds and 18 species of landbirds breed on the island group, including an endemic species, the Lord Howe Woodhen (Gallirallus sylvestris) and 3 endemic subspecies, the Lord Howe Golden Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis contempta), the Lord Howe White-eye (Zosterops lateralis tephropleurus) and the Lord Howe Currawong (Strepera graculina crissalis).

A number of endemic bird species and subspecies have become extinct since the arrival of man on the island. The Lord Howe Swamphen or White Gallinule (Porphyrio albus), the White-throated Pigeon (Columba vitiensis godmanae), Red-fronted Parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae subflavescens) and the Tasman Booby (Sula tasmani) were eliminated by settlers during the nineteenth century. The accidental introduction of the Black Rat in the 1918 shipwreck of the Makambo triggered a second wave of extinctions including the Vinous-tinted Thrush (Turdus poliocephalus vinitinctus), the Robust White-eye (Zosterops strenuus) and the Lord Howe Starling (Alponis fusca hulliana), the Lord Howe Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa cervina) and the Lord Howe Gerygone (Gerygone insularis).

Only one native mammal remains on the islands, the Large Forest Bat (Eptesicus sagittula). The endemic bat species (Nyctophilus howensis) is known only from a skull and is now presumed extinct. The cause of its extinction may have been predation by Masked Owl, introduced to the island in the 1920s to control rats. The Masked Owl may also have caused the extinction of the Lord Howe Boobook (Ninox novaeseelandiae albaria).

Two terrestrial reptiles are native to the island group: the skink (Leiolopisma lichenigera)) and the gecko (Phyllodactylus guentheri). Both are rare on the main island but more common on smaller islands offshore. The skink (Lampropholis delicata) and the Bleating Tree Frog (Litoria dentata) have been accidentally introduced from the Australian mainland in recent years.

The Lord Howe Island stick insect (Dryococelus australis) disappeared from the main island soon after the introduction of Black rats. In 2001 a tiny population was discovered in a single (Melaleuca howeana) shrub on the slopes of Ball's Pyramid.

Over 400 fish species are found in the waters around Lord Howe including 9 endemic to the region. Over 80 species of coral occur in the reefs surrounding the islands.

About 10 percent of Lord Howe Island's forests have been cleared for agriculture, and another 20 percent has been disturbed by domestic cattle and feral sheep, goats, and pigs. Despite a large number of introduced species that harm Lord Howe's native flora and fauna, goats have recently been eliminated from the island, the feral pig population has been reduced, and there are ongoing efforts to control rats, mice, and introduced plants. A recovery program has restored the Lord Howe Woodhen numbers from only 20 in 1970 to approximately 200.

History

Lord Howe Island was discovered on 17 February 1788 by HMS Supply, commanded by Lieutenant Ball, who was on his way from Botany Bay to Norfolk Island with convicts to start a penal settlement there. On his return journey on 13 March 1788 he sent a party ashore on the island. It was uninhabited, and it seems had not been known to any of the Polynesian peoples of the South Pacific.

Mount Lidgbird (above) on the island and the nearby Ball's Pyramid are named after Ball. The island itself was named after Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe who was First Lord of the Admiralty.

Many government ships sailing between New South Wales and Norfolk Island stopped at the island, as did some whaling and trading vessels. Some ships left goats and pigs on the island for food for future visitors but a permanent settlement wasn't established until 1834 at an area known today as Old Settlement.

Until the 1970s there was no airstrip and seaplanes landed on the lagoon surrounded by the coral reef.

In 2002 the Royal Navy Destroyer HMS Nottingham struck Wolf Rock, a reef at Lord Howe Island, and was almost sunk.

References

Ian Hutton, The Australian Geographic Book of Lord Howe Island, Australian Geographic, 1998, ISBN 1-876276-27-4.

External links

Chart of Lord Howe Island by J. Stockdale from 1789, at the National Maritime Museum

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Geology

Flora and Fauna

History

References

External links