Lovely, lovely islands are all that remains above Bass Strait of the land bridge which so recently linked Tasmania and Victoria. Some islands, low and wave-washed, resemble sleeping sea monsters; others rise like craggy castles above the perilous sea. The largest island in Bass Strait is Flinders, part of Australia's earliest history of shipwrecks, sealers, Straitsmen and Tasmanian Aborigines, who were brought for so-called sanctuary to Wybalenna--now a proclaimed Historic Site.
Today Flinders has some 1000 inhabitants, mostly farmers and fishermen, one of the busiest airports in Tasmania and the magnificent Strzelecki National Park. There are over 400km of good roads, the Strezlecki Track and the Flinders Scenic Trail (100km) for walkers and horse riders; a 'zoo at large' of native animals; golf, bowls, tennis, team sports; beautiful beaches and gourmet seafoods, including crayfish, scallops and abalone.
For several years Jean Edgecombe has paid regular flying visits (with her husband Gordon at the control of a small aircraft) to gather from many sources the information condensed into this book.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Song of the Furneaux Islands
Chapter 1. Discovery and Early History
Chapter 2. Sealers, Straitsmen and Aborigines
Chapter 3. Keeping in Touch--Communications
Chapter 4. Topography and Settlement
Chapter 5. Farming and Birding
Chapter 6. Harvest of the Seas: The Pot Boils Shoals
Chapter 7. Discovery Today--Where to Go, What to See
Chapter 8. The Outer Islands--Cloud Shadows on the Sea
Chapter 9. Natural History--Geology, Flora and Fauna
Chapter 10. Island Wildlife of Sea, Seashores and the Land
Chapter 11. Birds
Chapter 12. Conservation: Our Islands Where the Roaring Forties Blow
Appendix 1. General Information
Appendix 2. Historical Summary
Appendix 3. Origin of Place Names
Appendix 4. Shipwrecks
Appendix 5. Some Plants Indigenous to Flinders Island
Appendix 6. Animals of Rocky Shores and Sandy Beaches
Appendix 7. Freshwater Fishes of the Furneaux Group
Appendix 8. Amphibia of the Furneaux Group
Appendix 9. Reptiles of the Furneaux Group
Appendix 10. Native Mammals of the Furneaux Group
Appendix 11. Birds of the Furneaux Group
Appendix 12. Others Islands in the Municipality of Flinders
Selected Bibliography
Authors and Artists
Index
Derek Smith OAM
Postscripts 1994
