Horsburgh Island
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History
Named "Pulau Luar" in Malay language, Horsburgh Island was named after British hydrographer James Horsburgh, who charted it in the early 1800s.[1] The Clunies-Ross Family settled the islands and managed it.[2][3][4] During the Second World War, the Ceylon Garrison Artillery installed two six-inch guns at its southern point for coastal defence.[1] In May 1942, the Ceylon artillery garrison began the Cocos Islands Mutiny, intending to hand the islands over to the Japanese troops.[5][6] The condemned mutineers were shipped back to Ceylon, and imprisoned.[7] The six-inch guns have survived and are a historic relic, listed on the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List.[8]
Geography
Horsburgh is an uninhabited islet in the South Keeling Islands atoll of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Australia.[9][10] The island spans Template:Cvt, and has a Template:Cvt long coastline.[11] It is located in the Australian plate in the South Indian Ocean, and is known to have occasional seismic activity. It experiences a tropical rainforest climate characterized by heavy rainfall throughout the year, high humidity, and high temperatures.[11]
The topography is fairly flat, with most of the island located below sea level and the highest elevation on the island reaching approximately Template:Cvt. The island is characterized coastal lowlands with rocky gravel terrain and central flat plains.[11]
Flora and fauna
The island has a tree cover of 28%, and mostly consist of coconut trees planted during the copra extraction during the early 20th century.[11] The island is surrounded by coral reefs, supporting aquatic life such as butterfly fish, maori wrasse, sea urchin, and sea cucumber.[12] The surrounding lagoon and reefs form part of the Cocos Marine Conservation Area, part of the national marine park declared in 1995.[13][14] Bird species recorded from the island include Pacific black duck, northern pintail, buff-banded rail, common sandpiper, brown noddy, white-tailed tropicbird, lesser frigatebird, brown booby, nankeen night heron, Asian house martin and Christmas white-eye.[15]
See also
References
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