Tasman Island

Tasman Island is an oval island, with an area of 1.2 km², in south-eastern Australia. It is part of the Tasman Island Group, lying close to the south-eastern coast of Tasmania around the Tasman Peninsula, and is in the Tasman National Park. It is a plateau surrounded by steep dolerite cliffs, with its highest point 300 m asl and an average plateau height of 280 m asl. It is the site of theTasman Island Lighthouse and weather station, which has been automated since 1976 and unmanned since 1977

Flora and fauna

Plants

The island was once thickly forested. The forest has largely disappeared as a result of cutting the trees for firewood and of intensefires.^[2] When the lighthouse was manned the keepers kept livestock, including cattle, sheep and draught horses, and maintainedgrassland for their grazing. Areas of grassland remain along with other vegetation communities of heathy scrub, regenerating scrub,sheoak woodland, sedgeland and coastal mosaic. An important plant present is the rare Cape Pillar Sheoak (Allocasuarina crassa).

Birds

Tasman Island is a very important breeding site for Fairy Prions, with an estimated 300,000-700,000 pairs, making it the largest such colony in Tasmania, and possibly in Australia. It has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife Internationalbecause it supports over 1% of the world population of the species.^[5] Other recorded breeding seabird species are Little Penguin(now extinct there as a breeding species), Short-tailed Shearwater and Sooty Shearwater. The Swamp Harrier has also bred on the island.

The breeding seabirds were preyed on by a feral cat population estimated at about 50, feeding mainly on Fairy Prions and taking about 50,000 birds annually. The cats were eradicated by a baiting, trapping and hunting program carried out in May 2010

Other animals

Australian and New Zealand Fur Seals use the rocky shore as a haul-out site, and the latter species has bred there in small numbers. Humpback Whales pass through the surrounding waters. Reptiles recorded from the island include the Metallic Skink,White's Skink, Spotted Skink and She-oak Skink. A notable invertebrate, so far recorded only from Tasman Island