Adele Island is an uninhabited small island located in the Indian Ocean approximately north of Ardyaloon off the Kimberley coast in Western Australia.Adèle Island. Google.Adele island. The Kimberley Coast.
Description The island is fish-hook shaped and has a length of and a width of and a total area of . It is low-lying and surrounded by extensive sandbanks lying over a limestone platform forming a large lagoon.
History Nicolas Baudin named the island in 1801 as part of his expedition around Australia.Freycinet, L. (1815) Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes Exécuté sur les Corvettes le Géographe and le Naturaliste et la Goélette le Casuarina, Pendant les Années 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804; sous le Commandement du Captaine de Vaisseau N. Baudin.Published: de l'Imprimerie Royale.Some sources state that Baudin discovered the island, but this is highly debatable and in reality highly unlikely. Australia was visited by Dutch explorers in the 17th century (hence "New Holland") and later, in 1699, by William Dampier after whom the Dampier Archipelago is named. Dampier sailed northwards along the western coast towards Timor passing many islands on the way. Also, it should not be forgotten that fishing fleets from Indonesia, especially Makassan trepangers, have a long history of visiting the Australia coast. The name of the island was first charted on the Freycinet Map of 1811. The Adele Island Nature Reserve was gazetted on 1 December 2000, has a size of , is located within the Northern Kimberley bioregion, and was declared in recognition of its status as a bird breeding sanctuary. Since then the Department of Environment and Conservation has embarked on a campaign to eradicate the island of the Polynesian rats that are a constant threat to the native seabirds.
An acetylene-powered lighthouse was built on the island in 1951; it was later upgraded to solar power in 1985.
In 2025 a group of about 70 visiting cruise ship passengers and 10 guides were briefly stranded on the island when quickly rising tides separated them from their Zodiac inflatable boats.Cruise Ship Guests Stranded by Rapid Tide on Remote Island
Birds The island is classified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area for its seabirds and waders. As well as breeding cormorants and Australian pelicans, globally important bird species breeding or staging on the island are lesser frigatebird with 20005700 breeding pairs, brown booby with 15008500 breeding pairs, grey-tailed tattler with up to 5500 individuals, and red-necked stint with up to 4100 individuals.
Rolloliths Rollolith is also found in Adele Island. It is the basic name given to benthic creatures. Rolloliths can be made of barnacles (balanuliths); coral (corallith); vermetulid worms (vermetuliths); red crustose coralline green growth (rhodolith); or bryozoans (bryoliths).
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