Barrow Island (Western Australia)
Barrow Island from an 1897 map, showing the Australian mainland on the bottom right (south-east) and the Montebello Islands to the north
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 Barrow Island
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| Geography | |
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| Location | Indian Ocean, off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia |
| Coordinates | 20°47′53″S 115°24′22″E / 20.798°S 115.406°ECoordinates: 20°47′53″S 115°24′22″E / 20.798°S 115.406°E |
| Area | 202 km2 (78 sq mi) |
| Length | 27 km (16.8 mi) |
| Width | 11.5 km (7.15 mi) |
| Coastline | 72 km (44.7 mi) |
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Australia
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| State | Western Australia |
Barrow Island is a 202 km2 (78 sq mi) island 50 kilometres (31 mi) northwest off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia. The island is the second largest in Western Australia after Dirk Hartog Island.
Navigators had noted its existence since the early 17th century, and Nicholas Baudin sighted it in 1803, mistakenly believing it to be part of mainland Australia.Phillip Parker King named the island in 1816 after Sir John Barrow, a Secretary of the Admiralty and founder of the Royal Geographical Society.
The island was visited by indigenous Australians before and after its separation from the mainland, approximately 8000 years ago. Stone artefacts including several weathered flakes and fragments made of igneous and metamorphic rocks and chert were collected from Barrow Island in the 1960s.Thevenard Island also has evidence of Aboriginal visitation, and it is likely that the nearby Montebello Islands were utilized as well, however there have been no archaeological finds from these islands.
Whalers were known to operate in the area from about 1800 onwards. The first recorded visit by whalers was in 1842 with continued visits occurring until 1864. The island was used as a slave trading centre for Aborigines during the 1870s by Captain William Cadell until he was arrested and removed from the colony in 1876. Slave labour was used in the nearby mainland pearling industry.
Guano was found on the island and mining began in 1883. It was mined for the remainder of the 1880s and sold to markets in Perth.
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