Fairfax Islands facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Fairfax Islands Queensland
Fairfax Islands Location in Queensland
Nearest town or city	Gladstone
Area	50 ha (120 acres)
Managing authorities	Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
Website	Fairfax Islands

The Fairfax Islands are two small coral cays. A cay is a low island made of sand or coral. These islands are located in the southern Great Barrier Reef, near the Tropic of Capricorn. They are about 113 kilometres (70 mi) east of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia.

Fairfax Islands are part of the Capricorn and Bunker Group of islands. They are also part of the Capricornia Cays National Park. This area is very important for birds, so it's also called the Capricornia Cays Important Bird Area. Many people visit nearby Lady Musgrave Island because it's easier to reach. You can get there by boat from Bundaberg, 1770, or Gladstone.

The Fairfax Islands include:

• East Fairfax 23°51′18″S 152°22′38″E / 23.85500°S 152.37722°E / -23.85500; 152.37722 (East Fairfax - Fairfax Islands)
• West Fairfax 23°51′43″S 152°22′2″E / 23.86194°S 152.36722°E / -23.86194; 152.36722 (West Fairfax - Fairfax Islands)

What are Fairfax Islands Like?

The eastern island is made of shingle (small, rounded stones). The western island is made of sand and shingle. People used to mine for phosphate on the eastern island. Later, the Australian military used it as a target for bombing practice. Luckily, the island is no longer used for these things.

The main tree on the eastern island is the Pisonia grandis. There are also two small pools of salty water. The western island has a long sand spit. It has plants similar to other islands in the Capricorn Group. There's an old tin shed in the middle of the western island. The Australian Navy put it there when the eastern island was used for bombing.

These islands are part of a special area at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. They are not usually seen from the mainland.

How the Islands Formed

These islands are quite young. They formed about 5,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age. During the Ice Age, the sea level was much lower. The land where the reefs and islands are now was completely dry. Around 10,000 years ago, the sea level started to rise. It reached its current level about 6,000 years ago. Once the sea level stopped changing, reefs could grow. This created places for islands to form.

Fairfax Islands are part of "Closed Ring Reefs." The two islands are different types:

• West Fairfax: A sandy island with plants.
• East Fairfax: A shingle island (made of small stones).

History of Fairfax Islands

Early Discoveries

In 1803, Captain Eber Bunker was the first European to find this area. He was on a whaling ship called Albion. He named the southern group of islands after himself.

Later, between 1819 and 1821, Lieutenant Phillip Parker King from the Royal Navy mapped the area. In 1843, Captain Francis Blackwood continued mapping the islands with his ships, HMS Fly and HMS Bramble. A scientist named Professor Joseph Jukes was on board Fly. His notes give us important information about the islands.

Guano Mining in the 1890s

In the 1890s, people mined guano on Fairfax Island. Guano is the droppings of seabirds. It was used as a fertilizer. There are still some signs of this mining today.

One person who died on the island during this time was Joseph Perry Callaghan. He was 24 years old and died on June 10, 1898, while collecting guano.

Fairfax Islands as a Military Target (1943–1965)

Both East and West Fairfax Islands were used as a bombing range. The Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Australian Navy used them for target practice. This stopped over 40 years ago. Since then, the plants on the islands have mostly grown back.

Bomb experts have found and removed some unexploded bombs. However, the Australian Army thinks there might still be more. The islands changed physically because of the bombing. There are old craters on East Fairfax Island.

Bombing affected the island's plants and seabirds. Before World War II, one part of Fairfax Island had many trees like Pisonia umbellifera, Pandanus pedunculatus, and Casuarina. Thousands of brown gannets were nesting there. Shearwaters also nested there.

After 1945, a scientist named Mr. T. C. Marshall visited the island. He said the gannet nesting area was much smaller. He believed the bombing caused this decline in bird numbers.

In 1953, C. Roff wrote about the effects of bombing. He noted that many Brown boobys were still breeding on the island. He saw birds staying on their nests even when planes flew overhead and rockets exploded.

Another report in 1954 by Mr. D. Jolly described large bomb craters on the eastern part of the island. He said trees on the western island lost almost all their leaves after attacks.

Wildlife and Environment

Natural Life

Green turtles lay their eggs on West Fairfax Island. These areas are kept natural and free from human disturbance.

Brown boobys also have breeding colonies on East and West Fairfax Islands.

Challenges for Wildlife

The islands have faced problems from animals brought by humans. Goats were brought to the islands during the guano mining time. They were removed from East and West Fairfax Islands in the early 1970s.

Until recently, East and West Fairfax Islands also had black rats. These rats caused a lot of damage to the seabird populations. The islands also had cockroaches. However, a recent program by National Parks has likely removed the rats.

In 1986, locusts ate all the Pisonia leaves on West Fairfax Island. This let sunlight reach the forest floor. A thick layer of other plants grew quickly. But after eight months, the Pisonia trees grew back their leaves. The forest floor became shady again, and the other plants died.

Shipwrecks on the Reef

One known shipwreck is the Diana. This wooden ship was 103 tons and built in Sydney in 1847. It ran aground on June 1, 1864. This happened on the northwestern side of Fairfax Island while it was loading guano.

Another ship, the Boomerang, saw the wreckage on August 13, 1864. The crew found parts of the ship had been saved. Equipment and tents were on one of the islands. The Diana had broken into two pieces. There was no one left on the island. The crew had been rescued by another ship called the Caroline.