Granite Island (South Australia) facts for kids
Granite Island and the Causeway as viewed from Victor Harbor
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Granite Island, also known as Nulcoowarra by the Ramindjeri people, is a small island in South Australia. It's located right next to Victor Harbor, about 80 km south of Adelaide, the capital city.
Even though no one lives on the island permanently, it has buildings and a cafe. It's a very popular place for tourists, especially for those who want to see the little penguins. These cute birds are sometimes called "fairy penguins." In the 1980s, wallabies also lived on the island and were a big hit with visitors.
You can reach Granite Island from the mainland by walking across a causeway. You can also ride a special horse-drawn tram that looks like an old one. A company called Oceanic Victor also uses the island as a starting point. They take tourists on a boat to a floating aquarium in the ocean nearby.
Contents
History of Granite Island
In the 1830s, a whaling station operated on Granite Island. This was a place where people would process whales caught in the bay.
The Little Penguin Colony
Granite Island is famous for its colony of little penguins. In 1987, a group was formed to help improve Granite Island. They wanted to make sure the island was good for tourists while also protecting its natural environment, especially the fairy penguin population.
In 1989, efforts were made to reduce the number of rats and rabbits on the island. Rats are known to raid penguin nests, so getting rid of them helped protect the penguins. Some wallabies were also moved from the island to other places.
In 1990, experts thought there were between 5,000 and 7,000 little penguins in the wider Encounter Bay area, which includes Granite Island. The penguins usually bred from July to January and then molted (shed their feathers) from January to March.
By July 1991, the total number of little penguins in the Encounter Bay area (including Granite, West, and Wright Islands) was estimated to be around 7,000 birds. A count in December 1991 found 571 penguins on Granite Island alone.
In 1992, the island's penguin population seemed stable, with an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 little penguins. That year, night tours began. These tours allowed visitors to see the penguins as they came ashore after dark.
Challenges for Penguins
In 1994, a fox crossed the causeway from the mainland and sadly killed 75 penguins on Granite Island in just three days. The fox was eventually caught. Another fox crossed in 1995 and killed 17 more penguins. Foxes are a big threat to penguin colonies.
Around this time, the penguin population was estimated at 1,500 birds. A company was even building new burrows (homes) for the penguins. They also started building a Penguin Interpretive Centre on the island in 1995, which was meant to teach people about the penguins.
Some local people, including students from Victor Harbor High School, were worried. They thought that building new structures on the island might disturb or harm the penguin colony. They were especially concerned about heavy building equipment being moved to the island at night.
In January 1995, a rare Fjordland penguin (a species from New Zealand) arrived on Granite Island. Wildlife staff moved it to West Island so it could molt (shed its feathers) away from people.
Penguin Population Decline
Sadly, the number of little penguins on Granite Island has dropped a lot since the 1990s. In 1998, the colony was thought to have 1,800 birds. By 2001, it was 1,548. But in October 2013, a count found only 38 penguins!
This big drop made the mayor of Victor Harbor start a fundraising effort. They wanted to raise money to study why the penguins were disappearing. By 2015, the number had fallen even further to just 22 birds.
A survey in December 2022 estimated 22 birds on Granite Island, while another study counted 26 that year. In mid-2023, 28 birds were counted, which gives researchers hope that the numbers might start to recover.
Some possible reasons for the decline include New Zealand fur seals eating the penguins and overfishing (too many fish being caught), which means less food for the penguins. Flinders University plans to create a center to study and breed penguins in captivity. The goal is to release them back into the wild.
Other nearby penguin colonies have also seen big drops in numbers, including those at West Island and on Kangaroo Island. Some colonies in Encounter Bay, like those at Wright Island and Freeman's Knob, have even disappeared completely.
Penguin Centre
In 1999, Dianne and Stephen Edwards took over the lease for Granite Island. They planned to create a floating aquarium and expand the Penguin Interpretive Centre. The floating aquarium later moved to Port Lincoln.
In January 2016, the Granite Island Penguin Centre closed. For sixteen years, the center had helped many injured penguins get better. Tourists could also visit the center to see "retired" penguins in a special enclosure. The center closed because its manager, Dorothy Longden, retired. However, the nightly penguin tours were expected to continue from the information center on the mainland.
Oceanic Victor
In early 2015, a company called Oceanic Victor proposed a new marine tourism project near Granite Island. They wanted to set up a floating attraction in the ocean. They received approval in December 2015. The attraction was supposed to open in February 2016 but was delayed. It was finally towed into place in July 2017.
This attraction is a large floating pen in the sea. It holds up to five tonnes of southern bluefin tuna. Visitors can pay to swim with these tuna and even feed them by hand! You can also see other local marine animals through an underwater viewing area inside the pen. There are also two touch-tank aquariums with small sharks and rays. This operation used to be called Swim with the Tuna and was located near Port Lincoln from 2010 to 2015.
Tourists are taken to the floating pen from the existing kiosk on Granite Island, which is run by Oceanic Victor.
