Furneaux Group, about 25 islands, c.900 sq mi (2,330 sq km), Tasmania, SE Australia, in Bass Strait between Tasmania and the Australian mainland. The largest is Flinders Island, and the group forms Flinders municipality. The islands were explored in 1773 by the British navigator Tobias Furneaux.

The Furneaux Group is a group of 52 islands, at the eastern end of Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. The islands were named, after British navigator Tobias Furneaux sighted the easten side of these Island after leaving Adventure Bay in 1773 on his way to New Zealand to rejoin James Cook. Navigator Matthew Flinders explored the Furneaux Islands group first in the francisin 1798 and later that year in the Norfolf.

The largest islands in the group are Flinders Island, Cape Barren Island and Clarke Island. The region contains five settlements Killiecrankie, Emita, Whitemark, Lady Barron, Cape Barren Island and Whitemark on Flinders Island which serves as the administrative center of the Municipality of Flinders local government area.

The historically notable Aboriginal woman Dolly Dalrymple was born in the area.

King Island, at the western end of Bass Strait, is not a part of the group.

The group of islands to the north east is the Kent Group.

Geology

The islands contain granite from the Devonian period, as well as unconsolidated limestone and sand from Cenozoic periods. During the ice age, a land bridge joined Tasmania to the Australian mainland through this group of islands.

Notes

References

• Cumpston, J. S. First visitors to Bass Strait Canberra : Roebuck Society, 1973. ISBN 0-9500858-8-X Roebuck Society publication no. 7.

External links

• Birds of the Furneaux Islands
• Shipwrecks in the Furneaux Islands