The Friars (Tasmania)

The Friars are four steep dolerite rocks, with a combined area of about 17 ha (42 acres), in south-eastern Australia. They are part of the Actaeon Island Group, lying close to the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, at the southern entrance to the D'Entrecasteaux Channel between Bruny Island and the mainland. They form part of South Bruny National Park.[1][2]

The Friar Island group

Australian fur seal colony, Friar Island

The group was named The Fryars by Tobias Furneaux in Adventure in March 1773.[3][4][5]

Fauna

Recorded breeding seabird species are the little penguin, short-tailed shearwater, fairy prion and common diving-petrel. The metallic skink is present. Australian fur seals, and possibly New Zealand fur seals, use the rocks as a regular haul-out site.[1]

References

1. Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart. ISBN 0-7246-4816-X
2. Small Southern Islands Conservation Management Statement 2002 (PDF), Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, 2002, archived from the original (PDF) on 22 August 2006, retrieved 20 July 2006
3. The Early History of Tasmania.By R.W.Giblin 1928, page 47
4. Sprod, Dan (2005). "Furneaux, Tobias (1735 - 1781)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 5 May 2008 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
5. Cook, James; Furneaux, Tobias (1777), A voyage towards the South Pole, and round the world : performed in His Majesty's ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775, Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, Chapter VII, entry for March 1773