Passage Island (Tasmania)

The Passage Island, part of the Passage Group within the Furneaux Group, is a 253 ha granite and dolerite island, located in Bass Strait south of Cape Barren Island, in Tasmania, in south-eastern Australia.

History
Large numbers of fur seals were seen on the island in 1798 by Matthew Flinders and sealers were later reported visiting the island early in the 19th century.

The island is a private island with leasehold tenure, with a pastoral lease that has been used for grazing cattle. Improvements on the island include airstrips and a small residence. With the Forsyth and Gull islands, the Passage Island forms part of the Forsyth, Passage and Gull Islands Important Bird Area (IBA), identified as such by BirdLife International because it supports over 1% of the world populations of little penguins and black-faced cormorants.

Besides Passage Island, other islands that comprise the Passage Group include the Forsyth, Gull, Battery, and Spike islands, and the Low Islets and the Moriarty Rocks.

Fauna
Recorded breeding seabird, wader and waterbird species include little penguin, short-tailed shearwater, Pacific gull, silver gull, sooty oystercatcher and Cape Barren goose. Apart from cattle, mammals present are the introduced European rabbit, house mouse and a species of rat. Reptiles present include White's skink and the metallic skink.