| King Island (tasmania) |
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The population in 2005 was 1,570 with a median age of 43.1. {Link without Title} The largest town is Currie , situated on the western side of the island. Grassy , on the east was a mining town, where Scheelite was mined in an open cut mine. After the mine closed, Grassy virtually became a ghost town. This has gradually changed and in recent years the population has grown and the town now boasts a Gourmet Butcher, Supermarket, Bold Head Brasserie at the Grassy Club, the G Cafe, the Grassy Emporium, E J Motors and Kelp Craft as well as a swimming pool, laundromat and accommodation in the town and bed & breakfast at the Portside Links. Grassy is also known for the natural penguin rookeries near the (safe harbour) port. The island is notable for its Cheese , Lobster s, Mineral Water , Kelp , Beef , as a safe harbour for passing yachts and also as a wind farm site for Hydro Tasmania . The southernmost point is called Stokes Point and the northernmost point is called Cape Wickham. HISTORY King Island is believed to have been first seen by Europeans in 1800 by the crew of the schooner ''Martha'', and during the following year was visited by the crew of the brig ''Harbinger'', after which the dangerous Harbinger Rocks off the island's north-west coast are named. It was found to abound in both Fur Seals and Elephant Seals which were soon being exploited to the edge of extinction. In 1802 French explorer Nicolas Baudin visited the islands with his flotilla, as a result of which a vessel was sent from Sydney to formally claim the islands for Great Britain to forestall a French settlement. As a result of this incident official British settlements were established at Port Phillip Bay , Port Dalrymple, Tasmania and the River Derwent, Tasmania . Sealers continued to harvest the island intermittently until the mid 1820s, after which the only inhabitants were some old sealers and their Australian Aboriginal wives who mostly hunted Wallaby for skins. The last of these left the island in 1854 and it was only occasionally visited by hunters and more often castaways from shipwrecks until first opened for grazing in the 1880s. SHIPWRECKS Situated in the centre of the western entrance to Bass Strait , King Island has been the location of over 60 known ship wrecks, involving the loss of well over 700 lives. These include:
CLIMATE ''Source'': Australian Bureau of Meteorology . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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