Barrow Island 1622 – 2004
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296 Conservation Science W. Aust. 5 (3)N.D. : 296–364 Burrows (2006) et al. BiblioBarrowIsland – An Annotated Bibliography of the Natural History of Barrow Island 1622 – 2004 COMPILED BY JOANNE A. SMITH, LISA J. WRIGHT AND KEITH D. MORRIS Department of Conservation and Land Management Science Division Wildlife Research Centre PO Box 51 Wanneroo WA 6946 Abstract This annotated bibliography contains information on 474 documents relating to the natural history of Barrow Island, one of Australia’s most important biodiversity conservation reserves. Papers have been sorted into 41 broad categories including the biophysical environment, the native and introduced biota, environmental impact studies, and environmental management. Many of these documents are unpublished reports authored by staff of Western Australian government departments or were commissioned by the oil company West Australian Petroleum Pty Ltd (WAPET), later ChevronTexaco Australia (CVX), during the past forty years when a Petroleum Act production lease existed over the same area as a Class A Nature Reserve. INTRODUCTION troglobitic and stygobitic fauna are found in its caves and groundwater. Located 80 kilometres off the Pilbara Barrow Island, the second largest island of Western coast west of Cape Preston and north of Onslow, this Australia (WA), is one of Australia’s most important 233 km2 island is unique in being a producing oilfield nature reserves. It supports 14 species of native with over 900 wells and other items of associated mammals, over 100 species of birds, 54 species of reptiles infrastructure as well as being a very valuable biodiversity and more than 400 species of plants. In addition, many conservation reserve. It is the intact array of native Turtle Bay, west coast of Barrow Island (Photograph courtesy of ChevronTexaco) BiblioBarrowIsland 297 mammal species and the absence of rabbits, foxes, cats, As the settlement of the Pilbara mainland expanded rats and mice that makes Barrow Island an important after the 1860s, Barrow was held under lease for turtle zoological asset for Australia. Six of the 14 species of fishing and pastoralism, although there is no evidence native mammals that occur there are listed as threatened that Barrow Island was ever used for grazing sheep, pursuant to Western Australian and Australian goats or cattle. The pearling industry was also expanding Commonwealth legislation. in the Pilbara and several pearling camps were located on Barrow Island. The well-known naturalist, JT Tunney History collected mammals for the Western Australian Museum (WAM) and Lord Rothschild in 1900. In 1908, Barrow Aboriginal people inhabited what is now Barrow Island, Island was declared an Aboriginal Reserve specifically prior to it becoming an island 6 000 to 8 000 years ago, for the treatment of venereal disease. However, these but there is no evidence of occupation after rising sea plans did not proceed and in the same year, the island levels separated Barrow from the mainland. The first was declared a reserve for ‘Protection of flora and fauna’. English visitors in 1840 found ‘no traces of natives’. In 1910, the reserve was declared Class A, that is, its The earliest reported European sighting of Barrow Island purpose could not be changed without approval from was by the crew of the ill-fated English ship Tryal which both Houses of State Parliament. In 1917–18, FL ran aground and sank on a reef to the north of Barrow Whitlock made two extended visits to the island reporting in 1622. The French navigator Baudin thought it to be mainly on the bird life. He also reported for the first part of the mainland as he sailed along the north-west time the presence of the introduced black rat on some coast in 1803, naming several prominent landmarks on of the small islands close to the east coast of Barrow the island such as Cape Poivre, Flacourt Bay and Cape Island—these were probably introduced from pearling Dupuy. It wasn’t until 1818 that Lieutenant PP King vessels. determined that Barrow was an island and he named it In the 1950s, the island was visited by personnel after John Barrow, Secretary of the Admiralty at that associated with the testing of the first British nuclear time. In 1840, Lieutenant JL Stokes in HMS Beagle weapon and was, for a while, considered as a potential explored and charted the east coast of Barrow Island. site for these tests. By this time the value of Barrow Improved geographical and hydrological knowledge Island to mammal conservation had been recognised resulted in 1899 when Commander Combe in HMS and it was proposed that the native fauna could be herded Penguin was commissioned to survey Mary Anne to the southern end of the island, a fence constructed Passage, to the south of Barrow Island. Lufkin pump at sunset (Photograph courtesy of ChevronTexaco) 298 J.A. Smith et al. across it (a distance of approximately 10 km) and the as an oil reservoir was recognised in 1954 and extensive atomic weapons detonated at the northernmost point. geological and seismic surveys commenced after the area Fortunately this option was not pursued and the nuclear was reopened in 1963, post atomic testing in the weapon tests were carried out in the Montebello Islands, Montebellos. The first well was drilled in May 1964 and 40 km to the north of Barrow. A joint Commonwealth oil was produced soon after. Commercial operations Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation began in 1967 and the first shipment of oil occurred in (CSIRO)/WAM expedition to Barrow and adjacent April that year. Now CVX operates the oilfield. Currently islands in 1958 collected six species of native mammal, there are over 450 producing oil wells, more than 250 including the first record of a fat-tailed antechinus for water injection wells and a number of other exploration the island. wells, and more than 1000 km of roads on the island. The well-known naturalist Harry Butler commenced There is also accommodation infrastructure to support his long association with Barrow Island in May 1964, the 150–200 personnel who work and live on the island and again in April 1965 when he spent several weeks on in two-week shifts. In 2000, 668 000 kl of oil were the island, recording wildlife and collecting specimens produced. Barrow, having a long all weather airstrip is for the WAM. During these trips, which coincided with used as a transport hub for the other producing oilfields the start of an extensive drilling program by West on nearby Thevenard and Varanus Islands and several Australian Petroleum (WAPET), he made the first offshore platform operations. Barrow Island collections of the brushtail possum, boodie, In February 2003, CVX prepared an environmental, common rock-rat, water rat and two species of bat, as social and economic (ESE) review of their proposal to well as many reptile species. Since that time Butler has develop the Gorgon gas field, 80 km off the west coast been a consultant to the oil company and has been of Barrow Island. One of the options examined was to responsible for developing and implementing the early use Barrow Island as the site for a gas processing plant environmental management operations on the island. and shipping facility. Later in 2003 the Western Australian Government provided in-principle support for CVX to The oil industry proceed with planning for this development on Barrow Island providing the necessary environmental reviews In 1953, after WAPET discovered oil at Rough Range, were undertaken and approved. near Exmouth, an expanded program of oil exploration One of the first steps taken was to establish an commenced along the nearby, and geologically similar, independent Quarantine Expert Panel to provide advice Pilbara coast and islands. The potential of Barrow Island to CVX on international best practice for the necessary Drilling rig on Barrow Island (Photograph courtesy of ChevronTexaco) BiblioBarrowIsland 299 Barrow Island, 80 km off the Pilbara coast, west of Cape Preston and north of Onslow, Western Australia. 300 J.A. Smith et al. quarantine measures required to protect the valuable Fifty Australian and Western Australian legislative Acts biodiversity of Barrow Island should the Gorgon project and Regulations and Codes of Practice that pertain to be approved and proceed. Early recommendations of Barrow Island have been included as a supplementary, this expert panel were that adequate baseline studies be but not exhaustive, list. undertaken on the biodiversity of Barrow Island. To assist Copyright permission was sought from publishers in the development of this it was further recommended and authors for the reproduction of abstracts or significant that a bibliography on the natural history of Barrow sentences from introductions or summaries. The Island be assembled and published, with copies of critical copyright in some titles has expired as it has been 50 documents made available to the public through the years since the death of the author, and in others copyright WAM and Department of Conservation and Land is held by the Crown. The remainder of the summaries Management (CALM) libraries. CALM was contracted were considered not significant enough to request to prepare the bibliography. The bibliography provided permission to reproduce. below comprises 474 documents and covers the historic, For convenience the references are listed biophysical, climatic and environmental management alphabetically by author or corporate body. If no author aspects of Barrow Island to June 2004. To retain has been attributed, the papers can be found at the maximum benefit from the bibliography, regular updates beginning of the sequence organized by date and then need to be made as further documents become available. title. Each title has been allocated an item number which relates back to the listed numbers under the broad subject METHODS categories. Every effort has been made to obtain a copy of each The bibliographic search started with titles extracted from reference and lodge it in the CALM Wildlife Science the CALM Library Catalogue, CALM’s Environmental Library (Woodvale), WAM Library (Welshpool) and Protection Section collection, the reference list from the CVX Library (Perth).