Lord Howe Island Totally Explained

Everything about Lord Howe Island totally explained

ť For the island off Solomon Islands, see Ontong Java Atoll

Lord Howe Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean east of the Australian mainland. Along with Ball's Pyramid, it's administered by the Lord Howe Island Board, one of 175 local authorities in the state of New South Wales, and is part of the Mid-North Coast Statistical Division. It isn't considered a Local Government Area and is therefore unincorporated (as is the Unincorporated Far West Region), but is self-governed by the Lord Howe Island Board (External Link

). The Lord Howe Island group was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1982 in recognition of its unique beauty and biodiversity. The Lord Howe Island Marine Park and Lord Howe Island Marine Park (commonwealth waters) protect the waters surrounding the island group.
The island's standard time zone is . During daylight saving time this shifts by half an hour to UTC+11.

History

Lord Howe Island was discovered on 17 February 1788 by HMS Supply, commanded by Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, RN, who was on his way from Botany Bay to Norfolk Island with convicts to start a penal settlement there. On his return journey on 13 March 1788 he sent a party ashore on the island. It was uninhabited, and it seems that it hadn't been known to any of the Polynesian peoples of the South Pacific. Mount Lidgbird on the island and the nearby Ball's Pyramid are named after Ball. The island itself was named after Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe who was First Lord of the Admiralty.
Many government ships sailing between New South Wales and Norfolk Island stopped at the island, as did some whaling and trading vessels. Some ships left goats and pigs on the island for food for future visitors but a permanent settlement wasn't established until 1834 at an area known today as Old Settlement.
Until 1974 there was no airstrip and the only way to reach it by air was in a flying boat from Rose Bay in Sydney that landed on the lagoon surrounded by the coral reef. In 2002 the Royal Navy Destroyer HMS Nottingham struck Wolf Rock, a reef at Lord Howe Island, and almost sank.

Geology

Lord Howe island is roughly crescent-shaped, about 10 km (6 miles) long and 2 km (1 mile) wide. It is an eroded remnant of a 7 million-year-old shield volcano. The crescent of the island protects a coral reef and lagoon. The Lord Howe seamount chain, defined by coral-capped guyots, extends to the north for 1000 km (600 mi), most likely the result of the Indo-Australian Plate moving northward over a stationary hotspot (see plate tectonics). This chain is one of a number of features found on the plateau known as the Lord Howe Rise, part of the submerged continent of Zealandia.
Mount Lidgbird and Mount Gower dominate the south end of the island. They are both made of basalt rock, remnants of lava flows that once filled a large volcanic caldera. These lava flows occurred 6.4 million years ago, and were the last volcanic events on the island, which has subsequently eroded to what remains today.
The coral reef, at 31° S., is the most southerly in the world. Ball's Pyramid is a rocky islet located 16 km (10 mi) south of Lord Howe Island, and also the remnant of an eroded volcano. It is the largest of several volcanic stacks that form islets in the area.

Flora and Fauna

Lord Howe island is a distinct terrestrial ecoregion, known as the Lord Howe Island subtropical forests. It is part of the Australasia ecozone, and shares many biotic affinities with Australia, New Guinea, and New Caledonia. Lord Howe Island was never part of a continent, and all of its flora and fauna colonized the island from across the sea. Almost half of the island's native plants are endemic. One of the best known is Howea, an endemic genus of palms (Arecaceae) that are commonly known as kentia palms and make handsome houseplants. Several million are exported annually providing the only major industry on the island apart from tourism.
   Another endemic feature of the island are the Glowing Mushrooms, that can be seen after heavy rain. Found in the Palm forests, they can be picked and last for a number of days glowing. The glow is so bright that you can read by it in the dark. 14 species of seabirds and 18 species of landbirds breed on the island group, including an endemic species, the Lord Howe Woodhen (Gallirallus sylvestris) and 3 endemic subspecies, the Lord Howe Golden Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis contempta), the Lord Howe White-eye (Zosterops lateralis tephropleurus) and the Lord Howe Currawong (Strepera graculina crissalis).
   A number of endemic bird species and subspecies have become extinct since the arrival of humans on the island. The Lord Howe Swamphen or White Gallinule (Porphyrio albus), the White-throated Pigeon (Columba vitiensis godmanae), Red-fronted Parakeet (Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae subflavescens) and the Tasman Booby (Sula tasmani) were eliminated by settlers during the nineteenth century. The accidental introduction of the Black Rat in the 1918 shipwreck of the Makambo triggered a second wave of extinctions including the Vinous-tinted Thrush (Turdus poliocephalus vinitinctus), the Robust White-eye (Zosterops strenuus) and the Lord Howe Starling (Alponis fusca hulliana), the Lord Howe Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa cervina) and the Lord Howe Gerygone (Gerygone insularis).
   Only one native mammal remains on the islands, the Large Forest Bat (Eptesicus sagittula). The endemic bat species (Nyctophilus howensis) is known only from a skull and is now presumed extinct. The cause of its extinction may have been predation by Masked Owl, introduced to the island in the 1920s to control rats. The Masked Owl may also have caused the extinction of the Lord Howe Boobook (Ninox novaeseelandiae albaria).
   Two terrestrial reptiles are native to the island group: a skink (Leiolopisma lichenigera)) and a gecko (Phyllodactylus guentheri). Both are rare on the main island but more common on smaller islands offshore. Another skink (Lampropholis delicata) and the Bleating Tree Frog (Litoria dentata) have been accidentally introduced from the Australian mainland in recent years.
   The Lord Howe Island stick insect (Dryococelus australis) disappeared from the main island soon after the introduction of Black rats. In 2001 a tiny population was discovered in a single (Melaleuca howeana) shrub on the slopes of Ball's Pyramid.
   Another endemic invertebrate, the Lord Howe Placostylus, has also been affected by the introduction of the black rat. Once common, the species is now endangered and a captive breeding program is under way to save the snail from extinction.
   Australian underwater photographer Neville Coleman has a book 1001 Nudibranches - Catalog of Indo-Pacific Sea Slugs that features many photographs of various nudibranches taken in Lord Howe' Island.
   Over 400 fish species are found in the waters around Lord Howe including 9 endemic to the region. Over 80 species of coral occur in the reefs surrounding the islands.
   About 10 percent of Lord Howe Island's forests have been cleared for agriculture, and another 20 percent has been disturbed by domestic cattle and feral sheep, goats, and pigs. Despite a large number of introduced species that harm Lord Howe's native flora and fauna, feral pigs have recently been eliminated from the island, the goat population has been reduced, and there are ongoing efforts to control rats, mice, and introduced plants. A recovery program has restored the Lord Howe Woodhen numbers from only 20 in 1970 to approximately 200.

Threats

According to the analysis in Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers, the ecosystem of Lord Howe Island would be threatened by climate change and global warming. The reefs would be at risk from rises in water temperature. The Great Barrier Reef is specifically identified as being at risk to the effects of global warming on Australia, and the same analysis applies to the reefs of Lord Howe Island. Cool climate flora and fauna would be at risk from rises in temperature, as those on or near the top of Mount Gower can't migrate higher to stay within their preferred temperature range. Many bird species are also under constant threat in the island as aresult of rats. The island's bird population has been signifigantly reduced by them and some species have already been wiped out because of rats.

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