Montebello Islands 5 dollars 2013

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6.00


The Montebello Islands are an archipelago of around 174 small islands lying 20 kilometres north of Barrow Island and 130 kilometres off the Pilbara coast of north-western Australia. The islands form a conservation park administered by the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation, and it is likely that the shallow waters around them will become a marine conservation reserve.

The islands of the archipelago have a collective land area of about 22 km², that consists of limestone rock and sand. The islands have been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area because they support over 1% of the world populations of Fairy and Roseate Terns, and of Sooty Oystercatchers.

The first Europeans known to have seen the islands were the crews of a French Navy exploration expedition, led by Nicolas Baudin, in 1801. Baudin named Hermite Island after Admiral Jean-Marthe-Adrien L'Hermite and Trimouille Island after a French aristocratic family.

The islands were economically significant for pearl fishing from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of the Second World War.

The Montebello island were the site of three nuclear weapons tests by the British military during the 1950s. A bay on Trimouille Island was the site of Operation Hurricane, the first ever atomic weapon tested by the United Kingdom, on 3 October 1952.

 

Additional product information

Year 2,013
Denomination 5 dollars

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