Ninth Island

Ninth Island Nature Reserve is a granite island in the Waterhouse Island Group in eastern Bass Strait, supporting a mutton-bird (short-tailed shearwater) rookery of conservation significance. The island also has a conservation covenant protecting part of its natural values. Ninth Island lies in the maritime zone between northeastern Tasmania and the Furneaux Group.

Ninth Island's primary wildlife value is its mutton-bird rookery, with short-tailed shearwaters breeding in burrow colonies across the island's vegetated areas. The island also supports other seabirds and Australian fur seals may use the rocky coastal margins. The surrounding Bass Strait waters provide foraging habitat.

Coastal tussock grassland and heath typical of eastern Bass Strait granite islands form the vegetation of Ninth Island. Shearwater burrowing creates the characteristic hummocky terrain of Bass Strait mutton-bird islands.

Ninth Island is composed of Devonian granite typical of eastern Bass Strait. The Waterhouse Group islands lie in a geologically transitional zone between the Tasmanian mainland and the Furneaux Group.

Eastern Bass Strait maritime climate with prevailing southwesterly winds. The Waterhouse Group is somewhat more sheltered than islands further into Bass Strait.

The Waterhouse Island Group was within the maritime range of northeastern Tasmanian Palawa people. European sealers and mutton-birders were active in the area. The Waterhouse Group islands were harvested for mutton birds through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Ninth Island was declared a nature reserve to protect the shearwater colony. A conservation covenant on part of the island provides additional protection.

No visitor infrastructure. Wildlife observed from vessels.

No public access without Parks and Wildlife Tasmania permits. Accessible by vessel from northeastern Tasmania.

Conservation focuses on the shearwater colony and biosecurity. Monitoring of breeding success contributes to assessments of Bass Strait marine productivity.