Rodondo Island

Rodondo Island Nature Reserve is a dramatic granite island in northern Bass Strait with sheer 200-metre cliffs, located near the entrance to Bass Strait approximately 60 kilometres from the Tasmanian coast. The island is home to one of Australia's most extraordinary wildlife spectacles: a breeding colony of over one million short-tailed shearwaters, among the largest single-island seabird colonies in Australia. The scale of the colony, combined with the dramatic cliff scenery, makes Rodondo one of the most remarkable nature reserves in the region.

Rodondo Island's population of over one million short-tailed shearwaters makes it one of the most significant seabird breeding sites in Australia and the world. The birds nest in dense burrow colonies across every accessible section of the island's slopes. Their annual migration to and from the North Pacific Ocean is one of the great wildlife journeys, covering over 14,000 kilometres each way. New Zealand fur seals breed on the rocky platforms below the cliffs. Peregrine falcons and white-bellied sea eagles may use the cliff faces. The surrounding Bass Strait waters provide rich foraging for the enormous colony.

The vegetation of Rodondo Island is almost entirely composed of shearwater-modified communities, with tussock grass, coastal herbs, and bare soil dominating the burrow-covered slopes. The 200-metre cliffs provide cliff-face habitat for plants adapted to the rocky, spray-affected surface. The sheer scale of the shearwater colony means that burrowing activity has modified essentially every square metre of soil-covered terrain on the island.

Rodondo Island is composed of Devonian granite, approximately 370 million years old, forming a prominent isolated rocky outcrop in northern Bass Strait. The sheer 200-metre cliff faces result from wave erosion undercutting the granite, causing periodic cliff collapse and maintaining the vertical face. The island's position in the busy northern Bass Strait shipping lane made it a hazard to navigation before modern safety measures were implemented.

Rodondo Island is exposed to northwesterly and westerly Bass Strait winds and the sea conditions of the northern strait. The exposed position means conditions are frequently rough, and the 200-metre cliffs are subject to severe wave action during storms.

Rodondo Island was a known hazard in northern Bass Strait from early colonial shipping. The island's enormous seabird colony was exploited by bird hunters and egg collectors in the nineteenth century before protective legislation was enacted.

Rodondo Island was declared a nature reserve to protect its extraordinary seabird colony. The no-access status ensures the million-strong shearwater colony is undisturbed during its breeding season.

No visitor access. The dramatic cliffs and scale of the seabird colony can be observed from vessels in the area. During the breeding season from September to April, the sky around the island is filled with the shearwaters returning to and departing from their colony.

No public access permitted. The island can be viewed from passing vessels in northern Bass Strait.

Conservation focuses on maintaining the undisturbed condition of the shearwater colony and biosecurity against predator introduction. The colony's long-term monitoring data provides one of Australia's most important datasets on seabird population trends and marine ecosystem change.