Home › Extinction of Species › Extinction of Species: Australia

Extinction of Species: Australia

In South Africa, elephants and all other large game are being steadily exterminated within the several colonies. In Australia, we find that the seals which thronged the islands of Bass's Straits in countless thousands, at the period when Bass made his explorations there, have utterly disappeared. The bulk of them were destroyed by seal-hunters from Sydney within a few years after his discovery. The lamentable records of the Sydney Gazette of that period show this, for they detail the return to port, after a short cruise, of schooners laden with from twelve to sixteen thousand skins each. The result of this has been that for many years past the number of seals has been limited to a few individuals, to be found on one or two isolated rocks off Clarke's Island, and on Hogan's group.

The great sea-elephant, which, in Peron's time, still migrated for breeding purposes from antarctic regions to the shores of King's Island, where it is described by him as lining the long sandy beaches by hundreds, has been almost unseen there since the date of his visit, and its memory is only preserved in the names of Sea-Elephant Bay, Elephant Rock, &c. which are still inscribed on our charts.