Lord Howe Island - Geography

Geography

Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Lying in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand the island is 600 kilometres (370 mi) east of mainland Port Macquarie, 702 kilometres (436 mi) northeast of Sydney, and about 772 kilometres (480 mi) from Norfolk Island to its northeast. The island is about 10 km long and between 2.0 km and 0.3 km wide with an area of 14.55 km2. Along the west coast there is a semi-enclosed sheltered coral reef lagoon with white sand, the most accessible of the island's eleven beaches. Both the north and south sections of the island are high ground of relatively untouched forest, in the south comprising two volcanic mountains, Mount Lidgbird (777 m or 2,549 ft) and Mount Gower which, rising to 875 m (2,871 ft), is the highest point on the island. In the north, where most of the population live, high points are Malabar (209 m or 686 ft) and Mount Eliza (147 m or 482 ft). Between these two uplands is an area of cleared lowland with some farming, the airstrip, and housing. The Lord Howe Island Group of islands comprises 28 islands, islets and rocks. Apart from Lord Howe Island itself the most notable of these is the pointed rocky islet Balls Pyramid, a 551-metre-high (1,808 ft) eroded volcano about 23 km to the south-east, which is uninhabited but bird-colonised. It contains the only known population of the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, formerly thought to be extinct. To the north there is the Admiralty Group, a cluster of seven small uninhabited islands. Just off the east coast is Mutton Bird Island, and in the lagoon is Blackburn (Rabbit) Island.