The Easter Group is the central of three groups of islands that make up the Houtman Abrolhos island chain. The group measures about 20 kilometres by 12 kilometres, and consists of a number of islands including
Rat Island
Wooded Island
Morley Island
Suomi Island
Alexander Island. Unlike the other groups the Easter Group has few shipwrecks. The group is part of the Houtman Abrolhos Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for supporting large numbers of breeding seabirds.
The group was discovered and named in April 1840 by the crew of HMS Beagle, under the command of John Clements Wickham. Stoke's journal, published as Discoveries in Australia in 1846, records the following for April 11:
See also
Wallabi Group
Pelsaert Group
List of islands of Western Australia
References
Further reading
, (Report number 66) with contribution from Ross White, Jenni Potts and Caroline Heine.