Betsy (aka Betsey) Island, along with the adjacent Little Betsy Island and Betsy Reef, forms a nature reserve around the entrance to the River Derwent. It is classified as an Important Bird Area by BirdLife International; it is an important site for little penguins with an estimated 15,000 pairs breeding there, short-tailed shearwaters, and black-faced cormorants. The northern part of the island is dominated by Tasmanian blue gum forest, the southern part is mainly sedgeland. and there is succulent salt marsh on the west. Few people land on Betsy Island, and permission to do so must be obtained from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart.

Betsy Island was first named Willaunez Island by Bruny D'Entrecasteaux in 1793 after Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez, the 28-year old commander of the expedition ship, Recherche, who passed between the island and South Arm during an exploratory expedition. Later in his life, Willaumez would rise to the rank of admiral of the First French Empire. Lieutenant John Hayes, on an exploring expedition to Van Diemen's Land for the British East India Company, explored the d'Entrecastreaux Channel and the River Derwent between April and June 1793. Unaware of French visit two months earlier, he is said to have named it Betsy Island, possibly after the ship Betsy, commanded by Captain Megson, a naval officer and one of his friends. Hayes also named Risdon Cove, Cornelian Bay and Mount Direction.

However, and article on Hobart contributed by the Rev. R.D. Poulett-Harris to Cassell's "Picuresque Australia", published in 1887, states that the correct name for Betsey's Island is Betts's Island, after the island's first owner, a person named Betts. Popular useage led to its current spelling. As the name was given by Hayes, we would have to suppose that Hayes found the island in the possession of Betts in 1794, and named it after him, or perhaps adopted the name given by this hypothetical first settler in Tasmania. That a white man had already found his way there prior to 1794, is, of course, not impossible, but highly improbable.

During John Franklin's term as Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, the island was known as Franklin Island, as he and Lady Franklin had purchased it to establish a game reserve there. Lady Franklin bequeathed the island to the people of Tasmania, at which time it reverted to its original name. Lady Franklin, who was very popular during her time in Tasmania, was an indefatigable traveller. She was the first woman to climb Mount Wellington and to travel overland from Melbourne to Sydney and from Hobart to Macquarie Harbour.


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Since 1916, the area to the west of Little Betsy Island has been used for the disposal of unwanted ships. This has created a huge concentration of 18-35m wreck dives very close to Hobart. The wrecks are very interesting, and most of the hulls are intact and home to a vast array of marine life. Sections of Hobart's floating bridge sections were sunk there and are today covered in massive yellow and white Jewel Anemones. The wreck of the S.S “Leura” also attracts hordes of school fish.

The island supports breeding populations of little penguins (15,000 pairs), short-tailed shearwaters (150,000 pairs) and kelp gulls (15+ pairs). A large variety of terrestrial birds, including wedge-tailed eagles and white-bellied sea-eagles also use the island for breeding. Wedge-tailed eagles are listed as endangered under both the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995 and the Commonwealth Endangered Species Protection Act 1992. White-bellied sea eagles are not listed but are considered of high conservation significance. The island has two species of skink – White’s skink and the she-oak skink. Silver-haired rabbits, introduced to the island as a commercial venture in 1826, still occur. The vegetation at the northern end of the island is dominated by Eucalyptus globulus and Eucalyptus viminalis forest which continues to the edge of the cliffs to the east while the southern end is kangaroo apple (Solanum laciniatum) scrub, sagg-dominated (Lomandra longifolia) shrubland, succulent herbfield and Poa poiformis grassland.

There are at least eleven Aboriginal sites of significance on Betsy Island, predominantly middens with some artefact scatters also recorded. Mutton-birding by the Aboriginal community was permitted on the island for three weekends in March 2001 and for 8 days in March 2002. The island has a long history of agricultural use, which began in 1826 when a Mr. King successfully obtained the island for the breeding of silver-haired rabbits for the Chinese fur trade. He was thought to have brought in 10,000 rabbits with numbers increasing to as many as 30,000. In 1832 the island was purchased by Sir John and Lady Franklin for £910. Surveyor James Calder noted that “The northernmost end of the island has been cultivated by its first proprietor, and there are two small paddocks on the top of it still fenced in ... The silver-haired rabbits – which by the way are black – appear to be few in number. I did not see more than six or eight .....”

In 1852, the island was stripped of timber which was exported to Port Phillip. George Augustus Robinson noted that Betsy Island was utilised as a lookout by whalers from Bruny Island, writing “The boats as a rule (after a very early breakfast) were sent away to the various lookouts, sometimes over to Yellow Bluff one boat and the other perhaps to Betsy’s Island.” In 1848, Calder observed “The island seems to me about 400 ft high, having an ironbound coast inaccessible at all points except the usual landing place. It contains between three and four hundred acres. In the days of the old Bay fishery it was one of the chief lookout places of the whalers of Storm Bay”. It was possibly used as a lookout from the 1820s to the late 1840s. There is a rectangular stacked stone structure on a gently sloping hillside on the north-eastern coast of the island overlooking Storm Bay to the east, suggesting that it was a signalling station for whale watching activities. If it is a whalers’ lookout, it is the only substantial one known in Tasmania.

The island is relatively regularly visited by sea kayakers, yachtspeople and people in motor boats. Recreational diving and recreational and commercial fishing and netting takes place around the island. Access to the only suitable landing area on the northern shore can be hampered by big swells.

The small islet of Little Betsy Island is a black-faced cormorant and silver gull breeding site. Storms and wave-washing can adversely affect their breeding. The island was used by the Australian Army in the 1940s as a target range for shelling. Social and Recreational Values Fishing, sea kayaking and diving takes place around the island. However the island is rarely, if ever, visited as access is difficult. Approach to within 10 metres of the island is common.




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Iron Pot Lighthouse

For nearly two hundred years the Iron Pot Lighthouse at South Arm has welcomed sailors to the mouth of the Derwent River. The structure was built following a request by Governor Arthur who, in 1830, suggested to the Hobart Port Control that a lighthouse be established due to the wreck of the colonial trading ship 'Hope' in 1827. The Hope was wrecked opposite Bruny Island on the beach which now bears its name and soon became legendary as stories of the lost treasure onboard spread far and wide. It is likely that its name is derived from there being a whaling station close by, where a large iron pot was used to extract the whale oil from blubber.



The Iron Pot lighthouse is Australia's oldest existing tower. Although the Macquarie light in NSW was built earlier, in 1818, that tower was rebuilt in 1883. The tower on Iron Pot Island was first lit on September 16 1833. The lantern, manufactured in Hobart, was raised and held by halyards. Three convicts, John Booth, William Spendelon and John Knox were the first to tend the light. The island was visited weekly, but rations were supplied monthly. The keepers lived in tents until construction of a stone hut began in late November 1832. A permanent tower was designed by Civil Engineer, John Lee Archer. It was three storeys high, of rough rubble work, building in the perpendicular spars erected by Lieut. Hill and using the horizontal headpiece for the purpose of hoisting materials. The new light was lit for the first time on the 16th January 1833 and has shone every night since - focal plane 20 metres; three white flashes every 10 seconds, 12 metre square rubblestone tower with lantern and gallery, painted white with a single broad red horizontal band at the top of the tower.

In January 1977 the lighthouse was converted to solar power running a Tideland ML300 light. This was the first time Solar power was used in an Australian Lighthouse. The keeper's houses have been demolished, however the foundation ruins survive. The Light is located on a small rocky island on the east side of the entrance to the Derwent Estuary about 25 km south of Hobart. Accessible only by boat; visible distantly from the northern end of Bruny Island. Site and tower closed.
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