Quail Island: foreshore resource assessment

Abstract

First through the Landscape section, and more recently the Parks and Recreation section, of the Department of Horticulture, Landscape and Parks, Lincoln College has been involved with the resource evaluation of Quail Island as a reserve. The island after a varied history as a ballast supplier, ships' graveyard, leper colony, quarantine station and farm was declared a recreation reserve in August 1975. Under the Reserves Act 1977 a management plan which protects the island's scenic, historic, archaeological, biological, geological and soil and water values, as well as improving its value for recreation, must be prepared. A number of agencies including the groups mentioned above have been invited to provide information to help in the preparation of the management plan. The Department of Lands and Survey which administers the island and which commissioned this foreshore survey is aware that the marine life around the island and in particular in the inter-tidal zone influences the use and enjoyment of the island. The department hopes that the reserve may be extended to Low Water Springs and it is the area between High Water Springs and Low Water Springs on which the present survey has been centred.