GROOTE EYLANDT

island in the Gulf of Carpentaria, 25 mi (40 km) across Warwick Channel off the northeast coast of Northern Territory, Australia. It has an area of 950 sq mi (2,460 sq km) and rises to 520 ft (158 m) at its centre. A barren and rocky outlier of the sunken coast of the Arnhem Land plateau, it has deeply embayed north and east coasts. Sighted in 1623 by Dutch seamen, it was named Groote Eylandt (Big Island) by the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in 1644. The English explorer Matthew Flinders made a circumnavigation in 1803. Now part of the Groote Eylandt Aboriginal Reserve, the island has an airfield and two Anglican mission stations. Alyangula, on the west coast, is the most important town. It produces some beef cattle and tropical fruit, and manganese deposits have been exploited on a large scale since 1966. There are numerous offshore reefs and islets, one of which, Chasm Island, has caves containing Aboriginal art. Pop. (1981) 1,961.