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Kent Group National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)
Nearest town/city:	Launceston
Coordinates:	41°33′03″S, 147°40′01″E
Area:	165 km²
Visitation:	25,000 (in 1998)
Managing authorities:	Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service
Official site:	Kent Group National Park

The Kent Group of Islands (39°27′S, 147°20′E^[1]) lies in Bass Strait, Australia, north-west of the Furneaux Group. They form the Kent Group National Park.^[2]

The islands were named Kent's Group by Matthew Flinders, "in honour of my friend captain William Kent, then commander of the Supply" when Flinders passed them on 7 February 1798 in the Francis (on her way to salvage the Sydney Cove).^[3]

Deal Island (39°28′S, 147°19′E^[4]) in the group has the highest lighthouse in the Southern Hemisphere, standing up on the island some 305 metres above sealevel. That height caused problems with visibility in low cloud sometimes. The lighthouse was built in 1848 and deactivated in 1992. Management and conservation is presently under the control of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.^[5]

Judgment Rocks (39°30′S, 147°07′E^[6]) are small bare rocks west of the group. The rock was named by Flinders (or perhaps collectively by all aboard the Francis, he doesn't make that clear) "from its resemblance to an elevated seat".^[3]

Joanna Murray-Smith's novel Judgement Rock is named for the rocks and set among the islands of the Kent Group.^[7]

Murray Pass between Deal and Erith Islands has long been used by ships to shelter from gales in Bass Strait, but it is a dangerous partly open roadstead and many ships have been wrecked after sudden changes in wind direction and speed. Others have hit the island either while attempting to shelter or through poor navigation in darkness or bad weather, several with heavy loss of life. They include:

• 1816, Brothers, schooner, 40 tons, Captain William Hovell, one life lost.
• 1819, Daphne, brig, 151 tons, Captain John Howard, no lives lost.
• 1819, John Palmer, schooner, 37 tons, Captain Bastian, two lives lost (one ex Daphne)
• 1831, Ionia, snow, 226 tons, Captain Buck.  ?Three lives lost.
• 1850, Ida, schooner, 50 tons, no loss of life.
• 1851, White Squall, schooner, 104 tons, Captain Chattock, no loss of life.
• 1852, Dorset, brig, 82 tons, Captain Birdwood, no loss of life.
• 1852, Mary, brig, 308 tons, no loss of life.
• 1855, Elizabeth Mason, schooner, 79 tons, Captain McIntyre, no loss of life.
• 1856, Kendall, schooner, 157 tons, Captain Read, no lives lost.
• 1862, Reindeer, schooner, 104 tons, Captain Morris, all hands (about 8) lost.
• 1863, General Jessup, barque, 193 tons, Captain Hodge, no loss of life.
• 1866, Boscarne, schooner, 63 tons, Captain Black, no loss of life.
• 1875, Essie Black, barque, 281 tons, Captain Sivier, all hands (about 10) lost.
• 1877, Bulli, iron steamship, 524 tons, Captain Randell, no loss of life (a popular dive wreck).
• 1921, Karitane, steel steamship, 1376 tons, Captain Spain, no loss of life.
• 1930, Ida N, new fishing boat, 25 tons, Captain Busk, no lives lost.
• 1961, St. Nicholas, newly completed fish carrier, 45 tons, no loss of life.

1. ^ Kent Group. Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
2. ^ Kent Group National Park page at the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service
3. ^ ^{a b} A Voyage to Terra Australis by Matthew Flinders, available at Project Gutenberg.
4. ^ Deal Island. Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
5. ^ Deal Island lighthouse page at Lighthouses of Australia (includes pictures)
6. ^ Judgment Rocks. Gazetteer of Australia online. Geoscience Australia, Australian Government.
7. ^ On lighthouses and writing presentation by Joanna Murray-Smith (transcript at the National Archives of Australia)

• Broxam & Nash, Tasmanian Shipwrecks, Volumes 1 and 2, Navarine Publishing, Canberra, 1998 and 2000, ISBN 0-9586561-5-0 and ISBN 0-9586561-6-9.

• Protected areas of Tasmania (Australia)