  Thistle Island / Noondala | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Spencer Gulf |
| Coordinates | 34°59′56″S 136°08′30″E / 34.998824°S 136.141641°E |
| Administration | |
Australia | |
Thistle Island / Noondala is in the Spencer Gulf, South Australia, some 200 kilometres (120 mi) west of Adelaide, and northwest of the Gambier Islands. The city of Port Lincoln lies to the northwest of the island. Between them, the Gambier Islands and Thistle form a chain across the mouth of the gulf between the southern tips of the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas,[1] sometimes referred to as the Taylor Islands group.
The island is approximately 17 kilometres (10.5 mi) long and varies in width from 1 kilometre wide (0.6 mi) at its narrowest central part to 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) wide in the south-east part. Whaler's Bay is a wide bay on the east coast of the island, and Albatross Island is a tiny island to the south.
As of 2014 the Royal Australian Navy operated an acoustic range, the South Australian Acoustic Range (SAAR), to help develop sonar techniques for submarines in the waters west of Thistle Island, with a small control facility being located on the island itself.[2]
- ^ Collins concise atlas of the world (3rd ed.) (1993). London: HarperCollins.
- ^ Morris, Alex (2014). "Submarine Acoustic Analysis Cell goes to SAAR" (PDF). The Trade (2): 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 January 2016.