Vansittart Island

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Vansittart Island, also known as Gun Carriage Island, is a granite island, with an area of 800 ha, and is part of Tasmania’s Vansittart Island Group, between Flinders and Cape Barren Islands. It is partly private property and partly leasehold land and is used for grazing cattle.

Vansittart Island
8.1.1799. Flinders. Named after Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley (1766-1851). British politician. He entered Parliament in 1796, was joint secretary of the treasury (1801-4, 1806-7) and briefly secretary for Ireland (1805), and in 1812 he became chancellor of the exchequer under the 2d earl of Liverpool. He held office for 11 years, dealing with the problems of economic adjustment that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars. A loyal follower of Viscount Sidmouth, he resigned (1823) not long after Sidmouth. He was raised to the peerage in 1823 and remained in the cabinet as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster until 1828.