page_title: Recherche Archipelago
section_title: Groups
hierarchical_section_title: Recherche Archipelago / Geography / Groups
caption_attribution_description: English: Panorama of a beach in the Cape le Grand Nationalpark, WA, Australia
context_page_description: The Archipelago of the Recherche, known locally as the Bay of Isles, is a group of 105 islands, and over 1200 "obstacles to shipping", off the south coast of Western Australia. The islands stretch 230 km from east to west and to 50 km off-shore encompassing an area of approximately 4,000 square kilometres.
  The western group is near Esperance and the eastern group at Israelite Bay. They are located in coastal waters, part of which is designated the Recherche Archipelago Nature Reserve.
context_section_description: The islands are usually considered as being either in the western group, near Esperance and Woody Island and Cape Le Grand National Park, or in the eastern group where Middle Island is most prominent, near Cape Arid National Park. Some surveys of the archipelago go further than the eastern and western distinction and consider groupings around named islands, such as the Woody Group and the Remark Group.
  Part of the area is included in the bioregion described as Esperance 2 (ESP2), the 'Recherche subregion', which contains Cape Le Grand National Park at its western end, and the Cape Arid National Park at the eastern end. This area is named the Recherche Archipelago Nature Reserve.
caption: Cape Le Grande panorama
exif: {}