Foulness Island passing of the Ministry of Defence Act 1946 and the subsequent rationalisation of five agencies in 1971, ownership of the island passed from the War Office to the Ministry of Defence. In 2003, a contract to manage the testing of munitions was awarded to the defence contractors QinetiQ, and they also control access to the island. In the 1850s, the South Essex Estuary and Reclamation Company proposed a grand scheme to reclaim around of land on the Essex coast, which would have included most of Foulness Sands and Maplin Sands. The civil engineer Sir John Rennie produced the plans, and
Maria Island Maria Island Maria Island is a mountainous island located in the Tasman Sea, off the east coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is contained within the Maria Island National Park, which includes a marine area of off the island's northwest coast. The island is about in length from north to south and, at its widest, is about west to east. At its closest point, Point Lesueur, the island lies approximately off the east coast of Tasmania. Tasmanians pronounce the name , as did the early British settlers but the original pronunciation was . The island was named in 1642 by