Cape Fourcroy is located at the western tip of Bathurst Island. Cyclone Tracy passed through here. It is the location of Cape Fourcroy Light, an active lighthouse.
Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia from 24 to 26 December 1974. The storm was the second-smallest tropical cyclone on record, behind only Tropical Storm Marco in 2008.
Cape Fourcroy Light is an active lighthouse located on Cape Fourcroy, on the southwestern tip of Bathurst Island, Northern Territory, Australia. The lighthouse marks the beginning of the route from the Timor Sea to Darwin.
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
It is believed that the cape was named after Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, on 26 July 1803 by Louis de Freycinet, on his journey on the Géographe , in Baudin's expedition to Australia. [1]
Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy was a French chemist and a contemporary of Antoine Lavoisier. Fourcroy collaborated with Lavoisier, Guyton de Morveau, and Claude Berthollet on the Méthode de nomenclature chimique, a work that helped standardize chemical nomenclature.
Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet was a French navigator. He circumnavigated the earth, and in 1811 published the first map to show a full outline of the coastline of Australia.
Géographe was a 20-gun Serpente-class corvette of the French Navy. She was named Uranie in 1797, and renamed Galatée in 1799, still on her building site. Her builder refused to launch her, as he had not been paid to that time. Finally launched in June 1800, she was renamed Géographe on 23 August 1800.
On the 31 December 1942, a 31 Squadron Bristol Beaufighter crashed near the Cape, but both crew members were able to bale out and were rescued. [2]
No. 31 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) airbase support squadron. It was formed in August 1942 and disbanded in July 1946 after seeing action against the Japanese in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II. During the war, it operated the Bristol Beaufighter, which it operated in long-range fighter and ground-attack missions. The squadron was re-raised for its current role in July 2010.
The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter is a multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in the UK. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber. The Beaufighter proved to be an effective night fighter, which came into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Battle of Britain, its large size allowing it to carry heavy armament and early airborne interception radar without major performance penalties.
