| Cape Otway Victoria | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cape Otway coast | |||||||||||||||
  Cape Otway | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 38°51′0″S143°31′0″E / 38.85000°S 143.51667°E Coordinates: 38°51′0″S143°31′0″E / 38.85000°S 143.51667°E | ||||||||||||||
| Population | 15 (2016 census) [1] | ||||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | Colac Otway Shire | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Polwarth | ||||||||||||||
| Federal division(s) | Corangamite | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Cape Otway is a cape and a bounded locality of the Colac Otway Shire in southern Victoria, Australia on the Great Ocean Road; much of the area is enclosed in the Great Otway National Park.
Cape Otway was originally inhabited by the Gadubanud people; evidence of their campsites is contained in the middens throughout the region. The cape was charted by the British when Lieutenant James Grant sailed through Bass Strait in the Lady Nelson in December 1800. Grant named it Cape Albany Otway after Captain William Albany Otway. [2] This was later shortened to Cape Otway.
The British started to colonise the region in 1837 when Joseph Gellibrand and George Hesse became lost in the Otways on an expedition. It was found that Hesse probably died of exposure, while Gellibrand was initially cared for by a local Aboriginal clan but later killed by members of another clan visiting from the Apollo Bay area. [3] The ship Joanna was wrecked near the Cape in 1843, with several survivors making a difficult journey by foot along the coast back toward Geelong. [4] Mr Kearnon attempted to establish a livestock property at Moonlight Head in 1845 but his hut was burnt down and his shepherd supposedly killed by the resident Gadubanud people. [5]
More detailed exploration occurred in 1846 when a number of surveying expeditions entered the area with the view of placing a lighthouse upon Cape Otway. [4] During these assignments, an Aboriginal man was attacked by colonists with stockwhips, while a surveyor's assistant by the name of James Conroy was killed by the Gadubanud. A reprisal force led by the surveyor and consisting of a well-armed militia of Barrabool men was organised by the district official Captain Foster Fyans. This force exterminated almost completely the remaining Gadubanud population of around ten people. [6] [7]
Cape Otway Lighthouse was built on the point of the cape in 1848. The lighthouse is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. [8]
A telegraph office opened in 1859. The post office opened on 1 September 1880 and closed in 1972. [9]
Eight ships were wrecked along the coast of Cape Otway: [10] The Marie (1851), Sacramento (1853), Schomberg (1855), Loch Ard (1878), Joseph H. Scammell (May 1891), Fiji (September 1891), and the Casino in 1932. The first American vessel sunk during World War II, the MS City of Rayville , was also sunk off the cape by a German mine. Following this, the Americans built a radar bunker on the cape in 1942; it is now open to the public.
The hostile seas, where the Southern Ocean meets with Bass Strait, that surround Cape Otway are home to some of the world's most prized marine species, including crayfish and abalone. On calm days, as many as 20 abalone dive boats commonly operate along the shoreline beneath the lighthouse. Commercial crayfishers use baited pots or traps throughout the reef system, with white floats on the surface marking their locations.
Cape Otway has a oceanic climate (Cfb) with mild summers and cool damp winters, and only 38 clear days annually.
| Climate data for Cape Otway Lighthouse | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 43.3 (109.9) | 42.0 (107.6) | 40.6 (105.1) | 33.3 (91.9) | 27.8 (82.0) | 24.4 (75.9) | 21.8 (71.2) | 25.0 (77.0) | 31.0 (87.8) | 34.2 (93.6) | 39.4 (102.9) | 43.4 (110.1) | 43.4 (110.1) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 21.4 (70.5) | 21.5 (70.7) | 20.4 (68.7) | 18.0 (64.4) | 15.6 (60.1) | 13.7 (56.7) | 13.0 (55.4) | 13.8 (56.8) | 15.2 (59.4) | 17.0 (62.6) | 18.3 (64.9) | 19.9 (67.8) | 17.3 (63.1) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 13.4 (56.1) | 14.0 (57.2) | 13.3 (55.9) | 11.7 (53.1) | 10.1 (50.2) | 8.5 (47.3) | 7.6 (45.7) | 7.9 (46.2) | 8.5 (47.3) | 9.6 (49.3) | 10.8 (51.4) | 12.1 (53.8) | 10.6 (51.1) |
| Record low °C (°F) | 3.3 (37.9) | 2.8 (37.0) | −1.1 (30.0) | 1.7 (35.1) | 1.7 (35.1) | 1.7 (35.1) | 0.0 (32.0) | 1.1 (34.0) | −1.1 (30.0) | −0.6 (30.9) | 1.4 (34.5) | 3.3 (37.9) | −1.1 (30.0) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 44.3 (1.74) | 41.5 (1.63) | 55.4 (2.18) | 70.7 (2.78) | 91.5 (3.60) | 96.6 (3.80) | 106.2 (4.18) | 104.1 (4.10) | 90.1 (3.55) | 80.1 (3.15) | 62.7 (2.47) | 52.5 (2.07) | 894.8 (35.23) |
| Average precipitation days | 9.3 | 8.4 | 12.0 | 14.8 | 17.9 | 18.4 | 19.9 | 20.1 | 18.1 | 16.3 | 13.5 | 11.8 | 180.5 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 74 | 75 | 75 | 76 | 78 | 80 | 80 | 78 | 76 | 75 | 74 | 74 | 76 |
| Source: [11] | |||||||||||||
Colac is a small city in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, approximately 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne on the southern shore of Lake Colac.
Lorne is a seaside town on Louttit Bay in Victoria, Australia. It is situated about the Erskine River and is a popular destination on the Great Ocean Road tourist route. Lorne is in the Surf Coast Shire and at the 2016 census had a population of 1,114 but this figure grows during the holiday season.
Robert Hoddle was a surveyor and artist. He is best known as the surveyor general of the Port Phillip District from 1837 to 1853, especially for creation of what is now known as the Hoddle Grid, the area of the CBD of Melbourne. He was also an accomplished artist and depicted scenes of the Port Phillip region and New South Wales. Hoddle was one of the earliest-known European artists to depict Ginninderra, the area now occupied by Canberra, Australia's National Capital.
Foster Fyans was an Irish military officer, penal colony administrator and public servant. He was acting commandant of the second convict settlement at Norfolk Island, the commandant of the Moreton Bay penal settlement at Brisbane, the first police magistrate at Geelong, and commissioner of crown lands for the Portland Bay pastoral district in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. He is the great-great-grandfather of actor Sam Neill.
The Geelong Advertiser is a daily newspaper circulating in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, the Bellarine Peninsula, and surrounding areas. First published on 21 November 1840, the Geelong Advertiser is the oldest newspaper title in Victoria and the second-oldest in Australia. The newspaper is currently owned by News Corp. It was the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association 2009 Newspaper of the Year.
Joseph Tice Gellibrand was the first Attorney-General of the British colony of Van Diemen's Land where he gained notoriety with his attempts to establish full rights of trial by jury. He became an integral part of the Port Phillip Association, producing the Batman Treaty in an attempt to obtain extensive land-holdings from the local Aboriginal people around Port Phillip. He was also later part of an ill-fated expedition into the region west of Geelong where he disappeared and was assumed to have been killed by Aboriginal people in the Otway Range.
Forrest, Victoria is a small rural township in the Otway Ranges, Victoria, Australia. At the 2016 census, Forrest and the surrounding area had a population of 230.
SS Alert was a steamship that sank off Cape Schanck, Victoria, Australia on 28 December 1893. The ship was built for the gentle waters of Scottish lochs and was almost 51 m (167 ft) long and weighed 247 tonnes.
The Gadubanud (Katubanut) also known as the Pallidurgbarran, Yarro waetch or Cape Otway tribe (Tindale), are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria. Their territory encompasses the rainforest plateau and rugged coastline of Cape Otway. They were thought to have become extinct quickly following the onset of white colonisation, and little is known of them. However some may have found refuge at the Wesleyan mission station at Birregurra and later the Framlingham mission station, and some people still trace their descent from such a remnant.
Netherby was a full-rigged sailing ship of the Black Ball Line that ran aground and sank off the coast of King Island—an island in Bass Strait between Tasmania and the Australian mainland—on 14 July 1866 while sailing from London to Brisbane.
The Gellibrand River is a perennial river of the Corangamite catchment, located in The Otways region of the Australian state of Victoria.
Dhauwurd Wurrung is a term used for a group of languages spoken by various groups of the Gunditjmara people of the Western District of Victoria, Australia. Keerray Woorroong is regarded by some as a separate language, by others as a dialect. The dialect continuum consisted of various lects such as Kuurn Kopan Noot, Big Wurrung, Gai Wurrung, and others. There was no traditional name for the entire dialect continuum and it has been classified and labelled differently by different linguists and researchers. The group of languages is also referred to as Gunditjmara language and the Warrnambool language.
Gellibrand is a town in south west Victoria, Australia. The town is located in the Otway Ranges midway between the Princes Highway and Great Ocean Road in the Colac Otway Shire, 176 kilometres (109 mi) south west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2016 census, Gellibrand had a population of 210. Gellibrand is home to the Otway Districts Demons Football and Netball Club, who play Australian Rules Football and participate in the Colac & District Football League.
Cape Otway Lighthouse is a lighthouse on Cape Otway in southern Victoria, Australia. It is Victoria's oldest working lighthouse. During winter to spring, the lighthouse is a vantage point for land-based whale watching as migrating whales swim very close to shores.
The Electoral district of Port Phillip was an electorate of the New South Wales Legislative Council before it became the separate colony of Victoria (Australia) on 1 July 1851. At the time, some members of the Council were elected and the balance were appointed by the Governor. The Town of Melbourne returned one member while the Port Phillip district, which covered the rest of what became Victoria after its separation in 1851, returned five members.
Edward Prowse was an architect working in the Geelong region of Victoria, Australia in the late nineteenth century. He was responsible for many early Geelong buildings, including hotels, mansions and churches.
Mount Moriac is a rural locality in the Surf Coast Shire, Victoria, Australia. In the 2016 census, Mount Moriac had a population of 240 people.
Wongarra is a coastal locality in the Shire of Colac Otway, Victoria, Australia. In the 2016 census, Wongarra had a population of 37.
The Border Police of New South Wales was a frontier policing body introduced by the colonial government of New South Wales with the passing of the Crown Lands Unauthorised Occupation Act 1839.
Blanket Bay is a small bay on the coast of Victoria, Australia. The foreshore is part of the Cape Otway National park.
