| Wingan Inlet | |
|---|---|
 A view of the inlet from a walking track to the beach. | |
  Wingan Inlet | |
| Location | East Gippsland, Victoria |
| Coordinates | 37°44′21″S149°30′14″E / 37.73917°S 149.50389°E |
| Type | Inlet |
| Primary inflows | Wingan River |
| Primary outflows | Tasman Sea |
| Basin countries | Australia |
| Managing agency | Parks Victoria |
| Surface area | 38 hectares (94 acres) |
| References | [1] [2] |
Wingan Inlet is an inlet within the Croajingolong National Park, in the East Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia.
The inlet covers a surface area of 38 hectares (94 acres) [2] and is fed by the Wingan River and provides outflow to the Tasman Sea. It features a ranger-managed camping ground, about an hour's drive from the nearest town, Cann River, along a rough stretch of dirt road. The inlet and its surrounds are home to many species of marine life, including crabs, Sydney rock oysters and other shellfish, as well as birds and small mammals. Paralysis ticks, Lace Monitors and snakes are common.
The Wingan Point headland is located a few metres away from the inlet mouth.
The traditional custodians of the land surrounding Wingan Inlet are the Australian Aboriginal Bidawal and Nindi-Ngudjam Ngarigu Monero peoples. [3]
Wingan Inlet is of historical significance; James Cook clearly recorded the existence of the Inlet on his chart - while naming the nearby southern headland, Ram Head [4] on Thursday, April 19, 1780.
George Bass [5] took shelter from bad weather near the Inlet, on 20 January 1798 in a 28 feet (8.5 m) whaleboat he named Elizabeth - during his attempt to reach the wreck of the Sydney Cove; that ran aground on Preservation Island, in Bass Strait. [6]
Wingan Inlet is the only significant geographical feature in the area, that could be described as a lagoon that could provide shelter for a small open boat. Otherwise Bass referred to the sheltered bay and beach area in front of Wingan Inlet, that was named Fly Cove by Bass.[5] Bass' party lost an anchor in the Cove, before continuing to navigate to Wilson's Promontory where they made an attempt to cross Bass Strait to reach the Sydney Cove. Due to bad weather and a leaking boat, Bass was forced to return to the mainland and continued west where he discovered and examined Western Port.
On Bass' return voyage, [7] they stopped at the lagoon near Cook's Ram Head to search, unsuccessfully for the whaleboat's anchor. Although Bass' expedition was unsuccessful in reaching the wreck of the Sydney Cove, due to weather and failing equipment. Upon his return to Sydney, Bass conveyed his observations of the tidal change along those parts of the coastline, and his belief of a strait separating The Mainland of Australia and Tasmania. Bass' speculations were confirmed in 1798–99, when he joined Mathew Flinders in the sloop Norfolk, when they circumnavigated Tasmania.
Bass Strait is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland. The strait provides the most direct waterway between the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea, and is also the only maritime route into the economically prominent Port Phillip Bay.
The Kent Group are a grouping of six granite islands located in Bass Strait, north-west of the Furneaux Group in Tasmania, Australia. Collectively, the group is comprised within the Kent Group National Park.
The Croajingolong National Park is a coastal national park located in the East Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. The 88,355-hectare (218,330-acre) national park is situated approximately 450 kilometres (280 mi) east of Melbourne and 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of Sydney.
George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.
Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a 1,367-square-kilometre (528 sq mi) island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Today Flinders Island is part of the state of Tasmania, Australia. It is 54 kilometres (34 mi) from Cape Portland and is located on 40° south, a zone known as the Roaring Forties.
The Colonial sloop Norfolk was built on Norfolk Island in 1798 of Norfolk Island Pine. She was wrecked in 1800.
The Bass Strait Triangle is the waters that separate the states of Victoria and Tasmania, including Bass Strait, in south-eastern Australia. The term Bass Strait Triangle appears to have been first used following the disappearance of Frederick Valentich in 1978 although the region had a bad reputation long before that.
The Clarke Island, part of the Furneaux Group, is an 82-square-kilometre (32 sq mi) island in Bass Strait, south of Cape Barren Island, about 24 kilometres (15 mi) off the northeast coast of Tasmania, Australia. Banks Strait separates the island from Cape Portland on the mainland.
The following lists events that happened during 1797 in Australia.
Point Hicks, is a coastal headland in the East Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, located within the Croajingolong National Park. The point is marked by the Point Hicks Lighthouse that faces the Tasman Sea.
Ram Head or since 1970 Rame Head is a coastal headland in eastern Victoria, Australia. It is within the Croajingolong National Park.
Twofold Bay is an open oceanic embayment that is located in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia.
Wattamolla, also known as Wattamolla Beach, is a cove, lagoon, and beach on the New South Wales coast south of Sydney, within the Royal National Park.
Sydney Cove was the Bengal country ship Begum Shaw that new owners purchased in 1796 to carry goods to Sydney Cove, and renamed for her destination. She was wrecked in 1797 on Preservation Island off Tasmania while on her way from Calcutta to Port Jackson. She was among the first ships wrecked on the east coast of Australia.
Captain Matthew Flinders was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to utilise the name Australia to describe the entirety of that continent including Van Diemen's Land, a title he regarded as being "more agreeable to the ear" than previous names such as Terra Australis.
Preservation Island is a low and undulating granite and calcarenite island, with an area of 207 ha, in south-eastern Australia. It is part of Tasmania’s Preservation Island Group, lying in eastern Bass Strait south-west of Cape Barren Island in the Furneaux Group, and is an important historic site.
The Hibbs Pyramid is a pyramidal dolerite island, located in the Indian Ocean, off the south western coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is contained within the Southwest National Park, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Site.
The Wingan River is a perennial river with no defined major catchment, located in the East Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria.
Peter Kenney Hibbs was an English mariner and a member of the First Fleet to Australia in 1788.
