King George Sound
King George Sound | |
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View of the bay from Middleton Beach in Albany |
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Waters | Great Australian Bay (broader sense) |
Land mass | Australia |
Geographical location | 35 ° 3 ' S , 117 ° 53' E |
surface | 91 km² |
King Georges Sound in 1834 |
The King George Sound is a bay on the southwest coast of the Australian state of Western Australia , at the westernmost end of which is the city of Albany .
geography
The bay is the offshore peninsula Torndirrup Peninsula formed. Its entrance to the east is protected by the two islands of Michaelmas Island and Breaksea Island.
The Vancouver Peninsula , which extends far into the bay and runs from the Torndirrup Peninsula about five kilometers to the north, divides the bay from Princess Royal Harbor from King George Sound. The Princess Royal Harbor is only connected to King George Sound by a 500 meter wide and less than a kilometer long passage. The port of Albany is located just west of the passage on the north side of the bay at the foot of Mount Clarence .
To the northeast of Albany is Oyster Harbor , another bay that is connected to King George Sound by a 500 meter long and 150 meter wide canal.
history
In 1791 they discovered George Vancouver and mapped them.
Whaling started in the bay in the 19th century . The whaling station Cheyne Beach Whaling Station was closed in 1978 and later converted into a museum.
Until the completion of the port of Fremantle in 1897, the King George Sound served as a natural harbor and was also the only deep-water port in Western Australia up to that point . The bay, surrounded on all sides by land, has an area of about 91 km², the entrance to King George Sound is 8 km wide.