Torndirrup Peninsula
| Torndirrup Peninsula | |
 Vancouver Island |
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| Geographical location | |
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| Coordinates | 35 ° 6 ′ S , 117 ° 55 ′ E |
| location | South coast of Western Australia near Albany |
| Waters 1 | Great Australian Bight / Indian Ocean (south) |
| Waters 2 | King George Sound (northeast) |
| Waters 3 | Princess Royal Harbor (North) |
| length | 21 km |
| width | 3.4 km |
 View from Albany over Princess Royal Harbor to the peninsula |
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The Torndirrup Peninsula is a peninsula in the south of the Australian state of Western Australia . It juts out in the far west of the Great Australian Bay into the Indian Ocean ( Southern Ocean according to the Australian definition) and forms the south coast of the King George Sound and the Princess Royal Harbor , on whose north bank lies the city of Albany .
geography
The peninsula is just over 20 kilometers long. It begins quite broadly in the southwest of Albany and first extends in a southeast direction. After about half its length, the peninsula runs more to the east. The Vancouver Peninsula splits to the north . The easternmost, narrow part is called the Flinders Peninsula . The easternmost point is called Bald Head .
There are some small islands off the coast. The Stoney Hill , site of a radio station in World War II, and the Flinders Peninsula reach heights of just over 200 meters.
Geologically, the peninsula consists of three types of rock. The rough southern coast is marked by steep limestone - cliffs . But there are also very old gneiss here . Granite emerges on Stoney Hill .
4022 hectares of the peninsula along the south coast and the entire Flinders Peninsula are part of the Torndirrup National Park . The most famous rock formations in the national park include The Gap , the Felsentor Natural Bridge and various blowholes . The few sandy beaches on the cliff like Cable Beach are not suitable for swimming.
In contrast to the exposed south coast, the north coast of the peninsula is flat. There are several sandy beaches ( Goode Beach , Whalers Beach , Cheyne Beach, Misery Beach) and some settlements behind them: Torndirrup , Little Grove , Big Grove , Goode Beach , Vancouver Peninsula and Frenchman Bay . The largest town is Little Grove with around 1500 inhabitants.
There are wildflower meadows and forests on the peninsula. The flat north coast is swampy in the area of Princess Royal Harbor (Shoal Bay) . Further east along the King George Sound - in this section as Frenchman Bay called - to rocky coastlines alternate with sandy beaches. Often reptiles , sea and birds of prey .
history
The name of the peninsula is derived from a clan of the local Noongar , a tribe of the Aborigines . The area belonged to the settlement area of the Mineng, a group of the Noongar. However, the exact conditions in pre-colonial times are not entirely clear. The Aborigines had little contact with the sea and stayed near the coast, especially in summer.
The British navigator George Vancouver was the first European to inquire about King George Sound in 1791 and documented a water source at Whalers Beach on Frenchman Bay. He declared Western Australia here as part of the British Empire . In the years that followed, seafarers kept coming back as it was one of the few reliable sources on the southwest coast of Western Australia. This included the Baudin expedition in 1803. Nicolas Baudin had a camp built on the Vancouver Peninsula and spent a month there. He referred to Frenchman Bay as "Bach Bay". They met American seal hunters there . In October 1826 Louis Isidore Duperrey reached the bay with the Astrolabe and spent 18 days there. In December of the same year, the British established Western Australia's first convict colony in Albany .
The source was later used to supply ships with water vapor, for which a jetty (jetty) was built with lead. With the rise of Albany to an important port and the increasing immigration , the construction of a quarantine station for the arriving ship travelers became necessary. This is how Camp Quaranup was built in 1875 on the Vancouver Peninsula, around three kilometers from the harbor. The facility, which was expanded over time, was used until the 1930s. Today it is a vacation home .
In 1888 a settler from Albany bought land and settled on the peninsula where Goode Beach is now. In 1914, a Norwegian company built a whaling station for Western Australia, the Frenchman Bay Whaling Station , on Whalers Beach on the Torndirrup Peninsula . The Norwegians came to the bay for whaling at the end of 1912. But in 1916 they shifted their activities to Eastern Australia. In 1952, the Cheyne Beach Whaling Station was built a little further east , and nine years later it was also connected to the power grid.
Since 1896, Frenchman Bay has been visited by day trippers from Albany. The national park was created in 1918, but it was not given a ranger until 1973. In 1936 a hostel was built after more and more bathers and fishermen came to the place. At the beginning of the 1960s, a camping site for caravans was created. There was a road from Albany to the peninsula since 1934.
In the 1980s, the old whale station at Cheyne Beach was converted into a museum by a foundation. In 2006 the old hostel and campsite were destroyed because the owners were planning to build a hotel complex.
leisure
There are numerous hiking trails in the national park. It is the most visited national park in the region and the sixth most visited national park in Western Australia.
The Cheyne Beach Whaling Station is located east of Frenchman Bay at Discovery Bay on Cheyne Beach . The old whaling station is now a museum. The Maritime Museum is a wildlife park with koalas , wombats , possums , bats connected, snakes and lizards and a wild flower garden.
Wind farm
To the west of the peninsula is located approximately 80 meters above the coast of the wind farm Albany Wind Farm . The plant was opened in 2001 with twelve wind turbines and expanded by six more in 2011. With a height of 65 meters and 35 meter long rotors, it is the largest wind turbines that have been installed in the southern hemisphere . They cover around 80% of Albany's electricity needs.
Web links
- Frenchman Bay Association (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Conservation Commission of Western Australia, Department of Parks and Wildlife (Ed.): Albany coast draft management plan 2016 . Kensington May 2016, p. 15 ( gov.au [PDF; accessed July 7, 2019]).
- ↑ a b Department of Environment and Conservation - Park Finder: Torndirrup National Park ( Memento of March 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c Torndirrup and West Cape Howe National Parks - Information and Recreational Guide. (PDF) Department of Environment and Conservation (Western Australia), accessed July 7, 2019 .
- ^ Conservation Commission of Western Australia, Department of Parks and Wildlife (Ed.): Albany coast draft management plan 2016 . Kensington May 2016, p. 12 ( gov.au [PDF; accessed July 7, 2019]).
- ^ The First People in the Frenchman Bay Area. In: Frenchman Bay Association. July 28, 2013, accessed July 20, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d Register of Heritage Places - Assessment Documentation: Frenchman Bay Whaling Station (ruin). (PDF) Heritage Council of Western Australia, 2008, accessed July 19, 2019 .
- ^ The French Connection 1803-1826. In: Frenchman Bay Association. January 30, 2014, accessed July 19, 2019 .
- ^ The significance of the fresh water springs. In: Frenchman Bay Association. April 24, 2013, accessed July 19, 2019 .
- ↑ About Quaranup. In: Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries. Retrieved July 21, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Recent History. In: Frenchman Bay Association. July 19, 2013, accessed July 19, 2019 .
- ^ The Hostel and Tearooms. In: Frenchman Bay Association. July 19, 2013, accessed July 19, 2019 .
- ↑ Albania Coast Parks and Reserves Management Plan 2017. (PDF) Department of Parks and Wildlife, August 2017, p. 52 , accessed on July 20, 2019 .
- ^ Albany Wind Farm, Sand Patch Road. In: Albany Gateway. Accessed July 7, 2019 .