Bay in New South Wales, Australia
Twofold Bay
is an open
oceanic embayment
[2]
that is located in the
South Coast
region of
New South Wales
,
Australia
.
The bay was named by
George Bass
, for its shape of two
bights
.
[3]
The northern bight is called Calle Calle Bay;
[4]
while the southern bight is known as Nullica Bay, derived from Nalluccer, the original Aboriginal name for Twofold Bay.
[5]
The bay is also known for the "
Killers of Eden
", the killer whales that helped a group of whalers in their search for other whales. The best-known of these was
Old Tom
, whose skeleton is preserved in Eden's local museum.
[6]
Location and features
[
edit
]
Located near the town of
Eden
, Twofold Bay is approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) to the north of the border between
Victoria
and New South Wales. The bay is fed from the
Nullica River
and
Towamba River
that both flow into Nullica Bay.
The catchment area of the bay is 11 square kilometres (4.2 sq mi) with a volume of 334,559 megalitres (11,814.8
×
10
^
6
cu ft) over a surface area of 30.7 square kilometres (11.9 sq mi), at an average depth of 10.9 metres (36 ft);
[7]
making the bay reputedly the third deepest natural harbour in the
Southern Hemisphere
.
[8]
Close to North Head is a conspicuous islet, Mewstone Rock. About 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of the islet is
Red Point
which forms the southern headland of the bay.
[4]
Eden and the
Port of Eden
are located in the bay. The historical town of
Boydtown
is located to the west of the bay, located on Boydtown Beach which stretches south from the mouth of the Nullica River.
[9]
Local waters including Twofold Bay are recognised as one of twelve coastal aggregation areas for
southern right whales
in Australia.
[10]
History
[
edit
]
Indigenous history
[
edit
]
The original inhabitants of the area surrounding Twofold Bay were
Aborigines
of the
Thaua
or Nalbker
[5]
clan of the
Yuin
nation.
[11]
European history
[
edit
]
The first recorded visit to the bay by a European was by George Bass. The diaries of Bass show that he noted the bay when he passed it on his
whaleboat voyage
to
Bass Strait
in 1797/
8
. Bass took shelter in the bay on the return journey in February 1798; and named the place where he sheltered "Snug Cove",
[6]
a name by which the bay is still known.
On 7 October 1798 Bass and
Matthew Flinders
set out from
Port Jackson
in the
Norfolk
on a voyage to determine whether or not Van Diemen's Land (now called
Tasmania
) was attached to the mainland of Australia. Accompanying them on this voyage was the
Nautilus
. Two days later a survey of Twofold Bay was commenced. This very accurate survey has required little subsequent modification apart from the addition of water depths and of shore-to-shore distances between important landmarks.
[6]
Bass and Flinders also made their first contact with the local Thaua people.
[
citation needed
]
The bay is mentioned in the logs of many ships which sheltered in it from the storms battering that part of the New South Wales coastline. Some of these ships were shipwrecked in the bay including the
George
(1805) and the
Mary
(1821).
[12]
Quarantine Bay, located 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of Eden, is so named because a sailing ship with a smallpox epidemic amongst the people on board took refuge in this (then) isolated area. Many people died and were buried on shore in a communal grave.
[
citation needed
]
In 1843
Benjamin Boyd
purchased land in Twofold Bay with the aim of transporting cattle from the district.
[11]
Soon afterwards, Boyd started to build the Seahorse Inn adjacent to what is now called
Boydtown Beach
. Boydtown Beach lies on the western shore of Twofold Bay just south of the entrance to the Nullica River, which is located at the southern end of Quarantine Bay. The Seahorse Inn is still used for tourist accommodation. Nearby are the ruins of the church which Ben Boyd had constructed. Boyd conducted pastoral,
whaling
and shipping activities at Boydtown.
In popular culture
[
edit
]
Artist
Oswald Brierly
managed a bay whaling operation at
Boyd Town
in the 1840s and while there he did a number of paintings and sketches of the bay.
[13]
He did a few more paintings of the area after his return to Britain.
Evening: A scene in Boyd Town, Twofold Bay
, is the title of a poem by Thomas Fennell,
RN
, that appeared in a New South Wales literary journal in 1847.
[14]
Twofold Bay
is the name, and subject, of a poem by
E.J. Brady
.
[15]
Ben Boyd’s Tower
, is the title of a poem by
Henry Lawson
.
[16]
Will Lawson
's book
In Ben Boyd's day
(1939) is set in the bay. So too is
Shirley Barrett's
novel
Rush Oh!
(2015) which offers a fictionalised account of the family of whaler George Davidson at
Eden
.
The history of whaling in the bay, and the role
Killer Whales
in that process, is the focus of the
Eden Killer Whale Museum
.
The Twofold Bay is mentioned in “The Children Of Captain Grant” by
Jules Verne
.
Industry
[
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]
In the mid-2000s two major wharves dominate the south-eastern section of the bay.
The most easterly wharf services the woodchip mill.
[4]
Usually two ships per month use the wharf. The forestry industry plays a significant role in the region. The Eden woodchip mill is owned by South East Fibre Exports (SEFE), a subsidiary of Japan's biggest paper manufacturer, Nippon Paper Industries. The mill processes whole tree logs and is unable to process waste wood. The Eden chipmill was Australia's first chipmill and has been vigorously opposed by conservationists for over forty years. Some conservationists argue that
woodchipping
not only kills millions of native animals and birds, it is a major contributor to climate change.
[
citation needed
]
The second wharf belongs to the Department of Defence and is used by the
Royal Australian Navy
to service its ships.
[4]
Parallel to the woodchip mill is a
naval
munitions
storage depot. It is a multi-purpose wharf which allows other vessels, including cruise ships, to also moor at the wharf when the Naval ships are not using it.
[4]
Mussel farming occupies the westerly part of the bay off the small peninsula between Cattle Bay and Quarantine Bay.
[4]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Twofold Bay (NSW)"
.
Gazetteer of Australia
online
.
Geoscience Australia
, Australian Government.
- ^
a
b
Roy, P. S; Williams, R. J; Jones, A. R; Yassini, I; et al. (2001). "Structure and Function of South-east Australian Estuaries".
Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science
.
53
(3): 351?384.
Bibcode
:
2001ECSS...53..351R
.
doi
:
10.1006/ecss.2001.0796
.
- ^
Estensen, Miriam (2005).
The Life of George Bass
. Allen and Unwin. p.
82
.
ISBN
1-74114-130-3
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Eden: a natural paradise"
(PDF)
.
Tourism Guide
. visiteden.com.au
. Retrieved
1 June
2013
.
- ^
a
b
Robinson, George Augustus; Clark, Ian D (2014).
Travels of George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate
.
- ^
a
b
c
Wellings, H. P. (1996).
Eden and Twofold Bay: Discovery, Early History and Points of Interest 1797-1965
(Second ed.).
ISBN
0-646-29410-5
.
- ^
"Twofold Bay"
.
Coastal and floodplain management: Coastal zone management: Estuaries of NSW
. NSW Environment and Heritage. 27 April 2012
. Retrieved
1 June
2013
.
- ^
"Welcome to Eden: homepage"
.
Visit Eden
. Eden Chamber of Commerce. 2013
. Retrieved
1 June
2013
.
- ^
"Twofold Bay"
.
Geographical Names Register (GNR) of NSW
.
Geographical Names Board of New South Wales
. Retrieved
1 June
2013
.
- ^
"Conservation Management Plan for the Southern Right Whale - A Recovery Plan under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (2011?2021)"
(PDF)
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 2 April 2015
. Retrieved
8 December
2015
.
- ^
a
b
Blaxell, Gregory (1 September 2008). "Twofold Bay and Eden".
Afloat
. Afloat Publications. p. 28.
- ^
Bateson, Charles (1982)
Australian shipwrecks: Volume One; 1622-1850
, Sydney, Reed, pp. 41?2 & 61.
ISBN
0589071122
- ^
Diamond, Marion (1988)
The Seahorse and the Wanderer: Ben Boyd in Australia
, Melbourne University Press, p. 99.
ISBN
0522843557
- ^
“Evening ...",
Heads of the People: an illustrated journal of literature, whims and oddities
, 1 (21) September 4, 1847, p. 149
- ^
Brady, E.J. (1933)
Wardens of the sea
, Sydney, Endeavour Press, pp. 22?24
- ^
Kieza, Grantlee (2021).
Lawson
(First ed.). Sydney: ABC Books. p. 390.
ISBN
9780733340529
.
External links
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