Anthonys Nose is a point, or

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''escar ...

located on the southern shore of

Port Phillip Bay Port Phillip (Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, narrow channel known as The Rip, and is completel ...

, between

Dromana Dromana is a seaside suburb on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula Local gove ...

and McCrae, in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

History

It was named by

Charles La Trobe Charles la Trobe, CB (20 March 18014 December 1875), commonly Latrobe, was appointed in 1839 superintendent of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales and, after the establishment in 1851 of the colony of Victoria (now a state of Australi ...

, who became the Superintendent of the

Port Phillip District The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria. In September 1836, NSW Colonial Sec ...

of New South Wales in 1839. He thought that the landform had a strong resemblance to

Anthony's Nose (Westchester) Anthony's Nose is a peak in the Hudson Highlands along the east bank of the Hudson River in the hamlet of Cortlandt Manor, New York. It lies at the extreme northwest end of Westchester County, and serves as the east anchor of the Bear Mounta ...

on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

, New York. In the early years of the European settlement of

there were geographical obstacles to travelling by land. A journey from Melbourne to the area meant crossing

swamps A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

and

streams A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

. Anthony's Nose was the point where

Arthur's Seat Arthur's Seat ( gd, Suidhe Artair, ) is an ancient volcano which is the main peak of the group of hills in Edinburgh, Scotland, which form most of Holyrood Park, described by Robert Louis Stevenson as "a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue ...

ended as the mountain "fell steeply to the sea". At high tide a traveller by foot, horse, or wagon found it necessary to wade, ride or drive through the water in order to round the point, as the only road stuck to the

coastline The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

. In addition it was difficult at high tide to negotiate the rocks which were then submerged underwater. An 1863 survey map shows that the road left the coastline at Foote St. and passed over the brow of the "Nose".

Georgiana McCrae Georgiana Huntly McCrae (15 March 1804 – 24 May 1890) was an English-Australian painter and diarist. Early life Born in London, she was the illegitimate daughter of George Gordon, the Marquess of Huntly, son and heir to Alexander, 4th Duk ...

gave an account in her journal of Meyrick, in 1845, solving the problem by sleeping next to his bullock wagon as he waited for the tide to go out. Her diary also recorded various fishing expeditions at Anthony's Nose made by her husband, his employees, her sons, and the

Boon wurrung The Boonwurrung people are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the c ...

Aboriginal locals who were the first custodians of that area. McClear, Colin. A Dreamtime of Dromana. A History of Dromana through the eyes of a pioneering family. pp 50 Published by Dromana Historical Society. March 2006

Development of Nepean Highway

Over the years, the original

was cut back to a cliff face. In the early 1920s, Anthony's Nose was further cut back by Mr Alnutt, an engineer who was contracted to finish the job in order to build Point Nepean Road, today known in parts as

Nepean Highway Nepean Highway runs south from St Kilda Junction in Victoria, Australia to Portsea, close to the eastern shore of Port Phillip. It is the primary road route to central Melbourne from Melbourne's southern suburbs. History Originally known as A ...

Geological features

Colin McLear, a descendant of one of the pioneering families on the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geogra ...

speculated that the water washed stones that are visible today in the man made cutting were either formed from water action in a riverbed (as on the Hudson River) or on a wave washed shore. He commented that before 1940 when a seawall was built around the "nose", "the shoreline there was thickly littered with water-washed stones." He was intrigued with both these theories as

was at one time a vast plain cut by the

Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, (Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stre ...

where it may have joined the ocean near the present day Rye. The rocks underlying Arthur's Seat are Dromana

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

, and the granite is bounded to the west by the

Selwyn Fault Victoria is an Australian state, situated at the southern end of the Great Dividing Range. The Great Dividing Range stretches along the east coast of the continent and terminates near the Victorian city of Ballarat west of the capital Melbourne, t ...

Notes

External links

Dromana & District Historical SocietyVictorian Resources online :Port Phillip and Westernport: Anthony's Nose-Fault ScarpAnthony's Nose Sea Wall: Heritage Listed Location
{{coord missing, Victoria (Australia) Landforms of Victoria (Australia) Escarpments Port Phillip