Anxious Bay is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

in the

Australian state The states and territories are federated administrative divisions in Australia, ruled by regional governments that constitute the second level of governance between the federal government and local governments. States are self-governing ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

located on the west coast of

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

about west north-west of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. It was named by

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) 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 u ...

on 21 February 1802. It is one of four ‘historic bays’ located on the South Australian coast.

Extent & description

Anxious Bay lies between

Cape Radstock Cape Radstock is a headland located on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia about south south-east of the town of Streaky Bay and about south east of Point Labatt. The cape is both the north western extremity of Anxious Bay and ...

and

Cape Finniss Cape Finniss (also spelt Cape Finnis) is a headland located at the southern extremity of Anxious Bay on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia about Points of the compass#32 cardinal points, Northwest by west of the town of Elliston ...

on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula. Anxious Bay itself is the entry point for the following minor

coastal 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 ...

inlets An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine geogra ...

from west to east - Baird Bay and Venus Bay. It is one of four bays on the South Australian coast considered by the

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

to be a ‘historic bay’ under the ''Seas and Submerged Lands Act 1973'' and proclaimed as such in 1987 and again in 2006 with the result that the mouth of the bay is on the territorial seas baseline and the waters within the bay are

internal waters According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a nation's internal waters include waters on the side of the baseline of a nation's territorial waters that is facing toward the land, except in archipelagic states. It includes wat ...

as per the definition used in

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 c ...

European discovery

Matthew Flinders named Anxious Bay on 11 February 1802.

Ports and other settlements

Settlements on its shores include Venus Bay and Baird Bay. A third settlement, Port Kenny is accessible via the body of water known as Venus Bay. Both the settlements of Venus Bay and Port Kenny have port infrastructure consisting of

jetties A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...

that are accessible via Venus Bay.

Economic use

As of 2013, an area within the southern end of the bay located to the immediate north of Waldegrave Island has been zoned under state planning legislation for

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

Protected areas

Protected areas Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

located within and adjoining the bay’s extent include: *Conservation parks - Baird Bay Islands, Lake Newland, Venus Bay and

Waldegrave Islands Waldegrave Islands is an island group in the Australian state of South Australia located in the Investigator Group about northwest by west of Cape Finniss on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula. The group consists of Waldegrave Island, Little W ...

. *Marine parks -

West Coast Bays Marine Park West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

References