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Cape Bridgewater is a locality in the Australian state of
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 ...
located on the western shore of Bridgewater Bay about south-west of
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
and about west of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
.
The area was settled in the 1860s by the Henty family who had settled nearby Portland, and a post office opened in 1863 (closed 1968) though known as Bridgewater Lower for some years.
Both Cape Bridgewater and Bridgewater Bay were named after the
Duke of Bridgewater (1756-1829), by
Lieutenant James Grant sailing on the ''
Lady Nelson'' on 4 December 1800.
[
][
]
Cape Bridgewater includes the following protected areas within its boundaries - the
Discovery Bay Coastal Park and the
Mount Richmond National Park.
[
Cape Bridgewater is home to a colony of up to 650 ]fur seals
Fur seals are any of nine species of pinnipeds belonging to the subfamily Arctocephalinae in the family '' Otariidae''. They are much more closely related to sea lions than true seals, and share with them external ears (pinnae), relatively lon ...
and has the highest coastal cliff in Victoria. These cliffs are a suitable spot to observe
Observation is the active acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the perception and recording of data via the use of scientific instruments. The ...
southern right whale
The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20 ...
s in winter and spring. The cape itself also boasts a large blowhole and karst solution pipes, colloquially known as the petrified forest,[Lipar, M., Webb, J. A., White, S.Q., Grimes, K.G., 2015. The genesis of solution pipes: Evidence from the Middle-Late Pleistocene Bridgewater Formation calcarenite, southeastern Australia. Geomorphology, 246, p. 90-103.] but now known to be hollow tubes of limestone, eroded as a result of millions of years of rainfall. Bridgewater Bay and the adjacent Cape form a partially submerged volcanic caldera
A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...
. To the west is a large area with huge sand dunes. For these reasons the Cape and the nearby coastal area is classed by the government as the second most important coastline in Victoria, after the 'Twelve Apostles', along the Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road is an Australian National Heritage listed stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Allansford. Built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and dedicated t ...
Wind energy
Construction of wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...
s by the company Pacific Hydro were constructed on the cape after some controversy. This is part of the Portland Wind Project
See also
* Great South West Walk
Notes
External links
Cape Bridgewater
Towns in Victoria (Australia)
Coastal towns in Victoria (Australia)
{{VictoriaAU-geo-stub