Cape Northumberland is a

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

in the southeast of the Australian state of

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 ...

. It is the southernmost point of South Australia. It is located about from the town of Port MacDonnell, 28 kilometres south southwest from the municipal seat of

Mount Gambier Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital Ad ...

and about southeast of the state's capital

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 ...

History

Cape Northumberland was named by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

officer, James Grant, on 3 December 1800, when he was mapping the southern coast of Australia in his early-19th century expedition. The headland was named after Hugh Percy, Duke of Northumberland. The cape is near the site of the historic

Cape Northumberland Lighthouse List of state heritage places in the District Council of Grant is a list of sites in the Australian state of South Australia known as state heritage places which are listed on the South Australian Heritage Register and are located within th ...

, built in 1887. A new lighthouse has been constructed about north of Cape Northumberland.

Geography

The cape is located on the southeast coast of South Australia. It is the western end of

Discovery Bay Discovery Bay (DB) is a resort town on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. It consists of mixed, primarily residential, development, in particular upmarket residential development and private and public recreational facilities, including garden houses, ...

and its subsidiary, MacDonnell Bay. The cape was described in 2017 in an American source as being "about high, is rugged and cliffy, with a hill rising to an elevation of behind it. It is the southernmost point on the South Australian coastline. Climate

Gallery

File:Cape Northumberland lighthouse - State Library of South Australia PRG 280-1-40-198.jpg, The first Cape Northumberland Lighthouse File:SAs Southern Point.jpg, The sign at Cape Northumberland, marking South Australia's southernmost point File:CapeNorthumberland Satellite.png, A satellite image of Cape Northumberland (left) showing its relationship to the coastline to its immediate east including the James Corcoran Breakwater

References

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