Jervis Bay () is a oceanic bay and village on the south coast of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

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 ...

, said to possess the whitest sand in the world. A area of land around the southern headland of the bay is a territory of the

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

known as the

Jervis Bay Territory The Jervis Bay Territory (; JBT) is an internal territory of Australia. It was established in 1915 from part of New South Wales (NSW), in order to give the landlocked Australian Capital Territory (ACT) access to the sea. It was administered b ...

. The Territory includes the settlements of

Jervis Bay Village Jervis Bay Village is a village in the Jervis Bay Territory, Australia. HMAS ''Creswell'' Royal Australian Navy base is located in the town. Apart from the navy base there is an Aboriginal community in the town. It is the largest town in the Je ...

and Wreck Bay Village. The

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

(RAN) base, , is in the Jervis Bay Territory between

and

Greenpatch Point Greenpatch is a locality in the Jervis Bay Territory, Australia. It is located inside Boodere National Park. Amenities Usually, the amenities there include: * Fresh water * Toilets * Hot water showers * Sheltered BBQ areas Geography Gre ...

History

Archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

evidence at

Burrill Lake Burrill Lake is a small village on the Princes Highway in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is a seaside suburb of the Milton-Ulladulla district, a part of the City of Shoalhaven local government area and surrounds the l ...

, 55 kilometres south of Jervis Bay, shows Aboriginal occupation dating back 20,000 years. Jervis Bay was sighted by

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

aboard on 25 April 1770 (two days after

Saint George's Day Saint George's Day is the feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, and cities of which he is the patron saint, including Bulgaria, England, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Cáceres, Alcoy, Aragon and Catalonia. Sai ...

) and he named the southern headland Cape St George. In August 1791 Lieutenant Richard Bowen, aboard the convict transport ship ''Atlantic'', part of the

Third Fleet The United States Third Fleet is one of the numbered fleets in the United States Navy. Third Fleet's area of responsibility includes approximately fifty million square miles of the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean areas including the Bering ...

, sailed into the bay and named it in honour of Admiral John Jervis, under whom he had served. In November 1791 Master Matthew Weatherhead entered the bay aboard , which had also been part of the Third Fleet, in order to undertake repairs to the ship. In mid 1797, survivors of the wreck of passed through the area on foot, while undertaking an arduous trek of 600 kilometres in an attempt to get to

Port Jackson Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

(Sydney) – only three of them completed the journey. Explorer

George Bass George Bass (; 30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia. Early years Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George ...

entered the bay on 10 December 1797 and named

Bowen Island Bowen Island (originally Nex̱wlélex̱m in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh), British Columbia, is an island municipality that is part of Metro Vancouver. Bowen Island is within the jurisdiction of the Islands Trust. Located in Howe Sound, it is approximate ...

Point Perpendicular Lighthouse and Keeper's quarters c1899

Alexander Berry's takeover of land in the

Shoalhaven The City of Shoalhaven is a local government area in the south-eastern coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is about south of Sydney. The Princes Highway passes through the area, and the South Coast railway line traverses t ...

displaced Aboriginal people who were moved in 1822 to

Wreck Bay Wreck or The Wreck may refer to: Common uses * Wreck, a collision of an automobile, aircraft or other vehicle * Shipwreck, the remains of a ship after a crisis at sea Places * The Wreck (surf spot), a surf spot at Byron Bay, New South Wales, Aus ...

. Smallpox and syphilis significantly reduced local populations. A separate population of Aborigines, who settlers called 'the Jervis Bay tribe' - the Wandandian people - remained on their traditional lands on the bank of Currambene Creek (near Huskisson) and around St Georges Basin, until well into the C20th. In 1841, the private township of South Huskisson on Jervis Bay was founded as a seaport and terminus of

The Wool Road The Wool Road (also later known as 'The Old Wool Road') was a historic road in New South Wales, Australia, that ran from Nerriga to what is now called Vincentia on Jervis Bay. It was constructed privately in 1841, using convict labour. Its purpo ...

. It was renamed Vincentia in 1952. Whaling was conducted in the bay in 1912 and 1913. The vessels involved were the factory ship ''Loch Tay'' and her two catchers ''Campbell'' and ''Sorrell''. The land now comprising the Jervis Bay Territory was surrendered by the state of

to the Commonwealth Government in 1915 to provide a seaport for the new Federal capital under construction at

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

, which would be Australia's only inland capital. In the late 1960s, Australia's

first nuclear power plant Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant (russian: Обнинская АЭС, Obninskaja AES; ) was built in the "Science City" of Obninsk, Jervis Bay is a

drowned river valley A ria (; gl, ría) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Definitions Typically rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they c ...

and formed 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. The bay took on its present appearance around 4000 BC after the sea levels had risen , and as sand dune barriers created the southern peninsula.Geology and Geomorphology
, Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council. Much of the rock in Jervis Bay is part of the

Sydney Basin The Sydney Basin is an interim Australian bioregion and is both a structural entity and a depositional area, now preserved on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia and with some of its eastern side now subsided beneath the Tasman Sea. ...

sandstone formation, which is 280-225 million years old, although lower areas are overlain with

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

-era sediments. Several features at Jervis Bay have been used as evidence that the Australian coast experienced many giant

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

s prior to European colonisation.

Description

In the Jervis Bay Territory on the southern side of the bay are the settlements of

Greenpatch Greenpatch is a locality in the Jervis Bay Territory, Australia. It is located inside Boodere National Park. Amenities Usually, the amenities there include: * Fresh water * Toilets * Hot water showers * Sheltered BBQ areas Geography Gree ...

Hyams Beach Hyams Beach is a seaside village in the City of Shoalhaven, New South Wales, Australia, on the shores of Jervis Bay. At the , it had a population of 112. The village, 180 km south of Sydney, is bordered by two beaches, Chinaman's Beach to th ...

, and

. From north to south on the New South Wales shore of the bay are

Callala Beach Callala Beach is a small town on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia in the City of Shoalhaven. Like most beaches in Jervis Bay, it is known to have brilliantly white sand and aqua blue waters. The beach is a tourist spot and is a 2.5 ...

, Callala Bay, Huskisson and Vincentia.

Beecroft Peninsula Beecroft Peninsula is the northern headland of Jervis Bay, on Australia's east coast. On the western and southern sides of the peninsula steep sandstone cliffs rise out of the ocean, up to 91 metres at its southernmost point, Point Perpendicular. W ...

, on the northern side of the bay, has been used as a

bombing range A bombing range usually refers to a remote military aerial bombing and gunnery training range used by combat aircraft to attack ground targets (air-to-ground bombing), or a remote area reserved for researching, developing, testing and evaluatin ...

by the RAN. Point Perpendicular forms the southern end of the peninsula. Jervis Bay is approximately a three-hour drive south of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. A door-to-door shuttle service is available between

Sydney Airport Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (colloquially Mascot Airport, Kingsford Smith Airport, or Sydney Airport; ; ) is an international airport in Sydney, Australia, located 8 km (5 mi) south of the Sydney central business district, in the ...

and the

South Coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area. Geographical Australia *South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney * South Coast (Q ...

every day.

Environment and protected areas

Significant areas of the Jervis Bay natural environment have been established as

protected area 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 ...

s, including

Booderee National Park Booderee National Park and Botanic Gardens, formerly Jervis Bay National Park and Jervis Bay Botanic Gardens, are located in the Jervis Bay Territory of Australia. The reserve is composed of two sections: * the Bherwerre Peninsula, on the souther ...

, Jervis Bay National Park and the

Jervis Bay Marine Park Jervis Bay Marine Park is a marine protected area established by the Government of New South Wales in 1998. and the current zoning plan has been in place since 1 October 2002. The marine park is approximately in area and spans over of coastl ...

. Some of the land on both sides of the bay have been identified by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) because the coastal

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

land supports the largest sub-population of the

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

eastern bristlebird The eastern bristlebird (''Dasyornis brachypterus'') is a species of bird in the bristlebird family, Dasyornithidae. It is endemic to Australia. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, temperate shrubland, and temperate grassland. It is thre ...

, isolated from other sub-populations. Jervis Bay has been recorded as having the whitest sand in the world.

Recreation

Jervis Bay is known for recreational fishing,

kayaking Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits fac ...

paddleboarding Paddleboarding is a water sport in which participants are propelled by a swimming motion using their arms while lying or kneeling on a paddleboard or surfboard in the ocean or other body of water. This article refers to traditional prone or kneeli ...

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

and

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...

, with tour operators departing from Huskisson and amateurs using boat ramps at bayside towns and camp sites. Popular diving sites include The Labyrinths, Gorgonian Wall, Point Perpendicular, a submerged

Fairey Firefly The Fairey Firefly is a Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft that was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). It was developed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Avia ...

aeroplane,

scallop Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve mollusks in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related families ...

beds, Middle Ground, Ten Fathom Reef, and Bowen Island. Jervis Bay is also known for

whale watching Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins ( cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity (cf. birdwatching), but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes.Hoyt, E. 2 ...

, because whale migration, both north and south, can be observed as the animals pass the entrance to the bay, frequently entering the sheltered waters to rest. The majority of whales sighted at Jervis Bay are humpbacks, which migrate along Australia's east coast from June to November.

Southern right whales 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° ...

are also showing a slow but steady increase in recent years as they re-colonise former habitats, having been extensively hunted in the 19th and 20th centuries. Other species sighted have been

false killer whale The false killer whale (''Pseudorca crassidens'') is a species of oceanic dolphin that is the only extant representative of the genus ''Pseudorca''. It is found in oceans worldwide but mainly in tropical regions. It was first described in 1846 ...

orcas The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white pat ...

minke whales The minke whale (), or lesser rorqual, is a species complex of baleen whale. The two species of minke whale are the common (or northern) minke whale and the Antarctic (or southern) minke whale. The minke whale was first described by the Danish na ...

and, on one occasion, a

blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...

Tourism

Tourism in Jervis Bay is one of the most important avenues of income for many of the local residents, with many businesses orienting themselves towards it. The Jervis Bay Visitors Information Centre is at Huskisson, and is part of the Lady Denman Maritime Museum and Gallery. Local council-managed visitor information centres are at

Nowra Nowra is a city in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south-southwest of the state capital of Sydney (about as the crow flies). As of the 2021 census, Nowra has an estimated population of 22,584. Situated in th ...

and

Ulladulla Ulladulla is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia in the City of Shoalhaven local government area. It is on the Princes Highway about south of Sydney, halfway between Batemans Bay to the south and Nowra to the north. Ulladulla has cl ...

Aquaculture

The first commercial

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 ...

licence for an area in the bay was granted in 2015, for an enterprise which started growing

blue mussel The blue mussel (''Mytilus edulis''), also known as the common mussel, is a medium-sized edible marine (ocean), marine bivalve mollusc in the family (biology), family Mytilidae, the mussels. Blue mussels are subject to commercial use and intensiv ...

s. They also found abundant

Angasi oyster The southern mud oyster, Australian flat oyster, native flat oyster, native mud oyster, or angasi oyster (''Ostrea angasi''), is endemic to southern Australia, ranging from Western Australia to southeast New South Wales and around Tasmania. ''O ...

s and

s growing on the lines which they dropped at first, but the industry focus is on the blue mussels, which have a high ratio of meat to shell. The first full-scale commercial harvest of blue mussels was scheduled for November 2020. The potential of growing

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

s for commercial use is also being explored, and

Shoalhaven City Council The City of Shoalhaven is a local government area in the south-eastern coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is about south of Sydney. The Princes Highway passes through the area, and the South Coast railway line traverses t ...

is investing to develop a wharf, boat maintenance facility and other infrastructure needed to service the industry. It is hoped that the industry will create up to 1,000 jobs.

Climate

Jervis Bay experiences an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

(Köppen climate classification: ''Cfb''), with average maximum temperatures varying from 16 °C in winter to 25 °C in summer tempered by sea breezes. The highest recorded temperature is 42.1 °C in January, and the lowest 4.7 °C in August. Hot summer evenings are often relieved by a front of rapidly moving cool air known as a southerly buster. Rainfall is fairly evenly distributed throughout the seasons, with a bias to the first half of the year, due to prevailing easterlies. Short high intensity rainfall events may happen at any time of the year and can lead to local flooding. Jervis Bay also experiences thunderstorms during the warmer months bringing lightning, heavy rain and occasionally hail. With an annual rainfall around 1,200 mm, it is wetter than other areas in the

due to its exposed eastward location on a

peninsula A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

facing the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...

, thus making it more susceptible to moist easterly flows. Yearly rainfall is influenced by the

El Niño-Southern Oscillation EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

References

Sources

* * * * {{Authority control

Jervis Bay Jervis Bay () is a oceanic bay and village on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, said to possess the whitest sand in the world. A area of land around the southern headland of the bay is a territory of the Commonwealth of Australia ...

City of Shoalhaven Important Bird Areas of New South Wales