Point Labatt 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

about south by east of

Streaky Bay Streaky the Supercat is a fictional superhero cat that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. He first appeared in ''Action Comics'' #261 (February 1960) and was created by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney. He is Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), Su ...

. It is notable as one of the largest Australian mainland breeding sites for

Australian sea lion The Australian sea lion (''Neophoca cinerea''), also known as the Australian sea-lion or Australian sealion, is a species of sea lion that is the only endemic pinniped in Australia. It is currently monotypic in the genus ''Neophoca'', with the e ...

s. The land and the sea adjoining Point Labatt is part of three

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 - the

Point Labatt Conservation Park Point Labatt Conservation Park is a protected area occupying Point Labatt on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia about South by east of Streaky Bay, South Australia, Streaky Bay. The conservation park was proclaimed in July 197 ...

, the

Point Labatt Aquatic Reserve __NOTOC__ Point Labatt Aquatic Reserve is a marine protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located in the waters of the Great Australian Bight adjoining the west coast of Eyre Peninsula at the headland of Point Labatt. It was ...

and the

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 ...

Description

Point Labatt is located in the locality of Sceale Bay on the west side of the

Calca Peninsula Calca Peninsula (also known as Freeman Peninsula) is a peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia located on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in the locality of Sceale Bay about to about south-east of the town of Streaky Bay. It ...

, a small peninsula on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula, at a distance of about South by east of Streaky Bay and about west-northwest of Adelaide. When viewed from a platform such as a ship, Point Labatt appears as the start of a line of uninterrupted cliffs starting at a height of that runs in a south easterly direction and that rises to a height of at

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 ...

, the north head of

Anxious Bay Anxious Bay is a bay in the Australian state of South Australia located on the west coast of Eyre Peninsula about west north-west of Adelaide. It was named by Matthew Flinders on 21 February 1802. It is one of four ‘historic bays’ loca ...

Formation, geology and oceanography

Point Labatt as a headland was formed when the sea reached its present level 7,500 years ago after sea levels started to rise at the start of the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

. Point Labatt and the adjoining cliff line consists of a

calcarenite Calcarenite is a type of limestone that is composed predominantly, more than 50 percent, of detrital (transported) sand-size (0.0625 to 2 mm in diameter), carbonate grains. The grains consist of sand-size grains of either corals, shells, ooi ...

known as the Bridgewater formation overlying a red granite known as the

Hiltaba Suite The Gawler Craton covers approximately 440,000 square kilometres of central South Australia. Its Precambrian crystalline basement crustal block was cratonised ca. 1550–1450 Ma. Prior to 1550 Ma the craton comprised a number of active Prot ...

. The cliff top are finished with a soil consisting generally of a thin layer of calcareous material. The water adjoining the base of Point Labatt drops to a depth of within a distance of of its shore.DMH, 1985, chart 39

Naming

Point Labatt was named as Labatt Point in 1908 after Mr. J. B. Labatt, the Assistant Engineer of Harbours in the

South Australian Government The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

Flora and fauna

Flora

The flora present at Point Labatt consists of a combination of both low

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

and low open shrubland. The low shrubland features the following plant species: Ribbed thryptomene, Coastal Daisybush, ''

Melaleuca lanceolata ''Melaleuca lanceolata'' commonly known as black paperbark, moonah, Rottnest Island teatree and western black tea tree is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is native to Australia where it occurs in Western Australia, South Australia, ...

'', ''

Triodia irritans ''Triodia irritans'' is a species of plant that forms low and dense mounds of tough grassy vegetation. It is found on sandplains in arid regions of southern and central Australia. The species was first described by Robert Brown in 1810. A comm ...

'' and ''

Lepidosperma concavum ''Lepidosperma concavum'', commonly known as the sandhill sword-sedge, is a plant found in coastal regions of south-eastern and eastern Australia. It grows on sandy soils in woodland, forest and heathland. Description The sandhill sword-sedge ...

''. The low open shrubland features the following plant species: ''

Melaleuca halmaturorum ''Melaleuca halmaturorum'', commonly known as South Australian swamp paperbark, kangaroo honey-myrtle or salt paper-bark is a plant in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae and is endemic to Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria. It is often a ...

'', ''

Calocephalus brownii ''Leucophyta'' is a plant genus which is endemic to Australia. The genus was first formally described by botanist Robert Brown in 1818. The sole species in the genus is ''Leucophyta brownii'', also known as cushion bush. In 1891, German botan ...

'', '' Maireana oppositifolia'', Grey Saltbush and Nitre Bush.DENR, 1995, page 3

Fauna

The coastline immediately adjoining the point supports a colony of Australia sea lions which is notable as being one of the largest mainland breeding sites for this species in Australia. Other species of

Pinniped Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals. They comprise the extant families Odobenidae (whose only living member is the walru ...

sighted at Point Labatt include

Australian fur seal The brown fur seal (''Arctocephalus pusillus''), also known as the Cape fur seal, South African fur seal and Australian fur seal, is a species of fur seal. Description The brown fur seal is the largest and most robust member of the fur seals. ...

and

New Zealand fur seal ''Arctocephalus forsteri'' (common names include the Australasian fur seal, South Australian fur seal, New Zealand fur seal, Antipodean fur seal, or long-nosed fur seal) is a species of fur seal found mainly around southern Australia and New Z ...

. Other mammal species possibly include the

western grey kangaroo The western grey kangaroo (''Macropus fuliginosus''), also referred to as a western grey giant kangaroo, black-faced kangaroo, mallee kangaroo, sooty kangaroo and (when referring to the Kangaroo Island subspecies) Kangaroo Island grey kangaroo, is ...

and the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

while known to occur on the CaIca Peninsula, but have not been recorded in the vicinity of Point Labatt as of 1995. The following

feral A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...

mammal species have been recorded at the locality:

cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of t ...

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

es and

rabbit Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...

s. As of 1995, the following bird species have recorded as being present at Point Labatt:

cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven ge ...

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...

swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

s, and

kestrel The term kestrel (from french: crécerelle, derivative from , i.e. ratchet) is the common name given to several species of predatory birds from the falcon genus ''Falco''. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behaviour ...

s. As of 1995, the following reptile species are recorded as being present: the shingle back lizard and a species of

dragon lizard Agamidae is a family of over 300 species of iguanian lizards indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Overview Phylogenetically, they may be sister to the I ...

History

Aboriginal use

As of 1995, the extent of use of Point Labatt and adjoining land by the Nauo people, the

Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

who lived in the locality prior to European colonisation is not known.

European use

The land that adjoins Point Labatt was used for agricultural purposes until it was donated in 1972 by Ron, Myra and Ellen Freeman for the purpose of creating a protected area for the Australian sea lion colony. The ocean immediately adjoining the point was a popular site for

snorkelling Snorkeling ( British and Commonwealth English spelling: snorkelling) is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped breathing tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a ...

with Australian sea lions prior to 1988. Point Labatt is considered to an important tourist destination within the

District Council of Streaky Bay The District Council of Streaky Bay is a local government area in South Australia located on the Eyre Peninsula. Streaky Bay is the main population centre of about 1,200 people serving an agricultural district based on farming wheat and other ...

, particularly as it and Seal Bay on

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

are the only two places where Australian sea-lions can be easily observed in their natural habitat.

Protected area status

The point is associated with three protected areas. The first is the Point Labatt Conservation Park. The second is the Point Labatt Aquatic Reserve which protects the body of water immediately the south west of the conservation park's coastal frontage.PIRSA, 2007 The third is the West Coast Bays Marine Park which consists of a restricted access zone immediately the point.DENR. 1995, page 5 The point, some coastline to its immediate east and west as well as the adjoining waters with a total area of has been listed as a "wetland of national importance" in the

Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia A Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA) is a list of wetlands of national importance to Australia published by the governmental agency Environment Australia. Intended to augment the list of wetlands of international importance under t ...

since 1996.Eyles et al, 2001, pages 73 & 77

Gallery

Image: 10 Point Labatt CP 05.JPG , Looking east from visitors’ observation area at Point Labatt. Image: 10 Point Labatt CP 02.JPG , Australian sea lions on beach at Point Labatt. Image: 10 Point Labatt CP 03.JPG , Australian sea lions on beach at Point Labatt. Image: Neophoca cinerea.JPG, Australian Sea Lion

Citations and references

Citations

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Point Labatt Headlands of South Australia Eyre Peninsula DIWA-listed wetlands Wetlands of South Australia