Venus Bay is a wide bayVenus Bay page
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Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...

and a township on that bay on the east coast 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 ...

, Australia. At the Venus Bay had a population of 944. The name Venus Bay was given to the bay by a French expedition under

Nicholas Baudin Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. Biography Early career Born a comm ...

. This was apparently after

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 ...

's trading ship the ''Venus''. (The expedition traded with Bass in Sydney in around 1801.) The town of Venus Bay is situated on a narrow peninsula of land located 180 km south-east 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 ...

. Originally named Evergreen the town takes its name from the body of water on its western shore. On the eastern side of the peninsula is

Anderson's Inlet Anderson Inlet (Boonwurrung: ''Toluncan''), sometimes incorrectly referred to as Andersons Inlet, is a shallow and dynamic estuary in South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia where the Tarwin River enters Bass Strait. It forms a almost enclosed bay ...

, named after the settler Samuel Anderson. Venus Bay has become a popular holiday retreat for people from Melbourne and is close to other popular South Gippsland tourist spots such as

Phillip Island Phillip Island (Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. The island is named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explorer ...

and

Wilsons Promontory Wilsons Promontory, is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland, located in the state of Victoria. South Point at is the southernmost tip of Wilsons Promontory and hence of mainland Australia. Located at nearb ...

. The permanent population hovers just below 1,000, however this can swell into the thousands during holiday periods. The town is split into three 'estates'. The First Estate is home to the only shopping strip in Venus Bay, consisting of a general store, pharmacy, surf shop / hair dresser, cafe, take-away shops, real estate agents,

caravan park Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals *Convoy, a group of veh ...

and a restaurant. Three of Venus Bay's five surf beaches (Nos. 1, 2 and 3 beaches) are in the First Estate, with the Venus Bay Surf Livesaving Club located at the No. 1 Beach. This is the only patrolled beach, although during the busy summer period surf patrols regularly make their way up and down the beaches to just beyond No. 5 beach. The Venus Bay Community Centre is also located in the First Estate and runs a variety of programs and activities and is home to the Community Recycling Op Shop. In addition, the Community Centre runs a summer holiday program for kids and organizes the Summer Beach Shuttle Bus. The Second Estate is home to Nos. 4 and 5 beaches as well as the popular fishing jetty on Anderson's Inlet. At the edge of the Second Estate is an elevated viewing platform that allows visitors to look out across Anderson's Inlet and view the many

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

s that call the quiet eastern shores home. The Third Estate is a sparsely populated and underdeveloped area leading to the tip of the peninsula (Point Smythe). This estate has the Doyle's Road foreshore reserve and the Point Smythe reservation, home to many wandering tracks that lead to secluded beaches on both shores of the peninsula and to the tip at the mouth of Anderson's Inlet. The Tour de Tarwin is held every Easter and is a joint Venus Bay/ Tarwin Lower initiative. Whilst it is a cycling event at heart, everyone including walkers are encouraged to participate. In recent years the residents of Venus Bay and nearby Tarwin Lower (5 km closer to Melbourne) have fought off developers seeking to drain the environmental wetlands and set up marina and resort developments. Today the fight appears to be strongly in the favour of the local residents. In 2017, the locals at Venus Bay stated their displeasure over excessive harvesting of the pipi shellfish by daytrippers who came from Melbourne. Some incidents of vandalism were reported from the area. However, the locals urged that the anger was not racially charged, but was a misguided attempt to safeguard the ecological balance of the region by attacking pipi collectors rather than seeking regulatory change from appropriate authorities.

References

External links

www.venusbay.info Tarwin Lower Venus Bay Associationwww.venusbay.blogspot.com Venus Bay blog

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=IVICVENU2 Venus Bay Weather
{{authority control Coastal towns in Victoria (Australia) Bays of Victoria (Australia) Towns in Victoria (Australia) Shire of South Gippsland