Yankalilla Bay is a long, wide bay in south-eastern

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 ...

, on the

Fleurieu Peninsula The Fleurieu Peninsula () is a peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia located south of the state capital of Adelaide. History Before British colonisation of South Australia, the western side of the peninsula was occupied by the K ...

. It is on the south-eastern coast of the

Gulf St Vincent Gulf St Vincent, sometimes referred to as St Vincent Gulf, St Vincent's Gulf or Gulf of St Vincent, is the eastern of two large inlets of water on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, the other being the larger Sp ...

, as it opens into the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

. Three rivers discharge into the bay: the Bungala River,

Yankalilla River Yankalilla, also spelt Yarnkalyilla, may refer to: *Yankalilla, South Australia, a locality * Yankalilla Bay, a bay in South Australia * Yankalilla Football Club, an Australian rules football club in South Australia * Yankalilla River, a river w ...

(whose mouth is at Lady Bay) and Carrickalinga Creek. The rivers can adversely affect the

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

of the sea, in particular the health of the

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

and

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

. Normanville Beach and

Carrickalinga Carrickalinga (from Kaurna Karrakardlangga / Karragarlangga) is a small coastal town in South Australia about south of Adelaide on the Fleurieu Peninsula overlooking Gulf St Vincent. The town has no shops, with the nearest being in Normanville, ...

Reef. Yankalilla Bay is known for being the site of the

ship's graveyard A ship graveyard or ship cemetery is a location where the hulls of scrapped ships are left to decay and disintegrate, or left in reserve. Such a practice is now less common due to waste regulations and so some dry docks where ships are bro ...

of HMAS ''Hobart'', which was

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

on 5 November 2002 off the coast between Wirrina Cove and Normanville to create a

dive wreck Wreck diving is recreational diving where the wreckage of ships, aircraft and other artificial structures are explored. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to scuttle retired ships to create artificia ...

and

artificial reef An artificial reef is a human-created underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, or improve surfing. Many re ...

. Its official name is the Fleurieu Artificial Reef. CC-BY icon

Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU)
licence. The HMAS ''Hobart'' Memorial Lookout is located at Little Gorge.

References

External links

* {{coord, -35.46, 138.28, type:waterbody_region:AU-SA_dim:10000, display=title Fleurieu Peninsula Bays of South Australia Gulf St Vincent Coastline of South Australia Seagrass