The Moyne River, a
perennial river of the
Glenelg Hopkins
Hopkins is an English, Welsh and Irish patronymic surname. The English name means "son of Hob". ''Hob'' was a diminutive of ''Robert'', itself deriving from the Germanic warrior name ''Hrod-berht'', translated as "renowned-fame". The Robert spell ...
catchment, is located in the
Western District of
Victoria,
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 ...
.
Course and features
The Moyne River rises near , from the edge of the lava flows west-southwest of
Penshurst. The river flows generally south, joined by two minor tributaries, spills into the
Belfast Lough and then reaches its
mouth
In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...
to empty into Port Fairy Bay in the
Bass Strait
Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
near . The river descends over its
course
Course may refer to:
Directions or navigation
* Course (navigation), the path of travel
* Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
.
[
The mouth of the river has been significantly altered. The river originally spilled into the Bass Strait, south of the town of Port Fairy, through a series of narrow channels that led westward from the site of the present-day mouth. At that stage, the southern outlet of the Moyne, the Back Passage, was narrow and the opening to the sea was often too rough for boats to leave or enter the port; the main eastern outlet was blocked by a shallow sand bar. These navigational impediments led to the construction of a jetty from Flagstaff Hill and a boulder wall breakwater between ]Griffiths Island
Griffiths Island, sometimes incorrectly spelled as Griffith Island or Griffitts Island, lies at the mouth of the Moyne River next to, and within the bounds of, the town of Port Fairy, in the Western District of the state of Victoria in Austral ...
and Rabbit Island. Training walls constructed in the 1870s curve from the northern part of Griffiths Island through the sand bar. These structures rapidly led to the accumulation of large amounts of sand on the north coast of Griffiths Island and back shore erosion north of the breakwaters. A protective stone wall was added in 1911.[
]
See also
* List of rivers in Victoria
* Griffiths Island
Griffiths Island, sometimes incorrectly spelled as Griffith Island or Griffitts Island, lies at the mouth of the Moyne River next to, and within the bounds of, the town of Port Fairy, in the Western District of the state of Victoria in Austral ...
References
External links
*
*
Rivers of Victoria (Australia)
Glenelg Hopkins catchment
Rivers of Barwon South West (region)
Coastline of Victoria (Australia)
Western District (Victoria)
{{VictoriaAU-river-stub