Point Nepean ( Boonwurrung: ''Boona-djalang'') marks the southern point of The Rip (the entrance to Port Phillip) and the most westerly point of the Mornington Peninsula, in Victoria, Australia. It was named in 1802 after the British politician and colonial administrator Sir

Evan Nepean Sir Evan Nepean, 1st Baronet, PC FRS (9 July 1752 – 2 October 1822)Sparrow (n.d.) was a British politician and colonial administrator. He was the first of the Nepean Baronets. Family Nepean was born at St. Stephens near Saltash, Cornwall, ...

by John Murray in . Its coast and adjacent waters are included in the

Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park The Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park is a marine protected area located in the vicinity of the bay of Port Phillip, between the Bellarine and Mornington Peninsulas, in Victoria, Australia. The marine national park comprises six separate ...

, while its land area is part of the Point Nepean National Park. The point includes

Cheviot Beach Cheviot Beach is a beach near Point Nepean in Victoria, Australia. It was named after the SS ''Cheviot'', which broke up and sank nearby with the loss of 35 lives on 20 October 1887. It was the site of the disappearance of Prime Minister Har ...

on its southern side, notable as the site of the disappearance in 1967 of Australia's then-Prime Minister

Harold Holt Harold Edward Holt (5 August 190817 December 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party. Holt was born in ...

History

Evidence of

Australian Aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait I ...

settlement of the area dates back 40,000 years. Point Nepean was a birthing place for women of the

Bunurong People The Boonwurrung people are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the c ...

. The Bunurung name for the point is ''Boona-djalang'', which means 'kangaroo-hide', descriptive of the angular shape of the point akin to a stretched hide. There are 70 registered Aboriginal archaeological sites within the Point Nepean National Park. Limestone was mined from the coastal cliffs from the early days of British settlement and two

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is : CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can take pla ...

s were built around 1840. The Point Nepean Quarantine Station was opened in 1852 and is the second oldest intact quarantine station in Australia. It contains the oldest buildings erected for quarantine purposes in Australia, four of the main hospital buildings (established in 1857), pre-dating the oldest intact quarantine-related structures at North Head, Sydney, by 16 years. The Quarantine Station operated until 1980. Australia's first major oil spill occurred off of Point Nepean in 1903, with the wreck of . It remained Australia's largest oil spill until 1975. Point Nepean Post Office opened on 1 April 1859 but was closed by 1865. Fortifications were built from 1878. Gun batteries were installed at

Fort Nepean Fort Nepean is a former defensive facility occupying part of Point Nepean, Victoria, Australia. It was part of a network of fortifications, commanded from Fort Queenscliff, protecting the narrow entrance to Port Phillip. It is now part of Poi ...

in 1886 and Eagles Nest in 1888. A gun battery was constructed at

Fort Pearce Fort Pearce is a former defensive facility occupying part of Point Nepean, Victoria, Australia. It was part of a network of fortifications, commanded from Fort Queenscliff, protecting the narrow entrance to Port Phillip. Fortifications The for ...

in 1911. With the removal of coastal artillery after World War II, the facilities housed the Officer Cadet School (OCS) Portsea and later the School of Army Health from 1951 to 1998.

Land

Parts of Point Nepean were declared as a national park in 1988. The

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Governmen ...

offered to sell the land to the

Victoria State Government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and t ...

in 1998 and again in 2001, but the state rejected the offer. In 2002 the

Department of Defence Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...

proposed selling of land for development, retaining which contained contaminated soil and unexploded

ordnance Ordnance may refer to: Military and defense * Materiel in military logistics, including weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and maintenance tools and equipment. **The military branch responsible for supplying and developing these items, e.g., the Uni ...

. The proposed sale was abandoned in 2003 following strong community protest. In 2004, of Defence land was transferred to the Commonwealth government's Point Nepean Community Trust, which managed the former Quarantine Station until the land was transferred to the Victorian government on 8 June 2009. The Commonwealth also transferred of bushland (former Firing Range area) to

Parks Victoria Parks Victoria is a government agency of the state of Victoria, Australia. Parks Victoria was established in December 1996 as a statutory authority, reporting to the Victorian Minister for Environment and Climate Change. The ''Parks Victoria A ...

and the remaining to the

Shire of Mornington Peninsula The Shire of Mornington Peninsula is a local government area in southeastern Metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located to the south of the Melbourne City Centre. It has an area of 724 square kilometres and in June 2018 it had ...

for community use. The former Quarantine Station was opened to the community as part of Point Nepean National Park in December 2009; and the area is now managed by Parks Victoria as part of the Mornington Peninsula National Park and the Arthurs Seat State Park.

Military

Fortifications were built on land from 1878 onwards. Gun batteries were installed at

in 1886 and Eagles Nest in 1888. Barracks were constructed at Fort Pearce. With the removal of coastal artillery after World War II, the facilities housed the Officer Cadet School (OCS) Portsea from 1951 to 1985 and later the School of Army Health until 1998. 3,544 officer cadets graduated as Army officers from OCS Portsea (including 30 RAAF officers and 688 foreign officers) with 20 graduates killed in action (KIA) overseas including Malaya, Borneo, South Vietnam, Cambodia and Philippines. Some of the historic features include (major features shown in bold): *Gun Junction — gun barrel ruins and guard house *Norris Barracks — incorporates buildings from the former Quarantine Station *25m rifle range *Cattle Jetty Ruins (1879) – Observatory Point *Point Nepean Cemetery (1854–1952) *Cheviot Hill :WW2 gun emplacement, battery and observation post *Machine Gun Emplacement *Eagles Nest *

:Pearce Barracks :Gun Emplacements *

:Historical retaining wall :8 Gun Emplacements :Engine House :Historic Gun Barrels :Tunnels

Environment

Lagurus Ovatus at Point Nepean National Park

The coast of Point Nepean contains intertidal reef platforms with high invertebrate diversity as well as subtidal reefs with diverse communities of fish, invertebrates and encrusting organisms such as ascidians,

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throu ...

s Dale and bryozoans.

Development

The Government of Victoria called for tenders to develop the site in 2013/14 and a local developer was selected. All the heritage and most of the other facilities will remain and the site will be converted into a health spa resort, upmarket & budget accommodation, cafes and a University of Melbourne research facility.

References

External links

Point Nepean National Park
Parks Victoria * Parks Victoria. (2006). Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park Management Plan. Parks Victoria: Melbourne. {{ISBN, 0-7311-8349-5 Mornington Peninsula Port Phillip Nepean Lime kilns in Australia